Good Fences Make Good Neighbors: Values of Digital Objects in FarmVille2

Abstract

This paper describes the findings of a textual and structural analysis of the free-to-play social networking game FarmVille 2 (FV2) with a focus on the values (social, economic, etc.) available to players for digital objects within the game. FV2 is purportedly a social game, which might suggest that findings regarding the social values of objects from the study of material culture could play out in the game, as they have been shown to do in other games. However, the author’s experience suggested that people who were not playing within an already existing network of friends might not show the kinds of digital virtual consumption patterns that previous research has found in social gaming. Instead, this paper suggests the possibility that a strong community may be necessary for the attribution of symbolic value to virtual goods, and that FV2 as played on alternate Facebook accounts may provide an example of a negative case for this basic tenet of the study of material culture.