Farming Simulator

I will literally play anything if it is a simulation.  Build a tower?  Please.  Live your exact same life, only digitally?  Obviously.  Run a hospital?  In my sleep.  So a farming simulator?  Yes!  It speaks to my Iowa soul.  I have wanted this game for such a long, long time.  It has hovered around the $30 mark as a download, and same for buying the disk, so when it was on sale this last week for $10, we snatched it up.  I am frugal, and exceedingly patient.  I also wanted to be careful. so I read reviews and looked at forums.  I found lots of positive out there, it sounded so fun.

I'm here to lay some truth on you.

First off, it is fun.  It is peaceful.  But I'll be double dipped if it isn't confusing, and actually hard to understand.  I honestly think you have to be an actual farmer to know what to do in this game, and all the farmers I know are too busy actually farming to pretend to be a farmer on their Xbox.  The game offers shockingly little guidance.  There are a few tutorials for basic tractor driving skills, and understanding a little about the whole planting/harvesting scenario... but when you start your own career farm you're just left there.  Standing in a field.  What now!?  I have never before felt like I needed a walkthrough like I do on this game.  A sim game.  I've built thriving metropolises before, but I can't grow and harvest wheat?! I am boggled over how to feed a chicken?? What is wrong with me?

And the kicker is, I've looked back through the forums, searching for someone to commiserate with.  A post about how hard it is to drive the front loader.  Someone else who can't pick up a pallet.  But no, it appears that I am alone in my struggles.  So I am here for you, dear reader, if you have also fallen prey to the promise of a fun farming simulator and now you have no idea what to do and are somehow $126,000 in debt.

Won't stop me from playing though.  There's nothing quite like driving a tractor.

Lindsey Ruined My Virtual Social Life

So every couple of months, Lindsey asks me if I have played a certain game. She recommends that I check something out and give it a try. Her latest offense has been introducing me to MyTribe. It is this silly little game on Facebook. Reminiscent of simulators like Ceasar III or Age of Empires, this game is all about building a society out of nothing and advancing them through technology and resources. But there is no battle, no time line completion, nothing. Just lots of mundane tasks and leveling. Despite its lack of action, I am completely addicted to this game.

I don't understand how this happens ! I feel like my years of dedication to intense shooters and RPG's would make me "above" all these pointless, endless games. Or, am I really that much of a hardcore gamer that I feel compelled to do my best at even the most trivial title ? Maybe Lindsey has magical powers over me. She was successful in driving me into the cold, heartless arms of Mafia Wars as well.

And why can't I just stop playing the game altogether ? I have logged into this time waster at least once a day for over 100 days ! I know there is no end to the game. I know that it will keep leveling on forever, and I know that there is no main objective, I literally can not win. It has taken over my life completely. I check on my little island inhabitants in the morning, throughout my day at work, and then before bed. So why can't I just walk away ???

Now Don't Disappoint Me...

So I conveniently get the Gamestop weekly ad emailed to me, and what do I see?  There's going to be a new Harvest Moon (HM) for the DS!  Woot!  I desperately want to pre-order it for 3 reasons:

1. It's only $30
2. I've always wanted a Harvest Moon title for my DS
3. When you pre-order, you get a plush horse!

 I tried to look up some information on it, and I couldn't find much.  Apparently you move into a town in which commerce has slowed to a trickle, and you have to re-vamp it by growing your farm to amazing proportions and selling awesome stuff at the local bazaar, which was once world renown.  And, with your help, it will be again!

Don't get me wrong, I deeply and truly love HM...but it is, admittedly, formulaic.  Dilapidated farm/town?  Check!  Grow crops and animals?  Check!  Refresh, revamp and renew the town to its former glory?  Win!  And that is why I love it.  But, I am still holding back on making that all important $5 hold on my copy of Bazaar.  Why?  I'm totally afraid they'll change it up.  What if gameplay is totally lame on this particular game?  What if you can only harvest at night or something stupid?  What if there aren't cows??

Have you ever pre-ordered a game that you thought would be so awesome that you ended up totally disappointed with?  Specifically if it was part of a series, and it turned out to be so incredibly, unexpectedly lame?  I kind of had that happen with Lego Indiana Jones.  I love the Lego series, even Jones, but I bought it at full price and that was a mistake.  28 seconds after it released it went down to $20.  Totally worth $20.  Not so much $50.  That's why I'm waiting for Lego Harry Potter to see if it drops in price quickly, even though it's killing me to wait to play it.

You Can Sim with This, or You Can Sim with That...

I have some thoughts, and my thoughts are trending towards sim (simulation) games.  There's a bloggable series in this, I just know it.

The idea for this came from a combination of 2 sources:
    1.  My love for games like Harvest Moon
    2.  Changing a poopy diaper

Weird, I know!  But work with me on this one.  Harvest Moon - Concept: Build up a farm.  Plant seeds.  Water, wait, harvest.  Get animals.  Feed, groom, kill & eat.  (Ok not kill.  Or eat.  But you can eat their by-products, I'm looking at you, Chicken!)  This game would not be fun in real life.  I mean, yes, farming has its definite advantages, like providing me with food which I love...but it is hard work.  And I believe 4 hours of watering plants would not be quite as delightful in the hot sun as it is on my nice, soft bed.

Also the Sims.  Has anyone noticed that you are just living your life on that game?  I can live life 100% of the time, but somehow living life on my computer is just that much more fun.  Heck, I can even make my virtual self on the Sims sit there and play the computer!  It's like a bizarro loop has occurred there...am I playing The Sims, or is The Sims playing me?  Ok, I know I'm playing it - but the same ideas are brought up here as they are in Harvest Moon.  In The Sims 2 I have to clean the toilet, wipe up the counters, take out the trash, pay bills.  These are things I do on a daily basis, and on a daily basis they are boring.  I avoid paying my real bills by logging into Sims and paying my fake bills.  How does this make any sense?

So I know you're wondering how the poopy diaper comes into play.  I was changing my little baby and thinking, "Would this be fun as a Sim game?"  I know there is a sim baby game on DS but I have never played it.  Maybe when you you it is just totally awesome to get a poopy diaper, and you feel a real sense of achievement when the baby is spotlessly clean again.  Maybe I would like to change poopy diapers if I got 10 gamerscore for doing it.

What other things in this life seem totally boring, but you know you would lose yourself to if it was a sim game?  (That is if you're like me and sim games just seem to suck you in and make you lose yourself.)  Sim-Watch-Repair?  Sim-Garbage-Man?  Sim-Dental-Hygenist?  The possibilities are endless!