[HelenJS22]

Originally Posted by SueW170

A few weeks ago, while working I had turned the television set on to catch the news & weather and was half listening. What caught my attention was an on-air therapist talking to a woman and daughter about the woman's "addiction" to Farmville -- getting up an hour early to harvest so the "pretend crops" wouldn't "spoil," deferring doing household tasks to "farm," etc. The therapist advised the woman to quit playing any computer games altogether and interact with her real family, friends and neighbors and get back into the "real world." He was very critical, not of virtual activity games themselves, but of people who use them as a substitute for interacting with people in the real world.
However, the games took lots of criticism along the way as childish, silly, etc. The only farming game mentioned by name was FV, but I'm not sure that FT wouldn't have been on this therapist's list too. He seemed to have little tolerance for anything "virtual."
My opinion is that when one can be creative with designs, as in FT, the application moves out of the cartoonish or virtual realm of game playing and can be a fun leisure activity that stimulates imagination and creativity, as some of the quite varied layout designs here illustrate. No different from model railroading, creative needlework and many other non-computer activities people enjoy. Also, by interacting with other family members and friends (on and offline friends), the game does have a real life social aspect, just as other games do.
Oops, long comment here LOL

My son and daughter in law live over a thousand miles away now, and we keep in touch through both computer methods and telephone ..... but she also has a farm and she and I link up on each others farms for a chat at times. Strange as it sounds, it is the times that our little avatars are standing together on a farm having a chat that we feel closest together from a long distance away in the 'real' world.

Now if we could just have a 'sit down' mode for our avatars we'd be all set.