Many of the top games in the last decade were browser games. Sure, no one can move on at how good The Witcher III or Skyrim was, but games like FarmVille were more influential. Almost everyone played Zynga’s farming title, generating millions in revenue.

All things considered, FarmVille isn’t exactly a good game. Objectively speaking, it’s just a point-and-click farming game that I find dull. Yet, I’m a hypocrite: I’ve spent dozens of hours playing it as a bored college student, and I did enjoy it.

With that said, FarmVille is long gone, given that Facebook has stopped supporting games requiring a Flash player in favor of Embeddable HTML5 Games. However, even if this iconic farming game is dead and only lives on through its successors, the lessons it taught remained, but if you think about it, its formula for success was not new nor revolutionary. It just managed to do things right.

Appointment gaming

Social elements and competition

One of the most notable reasons why FarmVille was so popular is due to its social aspects. Your Facebook friends and acquaintances can visit your farm, which, in turn, will compel almost anyone to make improvements to theirs. Moreover, this sparked a bit of competition between friends: everyone wanted to have the best-looking farm.

Apart from this, there are also in-game mechanics wherein you can “help” your friends by gifting them resources and other items. In turn, this coaxed non-players into diving into the farming experience and spending more time than usual in the game.

The satisfaction of rewards