Here's an idyllic scene: a hamlet where the sun always shines, crops always grow and your friends drop by to sweep your yard to the sound of guitar music. Animals do what they are told, there is no disease, and lendin' folks a helpin' hand makes you richer and wiser.
        这是一个田园诗般的景象：小村庄里，阳光永远普照，庄稼不断生长，朋友造访，伴着吉他乐曲打扫你家院子。动物们驯顺听话，没有疾病侵扰，助人为乐让你越来越富有，越来越聪明。

        "It reminds me of my childhood," says one player, Lia Curran, 37, a pharmacist from London. "Right now I'm growing wheat and poinsettia, I've got a small orchard, and I'm rearing some chickens and some cows. I like having the animals. It's soothing."
        “它让我想起了童年时代，”37岁的玩家莉娅·柯伦说。她是伦敦的一名药剂师。“我正在种植小麦和一品红，我有一个小果园，还养着一些鸡和奶牛。我喜欢饲养动物。它能抚慰人心。”

        Curran's fledgling herd, however, is nothing more than a collection of computer-generated cartoons. FarmVille is an online computer game built into the social networking site Facebook and is described by its players as "addictive". Launched last June by Zynga Game Network, FarmVille now has more players than Twitter's entire user base--or more than the population of the UK. The players are largely women over the age of 35.
        但是，柯伦刚刚饲养起来的动物只不过是一群电脑生成的卡通形象而已。FarmVille是一款内置于社交网站“脸谱”的网上电脑游戏，被玩家们形容为“让人上瘾”。

        FarmVille cunningly unites the worlds of social networking and gaming. Players are given a patch of ground with six fields, "cash", a few seeds and a plough and have to build up wealth, skills and neighbours to create bigger, better, richer farms.
        FarmVille巧妙地将社交网络和游戏世界结合在一起。玩家获得一片有六块田的土地、“现金”、几粒种子和一把犁杖，必须积累财富、技能，并网络邻居，来建设更大、更好、更富有的农场。

        Inviting your online friends to play means you earn more and get free gifts; you rise rapidly through the first levels but, once hooked, have to work harder and harder with no final level or goal in sight.
        如果邀请网友加入游戏，就可以赚到更多的钱并获取免费礼品；在初级阶段你会进步得很快，然而一旦着了迷，就必须加倍努力，要达到最高层级或终极目标却遥遥无期。

        "It's very moreish," says Curran. She hasn't yet paid real-world money to advance in the game, but her friends do. One buys extra virtual currency at the exchange rate of $240 (£145) in FarmVille for $40 (£24) in the real world.
        “真是让人欲罢不能，”柯伦说。她还没有为了游戏晋级花过钱，但她的朋友却花过。用现实世界的40美元（折合24英镑）可以购买FarmVille中240美元（折合145英镑）的虚拟货币。