You're Gonna Have To Face It, You're Addicted To...

... Farmville (apologies to the late Robert Palmer for adulterating his lyrics there)...

Damn game should come with a Government Health Warning!

If you are worried that you may be becoming addicted, here are some of the warning signs to look out for... If you can identify with any of these, you may need intervention:

- First thing you do in the morning is log on to Facebook to see if anyone left you any gifts.

- If no one did, you are in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

- You are seriously considering creating a fake persona on Facebook just so that they can become your neighbour so you can expand again.

- You buy a chicken coop for your TWO chickens.

- Your real world (and if you say "what's the real world?" then there really is no hope for you) friends (assuming you still have some) start avoiding you because all your conversations start with "When are you going to accept my neighbour request? You don't have to play after that, I just need another 6 neighbours so I can expand".

- You spend 65,000 farm coins to buy a (pink) tractor, a seeder AND a harvester... and you've only got 6 plots!

- You start organising your day around when your dog needs fed.

- You finally tear yourself away from the computer at 2am, with everything fed and harvested, once you've double checked that you have no pending gift requests.

- 10 minutes later after logging off at 2am, you're logging back on, just in case someone sent you a gift request in that time.

- You ignore your best friend when you meet in Tesco, just because they haven't sent you a gift request for the last 2 days.

- Despite the fact you live in a rural community, when you overhear someone saying, "I must go home and see to my chickens", your first thought is to run up to them and say, "Add me as a neighbour!"

- You have been heard shouting "Not another bloody nail! I'm not building anything!" at the computer.

- You rate your friends according to their Farmville level.

- When you hear someone say "I'm level 16 now", your reply is "Oh, bless! I remember when I was a Newbie too".

- The merest mention of "Farmville" overheard makes you prick up your ears.

- You're sitting in a cafe having a coffee, and you can hear 2 people a couple of tables away (close enough for you to earwig, but too far away for you to "casually" join in the conversation) discussing the Farmville Phenomenon... and you are so desperate to ask, "Need another neighbour? I only need one more to get a super plantation".

- You put a request out on a community-based forum you use for anyone who plays Farmville to add you as a Facebook friend, just so you can add them as a neighbour.

- You get palpitations every time there are new items available in the market.


Now, did you blush and laugh nervously at any of the above? (And, yes, I did). Then you could be in danger of becoming an addict.

However... before you book yourself into Farmers Anonymous (which may not exist, but really SHOULD)... gonna add me as a neighbour? Please? I just need 2 more to expand! I'll send you gifts regularly... and fertilise your plots... and feed your chickens... Go on... PLEASE???"