Facebook games have Web surfers in their thrall

MCT Facebook has grown into a Web medium that more than 350 million people across the globe use. The world's biggest social networking site has been invaded by make-believe farmers, chefs and tropical fish collectors.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Facebook has grown into a Web medium that more than 350 million people use as an extension of their authentic selves, not their alter egos. Yet in recent months the world’s biggest social networking site has been invaded by make-believe farmers, chefs and tropical fish collectors. You pretenders know who you are.

“It kind of just got me hooked,” Melanie Earhart, a 46-year-old self-employed Los Gatos resident said of “FarmVille,” the most popular game on Facebook with 69.3 million monthly users, on average, including 26.6 million who daily tend their virtual crops and maybe milk digital cows.

With Facebook and MySpace providing the wind beneath their wings, “FarmVille” maker Zynga leads a flock of online game startups that has soared as one of Silicon Valley’s success stories during the recession, attracting hefty venture capital investments and generating strong revenue from ads and the sale of “virtual goods,” even though most people play the games for free.

Devotees say they enjoy the casual aspect of games that become integrated into their multi-tasking online social life. The ease contrasts sharply with the deeper engagement of popular online role-playing destinations such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, as well as the graphically rich games favored by hard-core gamers on consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox.

In a telling shift of trends, Electronic Arts, the Redwood City, Calif.-based giant known for console games such as “Madden NFL,” recently announced plans to terminate 1,500 employees even as it expanded online offerings by acquiring Playfish, a Zynga rival. The deal put Playfish’s value as at least $300 million, and possibly $400 million, based on future performance.

Back-of-the-napkin estimates put the social gaming sector’s value into the billions, largely because of its success in executing the so-called “freemium” revenue model. Most of the revenue is earned from ardent players like Earhart who are enticed to pay for enhancements such as more acreage to plow and plant.

Earhart, who says she’s starting to “burn out” on “FarmVille,” has also fallen hard for “Cafe World” and “Happy Aquarium,” the second- and third-ranked games on Facebook. For her and many others, those feel-good games are a welcome alternative to the virtual mayhem that permeates many of the military, mobster and vampire titles that have been staples of the video game industry.

“It’s like crack, I guess,” said Chris Lion of San Jose, another “FarmVille” devotee. “It just sucks you in a little bit at a time.”

Unlike actual farmers, “FarmVille” residents can build booming agribusinesses or opt to design lively, colorful properties without fear of drought, tornadoes or locusts. It’s a “Pollyannish” place, Earhart explains, where untended crops may die but animals never do, and good Samaritan points can be earned for adopting a “lonely pink cow” or fertilizing a friend’s crops.

Each game has a way to separate people from their money. A “Texas Hold ‘Em” player, for example, could spend many hours trying to play his way up from the low-stakes table or spend real money to match wits against rivals who have stacks’ worth of virtual millions and, theoretically, take the game more seriously.

Typically, no more than three percent of online game players in the United States spend real money on virtual goods, with a fraction of those users providing the bulk of revenue, according to Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus. But he hopes to harvest a higher percentage over time.

Related Posts:

1. Controversial Facebook picture appears on fliers in SUB
2. Face-to-face is better than Facebook
3. Student senate debuts Facebook page
4. Video Games Live provides a hypnotic adventure
5. Poppies are precarious in Afghanistan