The Farming Game

Last updated
The Farming Game
the game invented on the seat of a tractor
The farming game box cover.png
Manufacturers The Weekend Farmer Company
Designers George Rohrbacher
Publication1979
Years active10+
Players2-6
Playing time120 minutes
Chancehigh
Website www.farmgame.com

The Farming Game is a board game simulating the economics of a small farm. Published in 1979, it was designed by George Rohrbacher, a rancher in Washington state. The Farming Game painfully reflects the real-life difficulties of running a farm. The names and places in the game are the names of families that have farmed for generations in the Yakima Valley [1] : 5  and other parts of Central Washington. When Rohrbacher invented the game, it was a desperate time for his failing farm and small family, which is reflected in the difficulty of the game, and the multitude of points taken into consideration in farming that are often left up to chance. [2] The publisher claims that the game has "been used in schools all over the world". [1] : 7 

Contents

History

The background for the game is Rohrbacher's "1,500 acre farm near Goldendale" in July 1979. The farm was facing bankruptcy and his wife was pregnant and had decided to quit her job. A friend suggested to Rohrbacher that he should invent a game like Monopoly, but based around the struggles of life as a farmer near the Yakima River, where they lived. As he was baling hay early one morning, he considered and developed the idea. [3] To produce the first edition they borrowed $90,000 [4] and had it produced by "the handicapped at Portland's Goodwill Industries". [1] : 7 

The first copy was ready in four months and after six weeks almost 8,000 copies had been sold. [4] The game sold more than 150,000 copies by 1985, the profits from which saved Rohrbacher's farm. [5] By 1995, the estimate of copies sold was 350,000. [6]

In 1994 the World Bank arranged for a translation of the game into Russian "to help teach Russian farmers the ins and outs of capitalistic farming." [4] [1] : 7 

A card game version [7] and a version for children [8] [9] were also released.

Rohrbacher also served in the Washington State Senate, as a Commissioner for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. [10]

Objective

The premise of the game is that each player inherited twenty acres of farming land from their "Grandpa". This is not enough to live on, so players must continue with their current job in town, which brings in $5,000 that can be invested into the farm each game year. Players can also borrow up to $50,000 from the bank, lease grazing pastures in the hills, and buy new land. The first player to expand their farm to $250,000 in net assets so that they can quit the town job without going bankrupt wins. [1] : 2 

Elements of the game are intended to reflect aspects of real-life farming. For example, players sometimes encounter Farmer's Fate cards that are either good or bad, similar to the Chance cards found in Monopoly. One such card allows a player to collect $2,000 from every player who has no harvester, if you own one. Another card informs that due to the IRS garnishing your income, you may not collect on any of your harvests for the rest of the year. These cards are intended to reflect the element of chance or luck that is involved in farming, which is the aim of the game.

Game play

The board itself is divided into squares representing forty-nine of the fifty-two weeks in a year, with different sections grouped together under the usual harvest for that season. [1] : 2  While there are multiple sections for harvesting hay (the first, second, third, and even fourth cutting), purchases may only be made during winter. [1] : 2–3  After profiting from the harvest, the farmer must often pay operating expense, [1] : 3  whilst the harvest may be skipped, halved or doubled or more. [1] : 3–4 

Players take turns rolling a die, traveling around the board, harvesting their crops when they can. [1] : 3–4  Crops are purchased through O.T.B. (Option to Buy) cards [1] : 3  usually referencing "Neighbor Sells Out: 10 Acres Grain". The crops are grouped into hay, fruit, grain, and cattle. [1] : 3  What balances this game, and provides the most difficulty for real life farmers, are operating expenses. In The Farming Game, whenever a player harvests a crop, he draws a card entitled Operating Expense, examples of which are "Pay $500 for Irrigation" or "Seed Bill Due: Pay $1,000". [1] : 3  Also, certain spaces on the board instruct the player to draw a Farmer's Fate card. [1] : 3 Farmer's Fate cards are usually unfortunate for the player, including references to the drought in the 1970s, Mt. St. Helens erupting, or chemical mishaps in which all the player's livestock are slaughtered. There are also expenses or bonuses incurred while traveling the board - some spaces instruct you to pay a fee for Winter-killed wheat or owning cattle, while another gives you a bonus of $1000 for a convenient "warm snap" early in the year.

