Farmville as an Enterprise Learning Tool

Don't laugh, think about it.

How many thousands of online simulation games are there, lots of which surround the idea of running a business or a city or a lifestyle and staying afloat while you do it?

The thought crossed my mind as I was on Facebook recently; a lot of my friends play Farmville so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It's not too taxing on the brain, gets boring after a while yes but it's still a bit of fun.

Whatever about the money making motivations of the developers, I think the application has its merits. It teaches young would-be entrepreneurs about buying and selling, tending a project to make sure it doesn't wither, working a few areas at once to ensure maximum return as quickly as possible... Game Points are ranked on 2 levels - Experience and Coins. There's cash too, but that's more for the developers as it takes real-life cash to get some Farmville cash. Which is a pain because there's no return on the real investment, so we won't go there.

Different crops have different XP (experience) ratings. They will take different times to grow and cost different amounts of money. The user takes the few coins they have and tries to make them into more coins. Simple, right? Just like in business... Start small and grow.

The player competes with their friends to see what level they can get to - the higher the XP the higher the level. It also shows the user about working together - if you give your friends/neighbours a little something, they will give a little something back which will make your farming life easier and maybe even more efficient - e.g. they might give you some fuel for the tractor you just saved up to buy. Which makes ploughing quicker and more efficient.

This is a very simple game and concept for teaching people what it's like to juggle a few areas at once. It's obviously nowhere near as sophisticated as the bike shops, airline games and other retail outlet simulators I've played in the past but there are definite similarities. I think Farmville has the potential to tap into a kid's entrepreneurial spirit which could be further encouraged by fully developed simulators like Mike's Bikes and the Small Business Game.

Where've I been?

Well, working my socks off that's where. But enough of that.

Today, I'm looking over all the #outvesting candidates and trying to find my winners. Had been thinking about five bunches of ten votes then had considered four bunches - one x 20 and three x 10's, then had stopped thinking about that and just opened the spreadsheet with interest.

Lots of debate over on Google groups about what way we should all vote. Merits in all arguments I must say, I'm nervous about a public voting system but also think it's cool, like a little cheerleading squad for the start-up(s) we believe in most.

I am also worried. I know a few businesses there. In person and in Twitter and in Blogworld... So, tough decisions all 'round. Thank goodness I have until Saturday to decide!! Not only which businesses to go for but also which way to vote ;) Would just like to say a huge thank you and well done to John & James for organising it - you guys are pretty marvellous.

In other news... I'm flipping gutted that a certain Ms Kelly has been booted out of the Apprentice. I had been hoping my suspicions were incorrect yesterday but alas... Murmurings on Lucinda's twitter and facebook pages about new business launches and her job at eircom proved that Mr Penny Apples had indeed made the wrong decision (in my humble...) That said, she is making the most of the opportunity (saw her on Ireland am this morning!) and I have every faith that she will be "most likely to succeed" of all the candidates in there. Well gone girl, and best of luck with the new biz!! G'wan the entrepreneurs! Who's taking bets on Lucinda being on the enterprise seminar circuit in no time at all... She's a blogger, too ;)

Twit Much?

It's funny, but since so many people are talking about Twitter - on the radio, on the tellybox, in newspapers and in the pub - you would think that everyone knew what it was by now.



I've had to explain it lots of times recently. Me, who only started tweeting at the beginning of January. One of my new year's resolutions that has not failed!! (Ahem - please note - I was still only in the first 40k to follow Mr Stephen Fry, just to put things in perspective...)



When George Hook and Rick O'Shea both tweeted directly at me today, I thought I better start sharing so that other people could get all excited for no reason on a random Wednesday afternoon.



So. Twitter. What the hell is this twitter business?



Well, if you take something like a status update from Facebook, and merge it with the concept of blogging, then you have the mashup of fun that is twitter.



It's defined as "micro-blogging" - in other words, you pop your thoughts online for others to see, you just have an SMS amount of character spaces to do it in!



In sum...
+ + =


Anyhoo, there are lots of people on Twitter these days, average people, big people, small people and famous people. Some of the famous ones are fun to follow, and a little inspirational at times.


I really liked John Cleese's Happy New Year message - or "tweet" - it was: may your new year's flatulence be tuneful and fragrantly innoffensive


You can follow him, here: @JohnCleese


What is following?


Well, it's just the name given to...signing up to hear what other people are saying - like seeing your Friends' status updates on Facebook. You click "Follow" on someone's page, and all of a sudden your own homepage will include everything they say/tweet.


The Hookie Monster has two Twitter accounts, this one gets more action though: @ghook
Rick tweets quite a bit during his broadcasts: @rickoshea

For obvious reasons I love keeping up to date with this marvellous man. He doesn't tweet often, but when he does it's always something groovy. @richardbranson


There are tons of others to follow if you find them interesting. Don't worry that you have to follow everyone who follows you, a lot of strange beings start following you just to get you to follow them back - then they proceed to spam-tweet with so much crap....pay no attention. Have a look at their page, if it looks dull, don't bother following! A good clue to their spam-potential is that they are literally following thousands, but only have a few followers themselves.


From a business perspective, Twitter is a great way for your customers to get in touch with you, and for you to let them know what's going on with you. I started following @VodafoneIreland and asked them a few questions - which they replied to. It's just good business... I've changed to o2 but that's not the point ;)


Business is all about staying in touch. You can talk to experts like @damienmulley about how to really do all modes of social media well, but at least with Twitter you can dip your own toe in the murky waters and find out for yourself. DIY = not costing a fortune. And at least you'll know what they are talking about when you do start speaking to the experts about these things...


Happy Twittering!

Scrabble Fun!

It's back! Sort of...

The thrills, spills and addiction of Scrabble on Facebook have returned. Legally ;) So goodbye sleep, hello unhealthy competition and much rivalry among crazy friends (woohoo! Can't wait...)

But Holy Cow Batman, take a look at this:

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark.All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the United States by Hasbro, Inc.,in Canada by Hasbro Canada, Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons, Ltd., a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc.SCRABBLE® and associated trademarks and trade dress are used under license from Mattel, Inc. All Rights Reserved.The Mattel name and logo are trademarks of Mattel, Inc. and used with permission. Mattel and J.W. Spear & Sons are not affiliated with Hasbro or Hasbro Canada.

It's from the bottom of the screen when you log in... Covering all possible asses in all possible countries. I wish they (Mattel, Hasbro) had seen the positive side of what Rajat & Jayant Agarwalla did for Scrabble on the whole. It made people like me go out and buy the game so that I could feed my Scrabulous addiction when not online, and invite friends over to drink wine and play in person! In fact, a strategic alliance between all the vinyards in the world, the Agarwalla Bros. and Mattel & Hasbro would have been an excellent move! Harhar.

Seriously though, sometimes a copyright infringement can be a good thing, to awaken interest in an old and dying product and drag it back from mature market, to a growing one. I do NOT condone plagiarism! I just wish businesses could visualise the opportunities before they get all legal and nasty...

At the end of the day, Scrabble is back on Facebook! Hurrah!

Disaster!!!!

They've pulled the Fabulous Scrabble Application from Facebook...

Ye Gods! Ye Shower of Scunners!

Scarey Facebook Skit from BBC

Cheers for the eyeopener Niall!