Saturday, December 19, 2009

Real Virtuality?

Lately I’ve been noticing, therez a lot of blog space being devoted to Facebook, Farmville and Farmville Addiction… I must confess that I never wanted to join Facebook, coz I already had an Orkut account and most of my friends hung out at Orkut usually. Plus who had the time to juggle two social networks? But considering the hoopla that was engulfing the Farmville syndrome, I decided to take a dive into it. 


I already had about 20 friend invitations pending when I signed up for Facebook…. It took me about 2 days, 3 cups of late night coffee and hundreds of my precious megabytes allowed by Data One Broadband to finally figure out the wonder that was Facebook… 


Turning my attention to the games… I’ve always been an avid gamer (you may have noticed) and I usually don’t get bored even if the game becomes monotonous or even if it has only one level!
Now now… I’m a guy who is not addicted to anything… yes… ANYTHING! No smoking, no drinking, no drugs, NOTHING. So it pretty much pisses me off if someone nudges and tells me that I’m doing too much Time pass on the net (“You’re addicted to the net dude”) or I am always found playing games etc etc… And when I read about this whole Farmville thing, I thought, why not check it out?


So that was done… I started with Farmville, inviting neighbors, planting crops, and harvesting them from time to time… And then it started hitting me hard…. I was getting hooked! But I couldn’t stop. I tried explaining the game to my mom but she started laughing the moment I told her that you grow strawberries in 4 hours. To this day she asks me sarcastically about the strawberry thing. Shez even offerred to sell some of my produce in the local market!


Ok back to the game… I went on farming, harvesting and moving up the Agro-ladder. Then I built some Dairy Farms and Poultry units to keep my precious cows and hens. Secretly I would check the blog posts of fellow farmers in which they shared their addictions and smile to myself involuntarily.


But a week back I had the scare of my life! It happened so, I was supposed to go to Pune to attend a wedding of a friend’s bro. I decided to keep my Rolls Royce at home and travel by the State Transport bus to experience nature first hand… The route was through mountains and typical rural terrain… After catching up on my dear, priceless sleep, I woke up to the countryside… The sun had started to shine as everyday and half sleepy, half awake, I glanced at the view I saw outside. It was a farm. Not just that, it was blooming with ripe grains. A though crossed my mind, “hey! Just like Farmville” *smiles again unknowingly*


But then a strange thing happened, as soon as the bus passed the next farm, this big strange steel sickle appearing in front of me. (The one that the cursor changes into when the crop is ready) It was like asking me to harvest the crop. I could see the number of coins and XP I was gonna gain after harvesting it! I jolted back to my senses. Was I going crazy? Hallucinating? What was happening to me? I mean I won’t deny the fact that previous night I had planted artichokes (harvest in 4 days) considering that I wouldn’t be able to harvest anything when I was in Pune. But is it enough to call me addicted? I looked around to see that the uncle besides me was staring at my face since the time I was smiling to myself (“iska jaroor kuch chakkar hoga”) Rather than addressing his suspicions; I decided to listen to some music and switched on my Music Player. (Thank god I’m not into country music.) Just when I was about to close my eyes, a Hay Bale sped across my window. Instantly an inner voice started shouting “5 XP! 5 XP!”


I was like, “What the hell is happening to me? Am I so much into Farmville that I’m seeing it everywhere?” Is this what people call love?
Thankfully the journey ended soon and I went to the marriage and got back to my normal sane state of mind. But it was one hell of an experience!


PS: While typing this post I have fertilized the crops of about 15 neighbors.

27 comments:

Nandita P. said...

lol...dats a gud one now..one is actually addicted to facebook n its games...farmville...etc.
just like me...i have exams 3 days from now...n i am playing CRAZY CABBIE on facebook... :D
happens...!!!

Crazy Blogger said...

i still haven't joined facebook!

Siddhesh Kabe said...

E tu bruce...:)

Anonymous said...

I have a petdog in face book :)
I forgot to feed it for six months but it was still alive lol

Megha said...

hey, u know just yesterday, my friend was telling me about this farmville thing....

hmm....baghayla pahije...

Karthik said...

Dude, you are seriously addicted. I'm hearing about it everywhere. Though I've joined the band of facebook, I don't have any plans to harvest my crops. Oops! Did I just say, 'My crops'? Oh man, lemme get away from here quickly before you convince me into joining farmville. :P

As usual, a great post. Loved it. The smile never left my face through out the reading. :)

Ashley said...

"iska jaroor kuch chakkar hoga"...ROFL!!! :D

I have been in FB for ages now and have very judiciously stayed away from Farmville...My pet dog is being fed by strangers and must be alive and well...And the new privacy feature means I can't look at friends friends friends (complete strangers) tagged photos...I dont think I like FB a lot now! :|

Anonymous said...

