Do you remember when poking someone on Facebook was fun?

I know, it’s been a long time for me too. It didn’t end there though did it? The poke gave way to the super-poke, which begot the pillow fight before mellowing into a hatching egg. By this point most of us got wise to the semi-sneaky ways of the Facebook ap; namely, if you send the virtual item de jour to every living person you know you’ll be rewarded with even more virtual items, presumably for you to hand down to future generations.

Still, even though we’ve been there and done that before, the new wave of older users all the social media trend setters have been talking about; the grandma’s and great uncles of the world, caught onto Facebook and the cycle started over again. The trouble is, it’s one thing to click the ignore button on the stuff that intern who used to work for you sends (be honest, you didn’t really want to add her on FB anyway) but, damn it, if Great Auntie Ethel challenges you to a state capitals quiz or needs you to know what Beatle you’re most like, you kind of feel obliged. What I’m saying is, there’s always a handful of announcements to let you know some irritating distant acquaintance has unlocked, powered-up, or generally felt the need to notify you of their interactive activities.

Thanks to FarmVille, I have become that irritating person.

FarmVille, in a word, rocks. And it’s addictive, but not in a “playing it 24 hours a day” kind of way, no, it’s more of a “waking up at 2am, because I forgot to milk the cow” addictive.

You’re given an isometric plot of land and some cash to buy stuff like crops, trees, and buildings, and that’s about it. There’s no defined goal, but the initial hook of the game lies is in the sheer amount of pixelated goodies you can choose to fill your little farmstead with. I’m still a relative newbie, but I already have a choice of fifteen or so veggies to grow, ten fruit trees to pick from and countless hay bales, fences and the like to decorate my little plot with. Customization is a driving factor in a lot of popular games these days, and FarmVille offers it plentifully.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, at least not while I’m still at level ten. Some of the more extravagant varieties of flora and fauna cost money, and what better way than to sell your crops? Different crops take different amounts of time to harvest; raspberries will be ready in a couple of hours, but wheat, for example, will take three days. The subtle beauty of this mechanic is really what makes FarmVille so ideally suited to the millions of casual gamers out there, because unlike other games with a virtual nurturing element that essentially demands your attention every day, you can happily set up your farm to take care of itself for a few days and not have to worry about it. This means if you’ve got time on your hands you can plant a bunch of seeds with a rapid turnaround, but if you’re not going to be near a computer for a few days (eek!) you can plant some artichokes and not lose any sleep over your precious produce withering away.

For users who just have to have that little extra something in their farm, the game also has an extensive selection of virtual goodies that can be paid for with micro-transactions. It’s a shame that the only way to pay for the seriously cool stuff is with real money – I think it’s enough that I’ve invited goodness knows how many people to play FarmVille, but the fact that virtual goods spending is set to reach one billion dollars this year, significantly shows this is a winning model.

Uniquely, FarmVille is also a rare example of a social media game that appeals to nearly everyone. So many games are released these days with strongly defined target demographics, be it ninjas for boys or fashion designers for girls, that it’s refreshing to find a game with almost universal appeal. I got my FarmVille invite from a distant cousin twice my age and you know, I kind of felt obliged…