Dear FarmVille,

We’ve been together for about 3 months now, and it’s been an amazing experience. But I think we need to reevaluate our relationship before we can move forward.

I’ll admit that I didn’t treat you well initially, and I owe you an apology. I found your constant updates on Facebook annoying. I didn’t see the point in a farming game. I didn’t see Facebook as a legitimate gaming platform. I didn’t think we could make it together for long.  I was wrong.  

You were determined and you kept giving me reason to come back. After harvesting my first batch of strawberries I finally understood you. Once I added that guy from high school as a neighbor, and saw how awesome his farm was, I had no choice. I had to figure you out. I had to catch up.

And don’t get me wrong…I’ve loved having you in my life. Learning to plant pumpkins before bed so they’re ready to harvest when I wake up, that was a breakthrough. Figuring out the ribbon system was a moment I will always cherish, and it only strengthened our relationship. I even applied some basic economic principles to the game to maximize my productivity, and found inspiration from others who, awesomely, took it much farther.

But recently something has changed. Every day I do my best, trying to make sure you’re taken care of. I often visit multiple times a day. I obviously care about you. But you’ve become kind of needy. You want me to plow, plant, and harvest every day…and for what? For some coins? You keep most of your love for people who offer you a quick buck. You think they care about you? They don’t spend the hours I’ve spent making sure you’re happy. They’re not in it for the long haul. Yet you give them so much.

So I’ve been thinking it over, and I have a couple of suggestions, if you’re still interested in making this work over the long haul. What it really comes down to is that you need to offer me more incentives to build my loyalty.

One way you could do this is to give me more options. At the moment I play for coins, cash, and experience. At first it was exciting to accumulate more coins and to level-up. But the thrill has worn off a bit. Historically, games with leveling systems offer players tangible benefits and customization. After leveling up, the player has new weapons, or stronger attacks at their disposal and can choose where to allocate their new skills. In FarmVille, a new level means that I can plant new fruits and vegetable, or can give my neighbors a new set of gifts. The new fruits and veggies are nice, but really it’s more of the same thing. What I really want is the ability to increase the fuel tank for my tractor so farming becomes a bit more streamlined. This, unfortunately, is not an option.

Another way you can secure my loyalty is to offer more reasons to build up my farm. The ribbon system is fantastic motivation, but I’ve worked hard on my farm and I want my design to be recognized and rewarded. What if you allowed me to browse other people’s farms and vote for my favorite design? What if you offered daily rewards for the best-designed farms? There is some really creative pixel art within FarmVille, and some amazing farm designs. I’d be much more motivated to buy items if I could use them in more creative ways and be rewarded for my creativity.

A third suggestion is creating more connections between FarmVille and other Zynga games, such as Café World. I mean, after harvesting my potatoes shouldn’t I be able to use them to make french fries? I think one of the biggest reasons that people keep coming back to you is because people hate inefficiencies. They know they invested resources into their crops, and they don’t want to let those resources go to waste. What if you recreated this motivation cross-game by letting me use harvested crops from FarmVille as ingredients in Café World, or use seeds from veggies discarded in Café World to plant new crops in FarmVille? I wouldn’t want to close my browser knowing that I was discarding something that can be used in another game.

Anyways, I still love you FarmVille. I just know our relationship could be stronger. I’m sure that after a good night sleep I’ll wake up and feel better. I’ll probably harvest some pumpkins too.