OPERATING a successful farm is a notion that is thriving in the virtual world. Some 20 million people check into FarmVille daily to plow pretend fields or buy, plant and harvest crops on online farms.
A FarmVille farm that represents the real, organic Cascadian Farm, which is a unit of General Mills, in Washington State.
Now Zynga Game Network, the social network game’s creator, is linking FarmVille’s vast pool of players to retailers as diverse as 7-Eleven stores and the organic food company Cascadian Farm.
Users — who play for fun, camaraderie and friendly competition — reach FarmVille through a Facebook account. They can play free, but they can also spend real money to buy virtual goods, like a faster-growing crop or gifts to entice online friends to become neighbors, who are needed to expand their farms.
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