Farm Town Goes Down And Users Go Wild

Last night I received literally 100 emails from users about Farm Town, the game which has continued to surge in traffic over the past month. While the application was only down for about three hours, we literally received upwards of 100 comments on a previous post we made about Farm Town traffic exploding. The game is extremely addictive which makes it understandable why so many users would be up in arms over the application going down.

What’s not as clear is how Farm Town continues to experience tremendous growth. Over the past month I’ve continued to received messages from Farm Town users inviting me to join them. While that typically wouldn’t be that strange, it’s a bit weird since all of the messages are practically identical. Each one starts with the subject “Would you be my neighbour in Farm Town?” I haven’t spent the time to figure out how these messages are generated yet but they’ve clearly been effective at driving growth of the application.

I actually spent a week playing Farm Town in order to purchase one of the virtual houses that you can place on your farm but eventually decided that the game probably wasn’t the best use of my time. Farm Town continues to grow as one of the most popular games on the platform and we’d only expect that to continue with such an avid fan base. Now that the application is back up, users can continue to waste time while playing the game.

Are you a avid Farm Town fanatic?

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598133 CommentsFarm+Town+Goes+Down+And+Users+Go+Wild2009-06-09+13%3A47%3A35Nick+O%27Neill »

I had a very difficult time with the outage. I spent all 3 hours on the FT forum at farmtown.com. Very disturbing. I mean, the uncertainty was the worst part. Also I had crops to harvest and all day at work I’d been eagerly excited about the Farm House I could finance after my big harvest that night. I stayed up until it came back up at around 1am. I had to be at my desk at work at 8am, so it was a stretch. I didn’t even have time to replant my crops so I’m now an entire day behind. My field could be growing right now, but its just harvested is all. I called all my friends, especially my sister, with the news. It was an interuption of my nightly ritual.

Comment by Melanie Wood — June 9, 2009 @ 3:10 pm
I didn't even notice Farmtown was down last night. But then, the way I play, I do all my "work" at once and then there's no need to go back till the next day when my crops are ready for harvest.

I would say I'm a fan with reservations. There are some really annoying quirks about the game which I assume should be easy to fix. The Avatar keeps getting in the way of my hoe/scythe so I can't plow/harvest without clicking several times in different spots, or going to a different plot all together. I wouldn't mind getting rid of the avatar completely when on my own farm. She constantly makes me wait for her to walk where I want to work. Also, why does the game force users to plant, hoe or harvest only one single plot at a time? I would love it if I could work an entire set of contiguous plots with the same tool or seed all in one or two clicks.

If anything is going to drive me away from this game, it will be the continual and boring job of planting, hoeing and harvesting one plot at a time.

Comment by Patti — June 9, 2009 @ 5:12 pm
I gave FarmTown a try a few weeks ago, but I don't see what all the fuss is about, let alone why it's so popular. Had it for a couple of days then removed it.

Comment by Stephen Moore — June 9, 2009 @ 10:27 pm
It was a bit upsetting when the whole thing crashed. Many of us were in the middle of planting, harvesting, or other farm activities. Because of the way it is setup some of us lost items we had 'purchased' or been 'gifted'. But, we all need to remember it is a game, and not real money either.

Patti- if you go to the FT forum, they have a spot for suggestions. Some of the new additions this week were from those suggestions.

Comment by AJ — June 10, 2009 @ 9:45 am
In reply to your comment that “sers can continue to waste time while playing the game” – Farm Town is not a waste of time. Watching Movies and Television is a waste of time. At least with Farm Town, the user is interacting with others. It’s a neat app.

Comment by Kathleen — July 2, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
FARM TOWN has been down now since last night. Even the SLASHKEY website is down. Anyone know what's going on?

I have been having other problems when the game was up: Not being able to be hired, and not being able to plow on other farms.

I've missed out on thousands of coins and XP points and my many e-mails to the developers have all gone unanswered.

Comment by Joe Joe — July 28, 2009 @ 9:54 am
I can't get to my FarmTown again

The webpage "l1.slashkey.com" cannot be found

DNS error occurred. Server cannot be found. The link may be broken.

am I doing something wrong? HELP!

Comment by Sharmen Tipton — July 28, 2009 @ 11:08 am
Is farm town down for good or what? It hasbeen down for at least 12 hours misschatting with my friends.

Comment by mary england — July 28, 2009 @ 11:43 am
it has been down for me too…I've oodles of coffee crops dying in the field.

This game is fun…is addictive, but has a lot of bugs.

Comment by K — July 28, 2009 @ 12:07 pm
I still cannot get into Farm Town today.

