‘Happy Farms’ Game Destroys Chinese Jobs, Relationships

From nongchangren.cn:

Forgetting to steal crops on QQ Happy Farms cause lovers to break up and couples to divorce

Recently, the first thing Chinese netizens do upon turning on their computers each day is “grow crops” and “steal crops”. This is a game called “Happy Farms”. Even though “stealing crops” online cannot bring any real benefits to the players, more and more people are joining the game and getting addicted. Because of this game, some players have been fired, lovers have broken up, but none of them can stop “Happy Farms” from becoming increasingly popular. The game developers only allow 2 million new players every day, but there are still more people waiting to play. If you are not a “farmer”, you are behind the times. So why are Chinese people so crazy about this game?

Introduction to “Happy Farms”

“Happy Farms” is a resource management game based on farms. In this game, players act as owners of the farms. They have to do all the work of cultivating, irrigating, fertilizing, spraying, harvesting and selling crops. Each action will add points to the player’s level. In the game, a player can not only act on his own farm, but also on his friends’ farms. Thus, people can be very kind players who help their friends manage [their farms], or they can be mischievous players that steal crops from other players. All these action help the players get bigger farms.

2 million new players every day cannot meet the demand!

Since the QQ Happy Farms was released to Chinese netizens at the beginning of September [before that, the game was only available for VIPs], a huge amount of Chinese netizens have begun to play this game, and have become more and more addicted. The players work from dusk to night to “grow and steal crops”. By midday, the 2 million openings for new players have all been taken.

Shocking stories about the “Happy Farms”

June 26th, a netizen called “eifeng” posted an article called “Playing web games at work, that’s awesome!”. He said there was an official in Wenzhou city that was fired because she was online playing the game. The reason she was playing the game was because she was worried someone would steal her crops.

Another story happened in Nanping, Guangzhou province. It is about a couple who had been together for 4 years. But after they started playing the game “Happy Farms”, their relationship was on the rocks. The boy called Xiao Ke had to work late, so he told his girlfriend to set the alarm and help him manage the farm while he was gone. But unfortunately, Ke’s girlfriend was pregnant, so one of the nights, the alarm didn’t wake her up. When the next day came, Ke found that not only did his girlfriend not harvest the crops, a lot of his crops were also stolen by other players. Ke got really angry and had a huge fight with the girl. In the end, they broke up and got rid of their baby.

People enjoy life on the “farms”

A Xi’an netizen “Yi You” said, recently, more and more people who live in cities like going to college and experience being a farmer. When people get tired from work, they go to their own farms, take care of their crops, pull out weeds. It is really delightful to forget about the pressure in cities.

Another netizen called “Yi Bu” also put forward his opinion. Yi Bu said he grew up in a small village, and then he went to a city, becoming a successful businessman. But now he misses the life in the village and “Happy Farms” makes the country dream possible in his office. Yi Bu said everytime he sees his crops, dogs, and grasses, he feels like he is in the village again. When he is working on his farm, he can feel the breathe of nature, and get happiness from farming and harvesting.

Happy Farms has been available to Kaixin001 members for a long time. Below are some Chinese netizen comments from a NetEase article:

网易匿名网友:

When everybody around me was talking about Kaixin001 [playing Happy Farms], I was very confused: Why would people be so addicted to a stupid video game? But then I found that all the dreams of having houses and fields, which are very hard to get in real life, are very easy to be realized in the game. I think I know the reason why the game is so popular.

快乐去飞:

People have to know how to control themselves. Everything has a standard. If we are addicted to something, it is physically and mentally unhealthy. We should focus on our work in the office. Games are  just games. I prefer to travel with my family when I have time off.

清水煮三国:

Everything has two sides. We will not stop eating because we are afraid of dying from choking. Happy Farms is simply relaxing entertainment, and I highly doubt that people will stop playing video games at work if Happy Farms is totally forbidden. All we need is a proper way to treat the game.

搜狐匿名网友:

I like Happy Farms. I enjoy cultivating, irrigating, spraying, and harvesting. My high-pressure work, and cold tall buildings makes me feel like I cannot breathe. I have to turn to virtual nature, have my own house and farm. I wish I could have a real house and farm, but it seems so far away.