That was hilarious....We all can confirm now that you are addicted to Farmville (like any of us)..
Good luck getting out of it...:)))

Saurabh Panshikar said...

@Nandita
You better start studying, or you'll be playing Cabbie in the real world!

@Manjari
You should! Click the Badge on my Blog!

@Sid
;-)

@Yemiledu
Thats not very kind of you! I hope you don't forget to feed yourself!

@Megha
Try karayla kay jatay? Ani ashich marathi madhe comment karat raha! Chhaan Vatata!

@Karthik
*looks suspiciously* *then a wicked smile*
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! YOU GOTTA BE MY NEIGHBOR!

@Ashley
Is it? Then half of my time on facebook will be reduced! WHAT? No looking at pics of super chicks with loser dudes?

@Dilontherocks
I can't see that happening soon! lol Let see!

Roshmi Sinha said...

Well India is an agrarian economy... which has now migrated onto the net. And given rise to 'Virtual Kisans' ;)

tejuvinay said...

dude, farmville ? i never get the point in playing that. Mafia wars is atleast realistic

Sorcerer said...

Farmville..its all hebrew to me
I dont have FB..
I live and breathe in orkut..

I refuse to believe that there is life outside of orkut and blog

Chatterbox said...

Great post Saurabh :)
Could help laughing all through it. You are very good at words.

Coming to the topic of the day, well I do have a face book account and ample of friends there, but I check my account hardly once every week or may be once every ten days.

I tried to indulge in Farm ville, but the e-farms have failed to lure me till date to the extent am in love with nature.

I can credit it to my current obsession with blogging, that steals all of my net-time.

Keep up the wonderful work.

Cheers!!

Rocksa said...

Hey Saurabh!

Now this is a good one! "Iska zaroor kuch chakkar hoga"...That uncle guessed it right...Unko bolna tha na ki Farmville ke sath tumhara affair chal raha hai :P :P

Seriously dude I've been hearing a lot of people talking about this thing of late...Since I'm too busy playing the School of Wizardry on FB..Farmville has to wait! Good read! Cheers!

Maya said...

i never tried those stuff..

Sh@s said...

So you are the latest victim of facebook...errr i mean to be bitten by farmvilla bug. :D

My Foot? said...

Haha! I'm glad I'm not the only one. Trust me, once you cross level 37, the charm wears off. Now its just a boring click marathon.

@Roshmi Sinha :
We'll have to deal with 'virtual kisaan' suicides soon, because someone forgot to harvest in time.

Saurabh Panshikar said...

@Roshmi Sinha
Tru... We must stay faithful to our roots! (and shoots)

@Uchiha Teee
Man, I play mafia too... But don't have much to post about it.

@Sorcerer
Well my man... You are a happy and contended creature! Stay the same!

@Chatterbox
Thanks for the long and wonderful comment! I guess I too prefer blogging to anything else.

@Raksha Raman
Plz don't suggest me new games, coz I barely have time to play, and every unplayed game is like a blow to my integrity! Sach mein yaar... that uncle was staring like I was gonna run away with his daughter!

@Uncommon Sense
Good for you! You were busy trying coke I guess! lol

@Shas
Yes! and proud (a little worries) to admit it! You too?

@My Foot?
There are times when a comment is funnier than the post... Yours was one! Even I'm getting bored now.... Especially after expanding my farm.

workhard said...

Oh man..u just like me.. i used to get confused with Facebook and then i joined Farmville.. its worse than a drug addiction. and when i m busy.. or cant 'farm' ive given my password to my best friend and makes sure he attends to my plants...


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Quirky said...

I wanted to make a witty comment but.... games?

Quirky rolls her eyes in typical 'gal who is no good at such games and hence thinks games are lame' kinda way and walks away.

Saurabh Panshikar said...

@Workhard
you are too much! password sharing? *rolls eyes

@Quirky
*wonders why she can't play such games, then smiles out of pity and walks away

oRange* said...

*shakes you*
YES YES! you are madly in love :P

Anonymous said...

Well conveyed... I am too on facebook, but haven't experimented with farmvile. Now I know, I haven't been so follish afterall.

Anonymous said...

You got tagged. :)

санжог said...

u know, that happed to me with chess.

I played chess so much with my friends and everyone who could that, everything around me had become chess.

I even walked like a horse two and half steps!

HA HA HA HA HA nice

Saurabh Panshikar said...

@orange
*smiles*

@Kulpreet
You should try it... and do fertilise my crops!

@Yemiledu
Will take the Tag 2moro

@санжог
lol @ the horse walk! I still wonder who came up with the idea of the horse walking like that! I guess some king had a paralytic horse!

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