"I've arrived in the middle of a vast expanse of what looks like green LEGO plastic subdivided into fenced lots. Mozart's "Turkish March" plays sourcelessly over a chorus of meowing cats and squeaking mice. A signpost with my name on it indicates that one of these lots of Gumby-colored virtual earth is mine, and it is embarrassingly barren. In contrast, the neighboring garden, belonging to a stranger going by Level12Arsonist,"
"Grow a Garden, available on the app Roblox, is an exercise in patience. As the name suggests, the premise is almost Zen-like, requiring nothing more of players than planting seeds and waiting - and waiting some more - for them to mature. Then they harvest their crops, sell them for "Sheckles," an in-game currency, and gradually reinvest their profits in more seeds and more waiting."
Players start on blocky plots and perform minimal actions: plant seeds, wait for maturation, harvest, and sell crops for Sheckles. Players can reinvest earnings or purchase Robux with real money to accelerate progress. Grow a Garden replicates FarmVille's idle progression while leveraging Roblox's massive, user-created-game ecosystem. Millions of players and creators sustain a vast marketplace of similar micro-games and cosmetic or convenience purchases. The game's simple mechanics and social interactions drive enormous concurrent user counts, outpacing many high-budget titles despite crude graphics and pared-down gameplay. Social features, friend requests, and in-game transactions blur play, self-expression, and monetized engagement.
Read at Intelligencer
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