Here is the original post, however:
Having been involved in gaming for decades, I believe I do understand the many different reasons why people play games, as well as the various strategies they follow.
One question that seldom is addressed, however, is a very important one. Every gamer should answer this question: what is your time worth?
If you are incapable of reading a good book or watching a good film or series because of some serious disability or restriction, but can play a game, there is really no reason to answer this question. If, however, you are capable of employing your leisure time otherwise, what is your time worth?
In a game for which I still publish updates regularly, the player has a farm. It is a 'free' game, but there are 'premium' items that require real money to purchase as well as game currency that one can purchase with real money or earn by completing specific actions in the game itself.
Here is where this question becomes relevant:
Recently, there was a 'Collection Mission' in which the harvest of Crops, Trees, and collection of products from Animals and Machines randomly would yield an item that could be 'traded' for various rewards. In this situation, a farmer with an enormous, fully upgraded farm has an obvious advantage over the farmer with a very small farm. The large farm can be plowed to support more Crops, and the farmer probably has 'purchased' or otherwise acquired every possible Tree, Animal, and Machine, as the size of the farm often is related either to the number of years one has played the game faithfully or spending a fair quantity of real money to 'skip' requirements.
I know many farmers who completed the activity without spending any real money, by planting, harvesting and replanting Clover (the fastest growing Crop) every half hour, and collecting Honey from Beehives who then pollinated the Clover to produce Honey.
The amount of labour required to do this, however, is staggering. The rate of obtaining the 'random' item was very poor. One could upgrade the Collection menu item, using a combination of materials collected from Neighbours as well as the game currency (known as RC, which one either can purchase using real money or earn from other activities in the game), so that Crops, Trees, Animals, and Machines randomly gave double the number of the item needed to obtain the various rewards.
One needed to redeem one of each of the Rewards in order to unlock the final Reward. This required almost 500 'Blue Anchors', the currency specific to the activity. I found that a hundred mature crops might yield only a dozen of these Blue Anchors, even when their random appearance gave me 2 instead of 1.
How many hours of a farmer's time, therefore, was required here, if he or she were determined NOT to spend ANY currency on this Mission, whether it were the use of the game currency earned in other ways in the past or by purchase of that currency?
There is no need to explain the actual activity in any detail, nor to comprehend it, apart from assessing the number of hours required in order to obtain ALL the possible Rewards if one refused to spend real money on this to bypass some of this labour.
In all honesty, for me, the repetition of planting, harvesting, and replanting is the equivalent of virtual peasant labour in the fields. Choosing and planting Crops on a virtual farm for their beauty or use in whatever activity or product takes your own fancy is one thing, but being pressured into using YOUR entire day and night to repeat endless sowing and harvest of Clover is the backbreaking virtual slave labour. Do not forget that the company that owns and produces the 'free' game obtains actual MONETARY returns in the real world every time a player taps on anything in the game. You therefore have been persuaded into working for the 'Man' for less than minimum wage, for a Reward you may not even like or really want, simply because, as gamers, many of us are conditioned over the years to aspire to something known as 100% collection. That means essentially that we will attempt to obtain every item the game ever produces or offers to us, one way or another.
I am not a rich woman, by any means. I always am skint before the end of the month. As I write a guide for this game and constantly update it, however, I really must engage in every activity and know what is involved firsthand in every aspect of the game. I need to know the value of every Crop, Tree, Animal, and Machine, in order to formulate strategies for other players.
One question that seldom is addressed, however, is a very important one. Every gamer should answer this question: what is your time worth?
If you are incapable of reading a good book or watching a good film or series because of some serious disability or restriction, but can play a game, there is really no reason to answer this question. If, however, you are capable of employing your leisure time otherwise, what is your time worth?
In a game for which I still publish updates regularly, the player has a farm. It is a 'free' game, but there are 'premium' items that require real money to purchase as well as game currency that one can purchase with real money or earn by completing specific actions in the game itself.
Here is where this question becomes relevant:
Recently, there was a 'Collection Mission' in which the harvest of Crops, Trees, and collection of products from Animals and Machines randomly would yield an item that could be 'traded' for various rewards. In this situation, a farmer with an enormous, fully upgraded farm has an obvious advantage over the farmer with a very small farm. The large farm can be plowed to support more Crops, and the farmer probably has 'purchased' or otherwise acquired every possible Tree, Animal, and Machine, as the size of the farm often is related either to the number of years one has played the game faithfully or spending a fair quantity of real money to 'skip' requirements.
I know many farmers who completed the activity without spending any real money, by planting, harvesting and replanting Clover (the fastest growing Crop) every half hour, and collecting Honey from Beehives who then pollinated the Clover to produce Honey.
The amount of labour required to do this, however, is staggering. The rate of obtaining the 'random' item was very poor. One could upgrade the Collection menu item, using a combination of materials collected from Neighbours as well as the game currency (known as RC, which one either can purchase using real money or earn from other activities in the game), so that Crops, Trees, Animals, and Machines randomly gave double the number of the item needed to obtain the various rewards.
One needed to redeem one of each of the Rewards in order to unlock the final Reward. This required almost 500 'Blue Anchors', the currency specific to the activity. I found that a hundred mature crops might yield only a dozen of these Blue Anchors, even when their random appearance gave me 2 instead of 1.
How many hours of a farmer's time, therefore, was required here, if he or she were determined NOT to spend ANY currency on this Mission, whether it were the use of the game currency earned in other ways in the past or by purchase of that currency?
There is no need to explain the actual activity in any detail, nor to comprehend it, apart from assessing the number of hours required in order to obtain ALL the possible Rewards if one refused to spend real money on this to bypass some of this labour.
In all honesty, for me, the repetition of planting, harvesting, and replanting is the equivalent of virtual peasant labour in the fields. Choosing and planting Crops on a virtual farm for their beauty or use in whatever activity or product takes your own fancy is one thing, but being pressured into using YOUR entire day and night to repeat endless sowing and harvest of Clover is the backbreaking virtual slave labour. Do not forget that the company that owns and produces the 'free' game obtains actual MONETARY returns in the real world every time a player taps on anything in the game. You therefore have been persuaded into working for the 'Man' for less than minimum wage, for a Reward you may not even like or really want, simply because, as gamers, many of us are conditioned over the years to aspire to something known as 100% collection. That means essentially that we will attempt to obtain every item the game ever produces or offers to us, one way or another.
I am not a rich woman, by any means. I always am skint before the end of the month. As I write a guide for this game and constantly update it, however, I really must engage in every activity and know what is involved firsthand in every aspect of the game. I need to know the value of every Crop, Tree, Animal, and Machine, in order to formulate strategies for other players.
No comments:
Post a Comment