Milking Rabbits on Farmville
I am the least games-backgrounded of any Mudlark, but when I start playing something it is hard to prise me away.
So you shouldn’t be surprised that while virtual tumbleweeds blow over Matt’s and Toby’s little withered patches on Farmville, I tend an extensive , level 30 , plantation, .
I say “tend” but I am more share-cropper than land-baron. I grind away in my fields, break my back climbing my extensive assortment of fruit trees and bending down to milk the bloody animals.
Sometimes I lie in bed early of a morning listening to Farming Today on BBC Radio 4 and comparing the experiences of the “real” farmers they interview there to mine. I have to say they have it cushy. At least they get a few months between sowing and harvesting. I’ve only just relaxed enough to plant watermelons , red wheat , pineapples and potatoes, crops that give me two or three days before I need to worry about them.
Another thing – they are allowed to actually slaughter their animals. Bloomin Farmville can’t let any creature perish.
So the pigs never become bacon – they collect truffles. All fowl ONLY lay eggs – no chicken in a basket here, thank you very much. And the rabbits, reindeer (I know – I sold them all today) , horses and even cats all get brushed and their hair collected.
I ask you – Who brushes a rabbit?
Why not milk them ? Well – Dutch farmers have started doing just that , so Farming Today announced to me this morning at about 5.50 am. They call it Pharming – drug inhibitors and stuff from the teats of specials Bugses. National Geographic are on it too.
So I reckon our next game should be Pharmville – growing drugs in interesting ways. I’ll have to leave it there – I’ve got 50 plots of potatoes to lift before I shear the sheep.
At a workshop for artists working with the environment I had the good fortune to meet the artist Wapke Feenstra who makes work about farming traditions, amongst other locative and interesting work. She showed us a video from her family farm of the farmer milking a horse. She also gave me horse milk to try – it tasted like grass unsurprisingly. Supposedly it is traditional in the area of Holland she comes from and is meant to be incredibly good for you.
The Dark Forest project and the work we have been doing with the environment was greatly influenced by discussions with Wapke. Shehas been working in the UK at Grizedale Arts in Cumbria at the moment:
http://www.wapke.nl/projects/index.php