I’ll keep your invitation in mind–though I think I’ve already written a few blog posts’ worth on the topic right here in comments! LOL!

How true it is that messes are much easier to clean up on FV than in the real world! Maybe the practice we get doing it there can help us do a better job at it in the real world, though! And maybe, by learning to do things more strategically, via FV, we might even find that we can avoid some of the messes we might have made before we knew better! At least we can aim for that goal!

Now that would teach FarmVille’s detractors a thing or two, wouldn’t it? ;-D

How interesting that you were working on your chicken strategy right before reading my comment. One question I have for you about chickens is whether or not we get special eggs from chickens that are outside our coops (since you’re one of the FV players I mentioned in my other comment who has chickens in a pen outside your coop). My thought would be that we don’t. We didn’t before we had coops; but, of course, FB could have changed that once they integrated the chicken-coop concept into the game.

Glad to hear you like my farm! What a wonderful compliment! I love yours, too! I can really see your strategy taking shape, and it truly looks as if you’ve been farming a lot longer than you have!

One thing I forgot to do in my other comment was apply my FV strategy to real life. Got so involved in explaining the details of my game strategy that by the time I finished, the application of those strategies fell by the wayside!

While this may be fairly obvious, keeping things manageable is an important strategy both in business and in life. Letting things grow beyond our capacity to handle them and thus letting them become detrimental to our well-being is never a good strategy. Growth is good; yet, it’s also important to make sure we have the resources in place to properly and effectively handle it, rather than letting it get out of control. Knowing what to add (i.e. things, attitudes, practices, principles), what to keep, and what to get rid of—and when—can help us grow strategically and profitably.

Increasing our efficiency can also increase our ability to handle growth (e.g. using dairy farms and chicken coops in FV). And proper planning and layout of our “landscape” can make better use of our resources, which helps keep things running smoothly. This means giving some real thought to the way we’re running our lives or businesses, to what’s working and what isn’t.

Adding a creative entrepreneurial touch (e.g. attractively decorating our systematically laid-out farms) can also go a long way toward increasing both our “buy-in” and our personal satisfaction with our project, giving us a reason to relish our work and an optimistic outlook toward the future. This is so important in our work! It gives us a reason to get up in the morning and a reason to look forward to all that we can potentially accomplish through our day’s tasks.

These are a few of the strategic principles I believe are operational in FarmVille that we can practice in our own lives and businesses to achieve greater success.

Hi Jeanne, Thank you for the FV education in your comments! I was just trying to work out my chicken strategy this morning, no kidding. My thoughts were going along the same lines as what you describe, but the part about stacking the coop with rare chickens – that I missed entirely. This is all a great example of how social media interaction can be useful, entertaining, and actually rather deep, all at the same time. Your farm is one of my favorites – you’ve combined efficiency with a dreamworld atmosphere that absolutely rocks. You are one of my FarmVille idols, and I can’t thank you enough for sharing your wisdom and great gifts.

Great description and application of FarmVille to business principles! I love the way you’ve jumped right into the game and begun learning by doing! How adventurous!

I’d say the point of FarmVille is twofold. The major purpose for the game relates to Facebook: to keep people actively engaged on Facebook for long periods of time. One way FB does that is by requiring us to return again and again to tend crops that will wither and die if we don’t. (As far as I know, our trees won’t die and there’s no time limit on collecting from animals; but, of course, the more often we collect, the more money we earn.) The second purpose relates to the FarmVille player: to spend a little time engaging in an enjoyable diversion while simultaneously feeling somewhat creative and clever in the process. Obviously, the more thought and work we put into our farms, the better they will be—which can be pretty satisfying.

I agree that our FarmVille strategies can teach us a great deal about the ways we strategize in real life. Perhaps the game can even teach us new strategies that we’ve never thought to use before.

One strategy I’ve used on FarmVille is not to let my farm grow bigger than I feel I can reasonably handle. (I’ve only expanded my farm once and would really rather not do so again if I can help it—unless its only for more mostly empty space, rather than to add more animals, crops, etc. to my farm—because that would equal more work! I might do it to make room for a larger house if I have to, though I’m not looking forward to it!)

Keeping my farm at a reasonable size means selling off animals I feel I have too many of so I don’t have to spend too much time and too many mouse clicks to collect from them. I love the efficiency of dairy farms and chicken coops, which allow us to collect from 20 animals at a time (and take up much less space on our farms—especially the dairy farms); though I wish FB would allow more than one chicken coop, as it does with dairy farms. Because it doesn’t (and I long ago reached my maximum number of chickens), I’ve since been selling off my chickens when I receive them as gifts—though I always replace my more common chickens with less common ones first (e.g., selling white chickens and replacing them with brown, black, or gold ones). Now that I’ve sold off all my white chickens, I’ve begun selling off my brown ones each time I receive a black or gold one. That way, I keep all the best chickens in my coop at any given time, increasing my chances of finding more special eggs when I collect. (Based on my current strategy, at this point, the only reason for me to accept any new white or brown chickens is to sell them and increase my funds–though they really aren’t worth much, so I don’t always bother.)

I’ve seen many people who keep their extra chickens outside their coops (sometimes in pens), but I don’t do that partly because my farm is too small to have the room and partly because I don’t want to have to collect from individual chickens. It’s just too much work. I’ve also sold off pigs, horses, reindeer, and other animals to save my arm and prevent myself from spending all day playing FarmVille. Now, I’m waiting for FB to give us stables for our horses. That would give me quite a bit more space on my farm and allow me to keep more horses than I feel I can right now.

Guess there’s some degree of method to my FarmVille madness!

Glad to be your FV neighbor!
Jeanne

Thanks for the welcome. It would also help in teaching kids about money. There is so little financial literacy that is taught in schools. Thanks again.