17 Days of FishVille: A Facebook Game Review

Posted by Brian Johnson on
Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 4:58 pm

It’s hard not to notice social games. Every time I log into Facebook, I am flooded with requests to play games with friends. Given that I’ve had an aquarium on and off since I was three, the allure of a virtual Facebook fish tank finally became too much: FishVille was going to be my game of choice. (Apparently, I’m not alone, as the game has more than 23 million monthly players.)

Like other social games, FishVille, developed by Zynga, leverages your social network for gameplay. Your friends help you obtain items and take care of your fish, and you help them in return. In that way, social games are more collaborative than other game genres. Social games are also built around the idea of playing regularly. Just like you feel compelled to check Facebook, you feel compelled to check on your fish tank or your farm. I decided to play FishVille for 17 days to see if it could keep my interest for the duration.

The Basics

Starting FishVille is easy enough. The game gives you a premade fish tank, but it ’s your job to customize it. You also start with a couple sand dollars to buy fish eggs. After you place your fish eggs in your tank, they grow into little fish. You then feed your little fish to make them grow into big fish.

The game does get more complicated. In order to level up and unlock more tank decorations and fish, you need XP (experience points). You can get XP by selling the fish you’ve grown, clicking on treasure chests, or–my personal favorite–giving your fish love. All is not well, though. After periods of inactivity, algae begins to invade your tank. And if you go too long without feeding your fish, they die. My little virtual aquatic cesspool is currently home to five dead fish, including my beloved orbiculate batfish.

Game Mechanics: The Good and the Bad

My favorite thing about of FishVille is how it makes you feel like you are building a real fish tank. The game uses common fish names , so you can stock your tank with your old favorites and bring in some new ones. The tank customization options are also deep. Zynga provides so many different decorations, fish species, and plants and other tank accessories that players can build the tank they want to build.

The customization of FishVille comes with a price, though. To get really cool decorations or certain species of fish, you need to buy them with “sand dollars.” By selling virtual goods to players in its games, Zynga makes about $250 million annually. Each time I wanted to add an exotic fish I got a pop-up asking me to buy more “sand dollars.” I suppose Zynga has to make money somehow, but I didn’t like the micropayment system; I felt like I was being nickel-and-dimed to death.

I was also offended by the sheer number of pop-ups in the game. Every time I played I got pop-ups asking me to help some sea creature. I just wanted to tend my tank without polluting my friends’ news feed or feeling guilty for ignoring a baby Manta Ray. I wonder if Zynga can get away with this kind of gameplay because the people playing this game on Facebook are not used to other styles of games that don’t include constant interruptions. Obviously, this is designed to use your social network to bring more players into FishVille, but I just found it irritating.

So, did FishVille keep my attention for 17 days? Yes and no. It is a fun game to play in one-minute bursts, but because it lacks a competitive element, it couldn’t keep my attention much longer. Like other social games, fun in FishVille must depend a lot on who you are playing with. If you have friends who play, then give it a try; otherwise, I would look elsewhere.

Brian Johnson is a recent graduate of the MCDM program who is pursuing a career in the video game industry. His Xbox LIVE gamertag is thepiecesfit. Brian recently started Grybo Productions to author music for the Rock Band video game. His favorite video game is “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.”