At its peak, Farmville had around 76 million monthly users playing the popular social-based game. In 2009, Zynga made over $300 million using a game that involved not much more than crops and clicks. The game’s popularity baffled many, even those who played it. It’s addictive tendencies, however, are rooted in brilliant gaming and marketing strategies.

What encourages us to flock to Farmville? Objectively, it’s not a very “good” game. It’s monotonous and routine – a game defined by responsibility. You plant and harvest crops, investing clicks after clicks on a virtual plot of land. Incredibly, this seems to be the root of Farmville’s popularity. People want to tend to their farms everyday, playing for meaningless Internet points.

This seemingly banal reason can be explained by a more thorough analysis of human behavior – people actually invest physical effort and time into their harvest. In such, one would take pride in the resulting product. The fruits of one’s labor can be used to spend on in-game benefits, such as larger plots of land, animals, buildings, and decorations. The consistent factor of input and output encourage the user to continue playing the game for one’s own gratification.

Farmville’s in-game farming strategy ropes people in by forcing them to come back to attend to their crops. By choosing what to plant, the player can choose his own time frame in which to return to harvest them – but if you come too late, the crops can die. This window in which the player can find profit is a powerful motivator to return and harvest, thereby progressing.

Of course, the element of competition cannot be forgotten. Farmville is a social and public game, and this is a vital aspect of its success. After all, what’s the point of growing the largest farm in the world if you have no one to show it to? Massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as Maplestory and Runescape have proved time and time again that competition fosters the best type of gamers – dedicated ones. As long as your friends are playing Farmville, you’ll be playing as well. Incidentally, Zynga has designed some ingenious techniques to wrap people in to playing its repetitive and shallow game.

Firstly, a player can invite his friends to Farmville – and he is indeed encouraged to do so. If you invite a “neighbor,” and send them a gift, you also receive an in-game achievement. Neighbors are highly beneficial in Farmville as they can help you tend to your farm and allow you to earn bonuses and expand your farmland. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to advance in Farmville (without spending actual money) without having neighbors. This pulls in your social circles to the game – once they’re involved, they’ll feel obliged to stick around and help you rebuild your farm and expand their own interests. Again, the element of competition comes into play – they’ll be encouraged to compete with you, resulting in another cyclic network effect.

Interestingly, the philosophy of playing Farmville doesn’t seem that alien. Citizens of a community help each other out, supporting other farms to advance the communal good. Friendly competition encourages capitalistic behavior, allowing players to improve their own “wellbeing” through dedicated work ethic. However, there does come a point where a distinction should be made between good citizenship and mindlessly clicking on pixels.