Comment by r avatar — July 28, 2009 @ 12:21 pm
Don`t think so have the same problem over her!

Comment by Lasse — July 28, 2009 @ 12:30 pm
I want my farm back. The game has been down all day. What's the problem?

Comment by LauraLea-July 29,200 — July 28, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
molly duckitt july 29th at 945am

been off since 4pm 28th july not good enough

Comment by mollyduckitt — July 29, 2009 @ 12:49 am
molly duckitt july29th

I still cannot get into farm town as the rest of my family
cant either

Comment by mollyduckitt — July 29, 2009 @ 4:46 am
I don't think farm town is a waste of time. I go to school four days a week, so on Sunday's I plant pumpkins or pineapples then I don't come back to it till Thursday night. I really enjoy playing the game and it gets my mind off things that's been going on during the week. I have meet some interesting people and have made a few friends. I'm not one for having a lot of friends so to interact with people on farm town is great for me. As far as farm town going down it does get aggravating sometimes, but I just figure they are doing updates when it happens. Then when it comes back on there are usually some great things they have added. Just be patient when it goes down because in the end we might get some more fun features.

Comment by Gina — August 1, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
Playing game is not a waste of time when you play it with your friends, specialy if you can meet new friends. In the end making friends is not a waste of time.

Comment by dlysen — September 6, 2009 @ 4:59 am
It is down again as of 12:15 AM EDST 9/17/09

Comment by John — September 16, 2009 @ 8:23 pm
my farm town is still only lo0ading 100% why is this

Comment by joanne mcbride — October 5, 2009 @ 3:54 am
I havent been able to get onto Farm Town in 3 days. Do I get compensated for the crops I have lost and the coins I have not been able to get by working? This is stupid … this should have been resolved days ago. All applications for games in Zynga haven't been working what is going on?

Comment by Annie St. Jean — October 7, 2009 @ 6:14 am
Farm Town is down this morning, first time i ran into this since I joint in April..Level 34 now. It's the best game in its platform, the realism is unique the interaction is awesome, and the things that WE do in Farmtown..can not be done anywhere else!! that's a fact.

and by the way …

ZYNGA is farm-Ville not farmtown Slashkey runs Farmtown

Just saying lol

Comment by katrina — October 16, 2009 @ 2:45 am
I don't whats going on with facebook, is shuting down again. Something is going on. I like to play farmtown, but fb takes me out of the game, please try to resolve this problem, know one can access the site.

Comment by Lorena — November 26, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
planted sunflowers a week ago took my money and all but field didn't show anything now I can't harvest or plow or anything don't know what happened anyone with any ideas?all I can do is harvest my trees somebody help

Comment by timothy weber — December 6, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
please someone help me i havent been able to be on farm town for over a month thought it was my old computer so i went and got a new laptop and still cant get it to load i even loaded new flash player and still not working i have worked so hard on my farm and really enjoyed it any help getting me back on it would be greatly appreciated i have three kkids and a disabled husband so i dont get tomuch time to myself and in my free time i loved farmtown it might sound cazy but it was my escape from reality so please help me get back on it any help would be most greatly appreciated….lol im a farm town junkie

Comment by heather brown — December 11, 2009 @ 4:28 am
i would like to join farmtown

Comment by jamya coleman — January 7, 2010 @ 1:19 pm
My friend got me started on Farm Town and I've been playing for a week now. I even got my husband hooked on the game. This moring we are not able to get on it. What's going on? We're suffering from withdrawal already. Help!

Comment by julie schmidt — January 27, 2010 @ 6:53 am
Every other day lately I can not get to my site. I am at 24. Like the game have worked hard to get where I am. Wish I could play this farm. I reset the thing it takes it then next time it will not take the login I copy and paste.

thank you

Comment by Edith Marie David — February 8, 2010 @ 8:23 am
I have lost my farmtown application and I cannot download it for i just come back to my homepage. Please help I miss playing I hope I haven't lost all the work I have done here. Very upset..

