Monday, August 2, 2010

Becoming a Neighbour for Facebook Games

There appears to be quite a lot of confusion where 'Friends' and 'Neighbours' are concerned in terms of games on Facebook. Asking some one to accept a Friendship Request in order to obtain another Neighbour in any game is only the first step. Once the individual accepts your Friendship Request, you need to invite him/her to become a Neighbour. This is true of every Facebook game that I have played.

Often in some of the games, the game will prompt you to visit a player's Farm in order to perform a task EVEN IF THAT INDIVIDUAL IS NOT YOUR NEIGHBOUR. I think that some players wrongly assume that a prompt of this nature signifies that the individual IS a Neighbour as well as a Friend.

There are a number of players of various Farming Simulation games who have requested that I accept them as Friends. They then never take any further steps to become a Neighbour in the game for which the Friendship was requested. Furthermore, when I then initiate the Invitation to become a Neighbour, it is not answered.

I understand that players require specific numbers of Neighbours in order to obtain upgrades but I feel that it is common courtesy to send a Gift if some one accepts you as a Neighbour. You need not send daily gifts but a single Gift as a simple expression of gratitude is a nice gesture. Obviously if there is a limit, as in Lovely Farm, of 15 Free Gifts per day, it may take time to send every new Neighbour a Gift, but one should do it sooner or later. I have some Neighbours who never sent a Gift even in return for a Gift I sent. Other Neighbours, even at a lower level than I, have been gracious about sending whatever items they have been able to unlock.

The real point of this post, however, is to make players aware of the difference between the players who are recognised as 'Friends' by any Facebook game for the purpose of generating 'help' requests and true Neighbours who must either have initiated or accepted an actual Invitation to BE Neighbours in the game.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm having to basically quit all my FB games due to the neighbour/friends issue. I've tried starting some new games but as soon as I see the neighbor listing at the bottom I delete the app. It would seem my real friends tire of seeing a post everytime I harvest a crop or finish a barn. I can't blam them either as too many post on my own wall are nothing but these. I do love some of these games and would love to play some if the neighbour thing wasn't all but required.

Freyashawk said...

Actually, you can set your Facebook profile NOT to publish any of the game information. I set it to prompt me before publishing which is a bit of a nuisance as it interferes with my gameplay, but what it does is give me the chance NOT to publish anything that doesn't offer an item or reward to other players. For example, I usually publish the Lost Animals so other players can obtain them. I don't publish the endless prompts that ask for neighbours to fertilise my crops.

Synth said...

Also, your friends can hide wall posts from specific apps. All they have to do is click on the "X" by the posts and be careful to hide the app and not you!