See that big elephant in the middle of the room? He's got the word "Pause" written on his side, and I suppose now is as good of a time as any to address him. While we've all been looking forward to the English Countryside expansion in FarmVille for weeks now, many of us have probably had our excitement dashed by Zynga's choice to implement a "Pause" feature between farms.
For those that are unfamiliar with the addition, or simply haven't made it to the English Countryside yet, the "Pause" feature is as follows: The farm that you are currently playing on; that is, the one you see on your screen and are interacting with (regardless of whether it's your original farm or your second farm), is your active farm, and will progress as normal with crops, trees, animals, and other functions proceeding at their normal rates in time.
Your other farm, meanwhile, will remain paused. Crops won't wither while you're away, but they also won't grow either. In fact, it seems as though nothing happens on your other farm while it's the "Paused" farm. Crop and trees won't grow, animals will not become ready to harvest. Hybrid seeds won't grow in the Greenhouse, your Leprechaun Cottage won't produce Gold - your farm is put at a literal stand still, forcing you to choose between your Home Farm and your English Farm as to which one to actually "play." This, of course, brings the entire English Countryside expansion into question. This "second farm" should really be called an "alternate farm" as a choice must be made between which to run at any point in time. As you might expect, the "feature" has forced users into a very vocal uproar, as they have flooded the game's official forums with posts against the feature.
Zynga itself is asking for feedback, good or bad, about the Pause feature, and as of this writing, that particular feedback thread has made its way to 82 pages - that's 814 posts - with the vast majority of these speaking out against the inclusion. Users are saying, quite believably, that they will simply refuse to make the trip to England in their game if the Pause function isn't removed.
User Pimpernell seems to sum up many users' thoughts:
I won't start playing EC until the pause is removed. I've put a lot of time, effort and real money into my farm and I can't see the point of freezing it while playing the 2nd one. What a ridiculous idea.
While many users have said they agree with the option to turn Pause on and off, they don't believe it should be mandatory, as they want and would love to work on two farms at once. We can see the reasoning behind the Pause function - that being so users don't have to worry about withering crops because they forgot about their "other" farm, but the fact that it's mandatory does throw a big wrench in many players' plans.
We'll make sure to update you if and when Zynga changes their mind about this feature, or at least adds an option to turn it off.
[Image Credit: misssonia]
Check out the rest of our English Countryside coverage right here.
Let us know what you think of the Pause feature. Will you skip going to the English Countryside as a result, or are you ready to leave your Home Farm behind for something new?
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