Other mediums

The Farming Game was adapted for Windows 3.1 in 1997, when it won the 1997 Mahnke Multimedia Award for Best new education title given by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), an international organization. [11] [1] : 7 

The Farming Game was also adapted for Mac in November 2012 [12] by Game Masterminds, [13] a licensee of The Weekend Farmer Co. It was available for download on PC, Mac and Linux as late as 2018. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farmer</span> Person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer might own the farm land or might work as a laborer on land owned by others. In most developed economies, a "farmer" is usually a farm owner (landowner), while employees of the farm are known as farm workers. However, in other older definitions a farmer was a person who promotes or improves the growth of plants, land, or crops or raises animals by labor and attention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farm</span> Area of land for farming, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures

A farm is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used for specialized units such as arable farms, vegetable farms, fruit farms, dairy, pig and poultry farms, and land used for the production of natural fiber, biofuel, and other commodities. It includes ranches, feedlots, orchards, plantations and estates, smallholdings, and hobby farms, and includes the farmhouse and agricultural buildings as well as the land. In modern times, the term has been extended so as to include such industrial operations as wind farms and fish farms, both of which can operate on land or at sea.

Story of Seasons, known in Japan as Bokujō Monogatari and formerly known as Harvest Moon, is an agricultural simulation role-playing video game series created by Yasuhiro Wada and developed by Victor Interactive Software. Story of Seasons was the first game to be released under the new international series title of the same name.

<i>Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life</i> 2003 video game

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is a video game that was released in Japan in September 2003 and March 2004 in North America for the GameCube. It was developed and published by Marvelous Interactive, and is part of the long-running Story of Seasons series of video games. The GameCube version offers connectivity with the Game Boy Advance game, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town.

Squatter is a board game that was launched at the Royal Melbourne Show in 1962, invented by Robert (Bob) Crofton Lloyd. With more than 500,000 games sold in Australia by 2007, it became the most successful board game ever developed in Australia. As of 2018 there are still Squatter competitions and active Squatter clubs. In 1999, a version became available on PC CD-ROM. However the PC version was not commercially successful and is no longer available.

<i>Harvest Moon 2 GBC</i> 1999 video game

Harvest Moon 2 GBC, released in Japan as Bokujō Monogatari GB2 (牧場物語GB2), is a farm simulation video game for the Game Boy Color developed and published by Victor Interactive Software, and the second portable game in the Story of Seasons series. The object of the game is to cultivate a farm to prevent the land from being used to build an amusement park. As with the previous game, the player may choose to play as a boy or a girl.

Gold farming is the practice of playing a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) to acquire in-game currency, later selling it for real-world money.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agriculture in Canada</span> Overview of agriculture in Canada

Canada is one of the largest agricultural producers and exporters in the world. As with other developed nations, the proportion of the population agriculture employed and agricultural GDP as a percentage of the national GDP fell dramatically over the 20th century, but it remains an important element of the Canadian economy. A wide range of agriculture is practised in Canada, from sprawling wheat fields of the prairies to summer produce of the Okanagan valley. In the federal government, overview of Canadian agriculture is the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agriculture in India</span> History of agriculture in India

The history of agriculture in India dates back to the Neolithic period. India ranks second worldwide in farm outputs. As per the Indian economic survey 2020 -21, agriculture employed more than 50% of the Indian workforce and contributed 20.2% to the country's GDP.

<i>Harvest Moon DS</i> 2005 video game

Harvest Moon DS, known in Japan as Bokujō Monogatari: Colobocle Station, is a farm simulation role-playing video game for the Nintendo DS, part of the Story of Seasons series. It was published and developed by Marvelous Interactive Inc., and released in Japan on March 17, 2005, and in North America on September 12, 2006. It is the first entry in the series without series creator Yasuhiro Wada heavily involved, though it borrows many assets from Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town and Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, such as the graphical style from the former and setting of the latter.

<i>Agricola</i> (board game) Board game

Agricola is a Euro-style board game created by Uwe Rosenberg. It is a worker placement game with a focus on resource management. In Agricola, players are farmers who sow, plow the fields, collect wood, build stables, buy animals, expand their farms and feed their families. After 14 rounds players calculate their score based on the size and prosperity of the household.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agriculture in the United Kingdom</span> Economic sector in the United Kingdom

Agriculture in the United Kingdom uses 69% of the country's land area, employs 1% of its workforce and contributes 0.5% of its gross value added. The UK currently produces about 60% of its domestic food consumption.