Comment by carol — February 21, 2010 @ 10:21 pm
I have lost farm town and farm ville application I just get page you request not found any body what happend

Comment by chente — February 23, 2010 @ 6:57 am
my farm will not download ive not got to play farmtown on face book for 3 months please help me ive tryed everthing to play

Comment by gwen pryor — June 26, 2010 @ 5:52 am
what is up with farmtown i have not been able to get on it last night or this morning, right now i am helping my daughter and grand-daughter out as they computer is down whats up

Comment by sharon — July 10, 2010 @ 5:34 am
whhat is going on with farmtown i want to play i need it!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by marie — November 29, 2010 @ 2:19 pm
i have not be able to get on farm town for a week and i have been doing farm town since it first began i am gutted as i have 5 farms and farm ville any one can help me pls ,

Comment by karenray — April 25, 2011 @ 3:54 am
help pls not been able to get on farm town for a week i have 5 farms and worked realy hard , is there some thing wrong with my computer,

Comment by karen ray — April 25, 2011 @ 3:58 am

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I had a very difficult time with the outage. I spent all 3 hours on the FT forum at farmtown.com. Very disturbing. I mean, the uncertainty was the worst part. Also I had crops to harvest and all day at work I’d been eagerly excited about the Farm House I could finance after my big harvest that night. I stayed up until it came back up at around 1am. I had to be at my desk at work at 8am, so it was a stretch. I didn’t even have time to replant my crops so I’m now an entire day behind. My field could be growing right now, but its just harvested is all. I called all my friends, especially my sister, with the news. It was an interuption of my nightly ritual.

Comment by Melanie Wood — June 9, 2009 @ 3:10 pm

I didn't even notice Farmtown was down last night. But then, the way I play, I do all my "work" at once and then there's no need to go back till the next day when my crops are ready for harvest.

I would say I'm a fan with reservations. There are some really annoying quirks about the game which I assume should be easy to fix. The Avatar keeps getting in the way of my hoe/scythe so I can't plow/harvest without clicking several times in different spots, or going to a different plot all together. I wouldn't mind getting rid of the avatar completely when on my own farm. She constantly makes me wait for her to walk where I want to work. Also, why does the game force users to plant, hoe or harvest only one single plot at a time? I would love it if I could work an entire set of contiguous plots with the same tool or seed all in one or two clicks.

If anything is going to drive me away from this game, it will be the continual and boring job of planting, hoeing and harvesting one plot at a time.

Comment by Patti — June 9, 2009 @ 5:12 pm

I gave FarmTown a try a few weeks ago, but I don't see what all the fuss is about, let alone why it's so popular. Had it for a couple of days then removed it.

Comment by Stephen Moore — June 9, 2009 @ 10:27 pm

It was a bit upsetting when the whole thing crashed. Many of us were in the middle of planting, harvesting, or other farm activities. Because of the way it is setup some of us lost items we had 'purchased' or been 'gifted'. But, we all need to remember it is a game, and not real money either.

Patti- if you go to the FT forum, they have a spot for suggestions. Some of the new additions this week were from those suggestions.

Comment by AJ — June 10, 2009 @ 9:45 am

In reply to your comment that “sers can continue to waste time while playing the game” – Farm Town is not a waste of time. Watching Movies and Television is a waste of time. At least with Farm Town, the user is interacting with others. It’s a neat app.

Comment by Kathleen — July 2, 2009 @ 3:55 pm

FARM TOWN has been down now since last night. Even the SLASHKEY website is down. Anyone know what's going on?

I have been having other problems when the game was up: Not being able to be hired, and not being able to plow on other farms.

I've missed out on thousands of coins and XP points and my many e-mails to the developers have all gone unanswered.

Comment by Joe Joe — July 28, 2009 @ 9:54 am

I can't get to my FarmTown again

The webpage "l1.slashkey.com" cannot be found

DNS error occurred. Server cannot be found. The link may be broken.

am I doing something wrong? HELP!

Comment by Sharmen Tipton — July 28, 2009 @ 11:08 am

Is farm town down for good or what? It hasbeen down for at least 12 hours misschatting with my friends.

Comment by mary england — July 28, 2009 @ 11:43 am

it has been down for me too…I've oodles of coffee crops dying in the field.

This game is fun…is addictive, but has a lot of bugs.

Comment by K — July 28, 2009 @ 12:07 pm

I still cannot get into Farm Town today.

Comment by r avatar — July 28, 2009 @ 12:21 pm

Don`t think so have the same problem over her!

Comment by Lasse — July 28, 2009 @ 12:30 pm

I want my farm back. The game has been down all day. What's the problem?

