FarmVille, YoVille, CityVille, and Mafia Wars - Can a Lesson Be Taught Through These Games?

You may recognize the names FarmVille, YoVille, CityVille, and Mafia Wars as some of the top games from Zygna and played by millions though Facebook. The goal of FarmVille is just what you think; plant crops, raise barn animals, and create a farm. In YoVille, you start with an apartment and gradually work to furnish and decorate, or buy a house. You can go work at the factory, visit with friends, and more. CityVille is Zygna's most recent game and, just as you would expect, your goal is to build a city, complete missions, and visit your neighbors. Mafia Wars is based on growing your Mafia family and taking over as top Mob boss. All these games have become a top notch addiction with millions of people playing and socializing together, from one side of the world to another. While these games are very entertaining to play, and yes, they are addicting, is there a lesson that can be taught from playing? The answer is YES.

No matter which game, or games, you play, the only way to move up is to grow your amount of neighbors (or in the case of Mafia Wars, your mob family)so you can visit their FarmVille farm, the CityVille city, their YoVille pad, or fight alongside with your Mafia Wars family. For many people, this can be difficult if no one on their Facebook friends list plays the game. When I first started playing FarmVille, this was a problem for me as I only had a small friends list, and I wasn't able to move up in the game.

I found out about the many different Zygna forums to talk and share secrets, and immediately joined a post requesting neighbors. I posted in the FarmVille forum, and within a month, my small Facebook friends list had gone up from 100 or so, to almost 1000. All of these friends were from all over the world, but shared the addiction of playing this game. I am located in the US, but I had new neighbors in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Greece, and many other locations. Now granted, most of these friends only added me for the game, and we never had any other conversations. However, there were quite a few that, over time, we began to talk and become friends. People from different parts of the world and different cultures, but within the acres of FarmVille or the busy streets of CityVille, we all came together to share a common love for the game. These were people I would not normally have had the opportunity to meet.

So, what is the lesson you ask? The lesson taught by games such as FarmVille, CityVille, YoVille and Mafia Wars is that no matter what may be going on in the world, we can all come together and accomplish so many things. We may have differences in culture, religion, or even language, but within these games we can see past that. All we see are new friends that are helping us play the game. I am eager to send the gifts needed in each game, and when I post for help, they are eager to offer it. Games like FarmVille, CityVille, YoVille, and Mafia Wars teach us that so much can be accomplished if we all work together and see past our differences. Now, we can do this in the virtual online world of games, why is it that we have such a hard time doing it in the real world. Maybe we should take some advice from our FarmVille or CityVille avatars and just work together for a greater world. Learning to share, giving to those who need a helping hand, and to just get along are some wonderful life lessons that FarmVille, CityVille, YoVille, Mafia Wars, and so many others games can teach us, if we are just willing to open up our hearts and our minds and listen.