<i>FarmVille</i> 2009 video game

FarmVille is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm and Farm Town. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plowing land, planting, growing, and harvesting crops, harvesting trees and raising livestock. The sequels FarmVille 2 and FarmVille 3 were released in September 2012 and November 2021, respectively.

<i>Happy Farm</i> 2008 video game

Happy Farm was a social network game and massively multiplayer online game based on farm management simulation. It was played predominantly by users in Mainland China and Taiwan, and was the most popular in terms of players; At the height of its popularity, there were 23 million daily active users, logging on to the game at least every 24 hours.

<i>Farming Simulator</i> Series of farming simulation video games

Farming Simulator is a farming simulation video game series developed by GIANTS Software. The locations are based on American and European environments. Players are able to farm, breed livestock, grow crops, and sell assets created from farming.

<i>Story of Seasons</i> (video game) 2014 video game

Story of Seasons, known in Japan as Bokujō Monogatari: Tsunagaru Shin Tenchi, is a farming simulation video game developed by Marvelous Entertainment for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released in Japan on February 27, 2014, and in North America on March 31, 2015. This was the first game not under the Harvest Moon franchise title in North America due to Natsume Inc.'s ownership of the name.

<i>Stardew Valley</i> 2016 video game

Stardew Valley is a farm life simulation game developed by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone. Players take the role of a character who inherits their deceased grandfather's dilapidated farm in a place known as Stardew Valley. The game was released for Windows in February 2016 before being ported to other platforms. Stardew Valley is open-ended, allowing players to grow crops, raise livestock, fish, cook, mine, forage, and socialize with the townspeople, including the ability to marry and have children. It allows up to four players to play online together.

<i>Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns</i> 2016 video game

Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, known in Japan as Bokujō Monogatari: Mittsu no Sato no Taisetsuna Tomodachi, is a farming simulation role-playing game developed by Marvelous for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was released in June 2016 in Japan, February 2017 in North America, and in October 2017 in Europe and Australia. In this installment, in addition to the usual farmland which the player owns, the player is able to visit three towns, each with their own distinct culture and lifestyles.

<i>Artifact</i> (video game) 2018 video game

Artifact is a 2018 digital collectible card game developed and published by Valve for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It focuses on online player-versus-player battles and is based on the universe of Dota 2, a multiplayer online battle arena game by Valve. Artifact was designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferme (banking game)</span> French gambling game

Ferme ("Farm") is an historical French gambling game of the banking type for ten to twelve players that dates to the mid-17th century. It was described then as being "fun and recreational".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "It's time to Plow the Back Forty on your kitchen table!" (PDF). The Weekend Farmer Co. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  2. ↑ Rohrbacher, George (1997). Zen Ranching and the Farming Game. Bookpartners Incorporated. ISBN   9781885221506.
  3. ↑ Oppegaard, Brett (24 January 1997). "The Farming Game – board game over 30 years old". The Columbian. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021– via City Farmer News.
  4. 1 2 3 Brandt, Aviva L. (11 September 1994). "Farmer Bets the Ranch on Board Game and Now He's Reaping Riches : Agriculture: George Rohrbacher gambled that his board game would sell, and sell it has. Even the Russians will be playing soon. It's designed to entertain and to teach basic farming economics". LA Times. Archived from the original on 8 September 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  5. ↑ Smoley, Richard (1985). "The Farming Game". California Farmer. California Farmer Publishing Company. 262: 179. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  6. ↑ "Questions from the Country". Farm Journal. Farm Journal Incorporated: 18. 1995. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  7. ↑ MacLeod, Andrew (26 February 2011). "The Weeding Out of the Theme". Archived from the original on 8 September 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  8. ↑ "Farming Game Kids®". Creative Child. Archived from the original on 8 September 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  9. ↑ STAFF (29 November 2006). "Learn farming for fun, profit". Bainbridge Island Review. Archived from the original on 8 September 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  10. ↑ "George Rohrbacher". Bainbridge Public Library. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  11. ↑ "Harvest the fun!". Weekend Farmer Co. 1997. Archived from the original on 1 March 2000. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  12. ↑ "The Farming Game: Software Edition". The Mac Game Store. 2012. Archived from the original on 16 November 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  13. ↑ "Previous Projects". www.gamemasterminds.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  14. ↑ "The Farming Game® Software Edition for PC, Mac, & Linux". www.thefarminggame.net. Archived from the original on 14 October 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.