If you are on Facebook, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the super popular game called Farmville. This game involves planting little virtual crops. Ideally, you want to return to the game when your crops are ready, or they will wither. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get some kind of virtual crop insurance? Oddly enough, the Farmer’s Insurance Company will soon be involved in the Farmville game.
Farmville is a creation of a company called Zynga. While Zynga is not the only game company on Facebook, it is one of the most well recognized ones. If you are on Facebook, you very likely have received at least a few Farmville requests from your friends on Facebook who play the game.
In Farmville, you are a farmer, and you can customize your character’s appearance. You pay virtual coins to the market in the game, so you can buy crops. The basic idea of the game is that you will plant those crops, and then return to harvest them when the crops are ready. The crops grow in real time, so, if it the game says that a particular crop will be ready in two hours, you need to remember to long into Facebook two real hours from then, in order to harvest your crop. Successfully harvesting a crop earns you more virtual coins. If you are too late, the virtual crops wither, and you cannot make any virtual coins from them. Some people try and time their crops so that they can harvest them on their break time, or when they will be home from work or school. Other people spend actual, real, money on in game items that will restore withered crops. It has become a very big deal to a lot of people!
Starting on October 18, 2010, players can find an item in the Farmville game called “The Farmer’s Insurance Airship”. This airship is a representation of the Farmer’s Insurance Company, a real world, existing, insurance company. Players can get the Farmers Insurance Airship for free. This item gives players “wither protection” for their virtual crops for ten days.
I find this extremely interesting, and not just because I happen to be someone who plays Farmville. This is not the first time Farmville has had a real world company represented in the game. Recently, there was a McDonald’s Farm that players could visit, help, and earn special McDonald’s related in game items from. McDonald’s has done game crossovers before, most notably with the Monopoly game. It didn’t surprise me at all to see McDonald’s involved in Farmville.
However, this is the first time I have ever heard of a real world insurance company getting represented in a virtual game. The Farmer’s Insurance Company offers auto insurance, home insurance, and life insurance, among other things. I looked at their website, but I did not see anything to indicate that this company offers crop insurance. However, for a while, Farmer’s Insurance is going to be offering a form of “virtual crop insurance” in the Farmville game. How strange the world has become!