The games are popular because they follow a model which is suited to hooking the attention of the human brain. As is explained in the book Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson, modern video games are set up to trigger the reward system in our brains. If you go up a level, you get rewarded. If you accomplish a task, you get rewarded. This applies to Facebook games like Farmville, where you are rewarded for a variety of tasks: you get rewarded with a virtual coin raffle for logging on each day; you get rewarded for planting crops and buying buildings by gaining experience points; you get rewarded with coins for harvesting crops, animals, and trees; you get rewarded for sending gifts to your friends because they usually send one back; you get rewarded for inviting friends to join the game because it increases the number of neighbors you get; you get rewarded for being on Facebook constantly when you see a "lost animal" up for adoption in your newsfeed; you get ribbons (which usually come with both coins and experience points) for mastering diverse aspects of the game; and you get rewarded for gaining experience points by gaining levels, which allows the unlocking additional crops and features as well as granting you additional coins and often gifts. This means you are rewarded for each increasing level of obsession with the game - it feels like you are accomplishing something when you earn things on a game like Farmville, so it spurs you to further achievement. This feels fun because it releases feel-good chemicals in the brain, so people play more and more. They also operate in real-time, encouraging frequent (at least daily) engagement.
The games are also varied, providing multiple options for different people to choose the games that resonate with them. For example, Farmville and Mafia Wars represent two distinct aesthetics and perhaps ethics for people to choose from. Farmville is peaceful, allowing people to grow and build, creating their own dream farm. The graphics are cutesy, with brightly colored trees and animated, sparkling crops. The horrifying nature of modern industrial agriculture is nowhere to be found, and the "harvesting" animals means collecting cute-sounding products from them (such as "truffles" from pigs and "yarn" from cats) rather than slaughtering them. Farmville represents our pastoral fantasies; it is the dream of an idyllic rural home. Mafia Wars sits at the other end of the spectrum, allowing players to engage in glamorous versions of traditional criminal and legal-but-disreputable rackets. Players run strip clubs and underground poker rings, and collect guns. This gangster image represents the fantasy of the underworld, with all of the excitement of what's forbidden by traditional society. Vampire Wars operates on a similar theme, with the added allure of the recently-popularized undead.
The game also builds on the existing social network of Facebook, but sometimes in contrary ways. First, it expands how much the social network is used. Those random people that you never used to talk to on Facebook? They're suddenly perfect people to pester with Farmville gift requests and Mafia Wars invites - because if they say yes, you're reconnected, and if they say no, you probably don't really care anyways. Second, shared obsessions give people something in common and something to talk about. Facebook friends you're already close to are brought closer as you send each other daily presents in Facebook applications. However, while these games may bind some people closer, it also sparks divisiveness. People who don't play the game are annoyed by the constant newsfeed spam. When the games are brought up in conversation, they are demeaned due to their trivial nature. Everything that causes the games to provoke interaction is also a source of irriation for those who have no desire to interact with the game in question.
Facebook games are a trivial aspect of culture, but no less deserving of analysis because they are a part of our culture.
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