Virtual farming - why?!

Several of my friends and family members are devotees of the virtual farming applications you can get on Facebook, and I just don't get it. This may be another example of me having a complete sense of humour failure - similar to my loathing of so-called comedians like Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey. Since I've never played either of these apps I guess it's a bit unfair to write a blog post slagging them off. But hey, it's my blog, so live with it.

At present, I have two Farmville invitations and 32 (!) Farm Town requests. I'm too polite to turn down requests to be someone's neighbour or refuse gifts of plum trees, so I've just left them to fester in my inbox. The thing is that I just don't see the point. I don't see what could possibly be entertaining about growing virtual crops. Can you eat them? No. I rest my case.

My 14 year old brother, who is a fan, tried to convince me of the efficacy of these games by saying, "It's so exciting harvesting them and watching them grow - I watched them growing last night, 1% every hour". What?! Needless to say, this did not sway me. Husbandio did a slightly better job - he says it's therapeutic. I can understand that, in fact that's why I write this blog. That, and it keeps my writing muscle exercised. And because I can say what I want without anyone interrupting me.

I suppose what it comes down to is that I have a very limited amount of time in my life for entertainment, so I have to be selective. And virtual farming just doesn't cut it. As an aside, I also don't understand why boys like console games where you have to spend ages customising a character or a car before you fight or race - that just seems to me like playing with virtual Barbies. And since I never liked real world Barbies, that doesn't appeal either! But if anyone can convince me as to why these farming games might be fun then I'll give it a go....but don't hold you breath.