Comment by LauraLea-July 29,200 — July 28, 2009 @ 8:21 pm

molly duckitt july 29th at 945am

been off since 4pm 28th july not good enough

Comment by mollyduckitt — July 29, 2009 @ 12:49 am

molly duckitt july29th

I still cannot get into farm town as the rest of my family
cant either

Comment by mollyduckitt — July 29, 2009 @ 4:46 am

I don't think farm town is a waste of time. I go to school four days a week, so on Sunday's I plant pumpkins or pineapples then I don't come back to it till Thursday night. I really enjoy playing the game and it gets my mind off things that's been going on during the week. I have meet some interesting people and have made a few friends. I'm not one for having a lot of friends so to interact with people on farm town is great for me. As far as farm town going down it does get aggravating sometimes, but I just figure they are doing updates when it happens. Then when it comes back on there are usually some great things they have added. Just be patient when it goes down because in the end we might get some more fun features.

Comment by Gina — August 1, 2009 @ 1:31 pm

Playing game is not a waste of time when you play it with your friends, specialy if you can meet new friends. In the end making friends is not a waste of time.

Comment by dlysen — September 6, 2009 @ 4:59 am

It is down again as of 12:15 AM EDST 9/17/09

Comment by John — September 16, 2009 @ 8:23 pm

my farm town is still only lo0ading 100% why is this

Comment by joanne mcbride — October 5, 2009 @ 3:54 am

I havent been able to get onto Farm Town in 3 days. Do I get compensated for the crops I have lost and the coins I have not been able to get by working? This is stupid … this should have been resolved days ago. All applications for games in Zynga haven't been working what is going on?

Comment by Annie St. Jean — October 7, 2009 @ 6:14 am

Farm Town is down this morning, first time i ran into this since I joint in April..Level 34 now. It's the best game in its platform, the realism is unique the interaction is awesome, and the things that WE do in Farmtown..can not be done anywhere else!! that's a fact.

and by the way …

ZYNGA is farm-Ville not farmtown Slashkey runs Farmtown

Just saying lol

Comment by katrina — October 16, 2009 @ 2:45 am

I don't whats going on with facebook, is shuting down again. Something is going on. I like to play farmtown, but fb takes me out of the game, please try to resolve this problem, know one can access the site.

Comment by Lorena — November 26, 2009 @ 5:54 pm

planted sunflowers a week ago took my money and all but field didn't show anything now I can't harvest or plow or anything don't know what happened anyone with any ideas?all I can do is harvest my trees somebody help

Comment by timothy weber — December 6, 2009 @ 12:29 pm

please someone help me i havent been able to be on farm town for over a month thought it was my old computer so i went and got a new laptop and still cant get it to load i even loaded new flash player and still not working i have worked so hard on my farm and really enjoyed it any help getting me back on it would be greatly appreciated i have three kkids and a disabled husband so i dont get tomuch time to myself and in my free time i loved farmtown it might sound cazy but it was my escape from reality so please help me get back on it any help would be most greatly appreciated….lol im a farm town junkie

Comment by heather brown — December 11, 2009 @ 4:28 am

i would like to join farmtown

Comment by jamya coleman — January 7, 2010 @ 1:19 pm

My friend got me started on Farm Town and I've been playing for a week now. I even got my husband hooked on the game. This moring we are not able to get on it. What's going on? We're suffering from withdrawal already. Help!

Comment by julie schmidt — January 27, 2010 @ 6:53 am

Every other day lately I can not get to my site. I am at 24. Like the game have worked hard to get where I am. Wish I could play this farm. I reset the thing it takes it then next time it will not take the login I copy and paste.

thank you

Comment by Edith Marie David — February 8, 2010 @ 8:23 am

I have lost my farmtown application and I cannot download it for i just come back to my homepage. Please help I miss playing I hope I haven't lost all the work I have done here. Very upset..

Comment by carol — February 21, 2010 @ 10:21 pm

I have lost farm town and farm ville application I just get page you request not found any body what happend

Comment by chente — February 23, 2010 @ 6:57 am

my farm will not download ive not got to play farmtown on face book for 3 months please help me ive tryed everthing to play

Comment by gwen pryor — June 26, 2010 @ 5:52 am

what is up with farmtown i have not been able to get on it last night or this morning, right now i am helping my daughter and grand-daughter out as they computer is down whats up

Comment by sharon — July 10, 2010 @ 5:34 am

whhat is going on with farmtown i want to play i need it!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by marie — November 29, 2010 @ 2:19 pm

i have not be able to get on farm town for a week and i have been doing farm town since it first began i am gutted as i have 5 farms and farm ville any one can help me pls ,

Comment by karenray — April 25, 2011 @ 3:54 am

help pls not been able to get on farm town for a week i have 5 farms and worked realy hard , is there some thing wrong with my computer,

Comment by karen ray — April 25, 2011 @ 3:58 am

Farm Town Goes Down And Users Go Wild

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Let your next job find you!

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Jobs of the Day

Digital Strategist

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