Facebook: Softcore MMO

Outside of WoW, I like Facebook games. Why? I don't need to a portable drive so I can ninja on them in class, nor do I need Windows. I've tried most Facebook games, from Farmville to Wedding Dash, to Vampire Wars. And so on and so forth. Farmville is the WoW of flash games, boasting the most players. You spend the first ten or so levels of FV starving for money. You may as well sell your overalls or something in order to plant some fucking expensive strawberries in hopes of one day owning a mansion (that you can only buy in FV Cash, which is only attainable in bulk through USD, another scam). After, say, fifteen levels and beyond, you're so fucking rich that you don't know what to spend all your money on. In fact, there isn't much of use that you can buy without the Farmville Cash. It becomes monotonous, and the bigger your farm gets, the more work it becomes. When will I be able to just cash in my coins for some workhands?

I'd settle for being able to trade coins for FV Cash.

I've noticed this to be the way of a lot of games. Petville, more and more, requires its PV Cash. Less and less items are purchasable via the coins you make by doing dailies (like cleaning someone else's too-big house for them).  At first, I thought Petville was really cute, but by the time I had gotten the sixth room on my house, the server was lagging too hard to actually play it. It's unfortunate that those types of resources might hold a game back. I like it, but watching MiuMiu float across the screen like she was in the Matrix and take ten minutes to eat (which she is OBLIGATED to do when you refill her bowl) just isn't my idea of fun.

The one I like the most and feels the most complex is, ironically, Sorority Life. I play Sorority Life the way that Aber plays WoW: multiple accounts. Primarily, using the two accounts to buff each other. In the game, there's actually a very strong (well executed, by comparison to other games) PVP system. Your gear is called Glam and it has stats. Charm for offensive, and popularity for defense. You stack whichever you choose. I don't PVP much, so I stack defense which protects me from attacks. You have better stats the more girls in your house and the more glam that you own. SL is falling into the same for-money trap that the others are, needing Brownie Points to get the best glam from the store. It's not the only way, but it's the most prolific. The game itself is well-thought out with a good style to it, although it doesn't a "video" so much like Petville and Farmville, but some buttons and a lot of numbers. Yet again, however, it's another game where I have too much money and nothing to blow it on.

These developers need to learn the term "money sink" and NOT for my real life money. I'll save for that games like World of Warcraft and Eve, which actually have something worth paying for to offer me.