Having to cap @ 2 million registrations a day . . . | Hacker News Reader

Having to cap @ 2 million registrations a day . . .

chinasmack.com

21 pointsaresant15 comments

Reason why this works:

1. You have to keep playing the game otherwise you lose. You can't just stop and go on later, once started, you are invested

2. When you play, you get your reward kick, which is the basis of all addiction. Every small achievement makes you more and more stuck to it. So achievements are small but constant.

3. Other people grow rich when you grow poor. I.e, people steal your stuff, and humans have an instinct against allowing people steal their stuff. So you always come back to watch it

Yeah, I tried Evony for a while recently, and it has the same effects - it starts to interrupt your sleep because you don't want to risk not being there and someone attacks you. That is when you know you shouldn't be playing it any more. Even then I bizarrely caught myself spending several hours taking down my cities to ensure there was nothing left to steal after I stopped playing (conversely this is a deliberate tactic to use to stop yourself being tempted back so maybe it was a worthwhile investment).

I think the ability to steal each other's crops makes the game mechanics even more powerful (in comparison to FarmVille and the like). Fear of loss is an extremely strong motivator. Note how you can buy a dog to protect your farm and pay for it with cash only.

Right now, I'm in a Chinese net cafe, and 2 out of my 6 nearest neighbors are on Happy Farm.

Net cafes in China get a lot of game playing compared to any other place I've been to (50-70% of computers in my quick sampling). and interestingly, all of it is translated in Chinese. It must be an insanely huge market.

Popular games: WOW, Warcraft 3, Counterstrike, and a bunch of stuff I have no clue about. It's also IE6 over here, but the machines are pretty high-end.

This is so interesting, yet I feel like I'm out of the loop. I recently heard that FarmVille on Facebook is one of the most popular apps there, and now this Happy Farm craze.

What is it about these apps that have such an amazing pull?

I thought happy farms came first? I assumed most US companies quickly copied the Chinese version, FarmVille being one of the last clones, but more successful than their predecessors (like farmtown).

Nice. You could have a Dropbox party every night.

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/6/66...

Hahaha. Good call.

This game is taking off like a rocket. I wonder whether they cap the signups at 2M/d for scalability reasons or to generate extra buzz.

Every now and then someone recycles simcity or a variation on the theme and scores wildly, check this out on the 'maximum' length graph:

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/myminicity.com

Can anybody describe the basic concept behind the Happy Farm game? I am intrigued by "stealing farms" but wonder how it can be so damn interesting (as the article describes)

Has anyone played this game here?

My wife is Chinese and she is hooked on it. Basically there is something like a vegetable patch and you grow fruit or vegetables in it. There is also an oversize dog that is supposed to guard your patch, but he only reacts if you buy food for him (in real money). You can steal as well as sell your products. There is also a big element of social media as you can interact with other players. With qq you can send messages or talk.

It is very addictive, as my wife never used to do much with her computer but now spends a considerable time with the game.

The game looks are elementary as if it came out of a children's book. The beauty of web applications they never stop to surprise me. Who ever thought twits or happy farm would be so successful.

This sounds like an Animal Crossing MMO. That seem right to anyone with more knowledge of it?

Hopefully slightly more interesting than farmville.

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