And your point 2: 200% agreed. It's a sign of the times I think. Hard to make money with a flash game and thus annoy your users to pay?

What I find worrying, however, is the tendency in these games that they limit your ability express yourself unless you're willing to pay. This of course is the business logic behind these games, but I do find it somewhat depressing.

There are some literature in different player types in multiplayer games (achievers, etc), but they escape me know.

By playing a game with your friends, especially one that allows you to create something like a farming landscape, you get an insight into what those friends value. One of my female friends was at level 35, had a gigantic farm, with a gigantic mansion, and many of those signs that visitors can leave. I hadn't seen her in 10 years, but I remember that she was always very social and status orientated, which is actually something I value in her. Another friend had a lot of animals, sheltered away elegantly, which gave me the idea that she cared for those kind of things. Since I didn't know her that well, it added value which a status or picture might not have. That's what I mean with the 'social dynamic' that Farmville gave me over regular Facebook. …But perhaps I'm also reading more into it than there was.

To me Farmville seemed more like Gardenville, where you would actually create nice landscapes for your friend to visit. And, as any garden lover will tell you, their work (or lack of) is also a way of communicating with the outside world, just like any "welcome" or "keep out" sign.

My 2 cents, though I still think that on all other dimensions the game had flaws.

I share many of your frustrations about the FarmVille. I also have fond memories of SimFarm, but comparing FarmVille to it doesn't make any justice. SimFarm actually had depth. Also, I'm really worried about people who think these are "social" games.

One of the major problems with this kind of RPGs – yes, I categorize FarmVille as a role-playing game. Mostly because of the game mechanics. – is that everyone gets the same experience and there's no difficulty. By playing FarmVille, you don't get any skills and you the only thing that makes you better in the game is the time you use (leveling up and thus getting access to better equipment). Even Doom 2 and Need for Speed 2 were more social when I was growing up, because you could share your scores and experiences. Not so in FarmVille, where it always takes exactly 24 hours to grow grapes and that's about it.

Vince, how much communication or social interactions we had playing that game? Except for the parts that felt like laboratory tests for game theoretical reciprocity behaviour on humans (ie. gifts and fertilizing crops). If those are someone's idea of "social interaction", they're pretty isolated and sad persons indeed. Those actions have zero to do with altruistic "helping" as there are incentives set that you benefit from helping anyone. See the many groups where people friend others solely to advance faster in FarmVille and how people will fertilize your "I quit" crops indefinitely.

Oh well, this comment is getting way too long… I think I need to write a companion post to yours =)