FarmVille.  Either you love it or you hate it.  You may be among the many who have found a new past time in the form of raising a virtual farm, or you are among the others who are irritated by the countless FarmVille updates in their Facebook news feed. Why has this game captured so much attention?

FarmVille is a Facebook game designed by Zynga. This is a real-time game, which means, your game progress will continue even when your computer is off.  So you may water the plants and turn your computer off, and when you log on again, you might find grown crops.  There were many other popular games from the real-time game category.  For example The Sims, virtual pet games, etc. But the added social advantage of sharing farm stuff (like seeds, flowers, vegetables, etc.) has definitely added to the popularity of FarmVille in particular.

Never the less, we must admit that FarmVille has raised awareness about agriculture. We used to take our real fruits, vegetables and grains for granted. But now we know the sort of constant care they require to grow, and then nourish us. So, a thumbs up to the FarmVille concept developers.  Mashable published a very interesting infographic comparing and contrasting real farmers vs farmville fanatics. They pinpointed the contrast in gender ratio, top crops, net earnings and segment of population. Do have a look to find out how similar or different your virtual farm is compared to a real one.