Listeners will recall my “shout-out” to a friend and neighbour, “Big Mike” of Bowling Green, Kentucky. In case you missed it, you can listen to the second pilot episode and hear a little about Big Mikes’ farming style.

Always one to keep it simple and moving steadily forward, Big Mike has been plowing and planting his farm, “The Industry” each evening while keeping his eye out for any “noobies” that might need a little help getting started with their own Farm Town farm. I was lucky enough to be one of those noobies on the evening when he hired me to come and work at The Industry.

After letting me harvest his onion fields which took up around 1/3 of his entire farm, I had enough coin to plant whatever seed I wanted at the time and buy some fence for my animals. Okay, no big deal right? It is just a game after all. That is what I would likely be thinking if I was new to the game or playing only for Farm Town Cash, experience points, and to reach new levels. In fact, if it were those things that were all that was to my initial interaction with Michael, I doubt I would remember much if anything at all about that evening.

After harvesting and some polite chit-chat, Big Mike added me to his Buddy List and I went on my merry way. It might have been the next evening, or a couple evenings later that Big Mike popped onto my little 12×12 farm and asked if I would like to do some more harvesting for him. He also told me that he had a “real life” friend that plays Farm Town and that he would like to introduce us. This way and that way, I found myself on another big farm with a brand new buddy, “TATER HEAD” (Jamie H.).

Big Mike and Jamie were 2 of my first 8 neighbors and Kelleelyn and I have both had lots of fun farming and goofing around with each of them. During my first harvest for Jamie, he introduced me to another gent, “Gary” who also has a ton of Farm Town talent. Gary and I shared the harvest on TATERS’ farm and we all made polite chit-chat until the fields were picked clean.

It was neither Big Mike, Jamie, or Gary that caused me to become such a Farm Town fan. My passion for the game and desire to make my little contribution as a Beta Tester grew from the sense of community formed by these and several others while spending a little of their time online together as virtual neighbors, tending to each others virtual farms, and helping other noobies “find their game.”

Without jumping too far off topic here, somewhere between meeting Big Mike and Jamie I became buddies, then neighbors with Whats Her Name and her husband Goober. Soon I was their virtual neighbor along with Teri, “Goobers MAH.”  While harvesting one evening for Teri, I became buddies with Tina. Today, Tina and her new husband David are also my neighbors. These connections are what sparked the idea for my Farm Town Weekly catch-phrase, “Planting Community and Harvesting Friendships.”

The way I see it, in order to build community, you must first plow a space in which it can grow. Although I have plenty of good neighbors in my Farm Town, I still to this day go to the Farmers Market on occasion to look for a noobie to help them get started.

Who knows, maybe the next new farmer I hire at the Market will eventually become a Green Wizard just like Big Mike did this evening. “Oh, did I fail to mention that?” Excuse me for drifting through memories as I do have the honor of delivering the news to our little virtual community here that indeed, Big Mike of Bowling Green, Kentucky hit level 34 this very evening.

Michael is my first and only neighbor to have achieved the Green Wizard status so far. Our Chairman of the Board, Ms. Kelleelyn and good neighbor, TATER HEAD were on the scene at The Industry to cheer for Big Mike and share his excitement. Congratulations Michael!!!

I was not online for that big moment but no worries, the celebration continues because I get to give Big Mike something that Farm Town could not deliver in honor of his achievement.

Big Mike, for your achievement of reaching level 34, Green Wizard I would like to offer my congratulations along with this request that you accept a virtual seat here on the Board of Directors of Farm Town Weekly. As a result of reaching this achievement within our community, and by accepting your seat here, you will go down in Farm Town Weekly history as the first and only so far to have reach this status. Only those that follow you in reaching Green Wizard status will ever be offered this honor.

I hope everyone will take some time away from farming this coming Monday evening at 7:30 Central for the first Live Episode of Farm Town Weekly. More details on exactly how to call into the show are coming soon.

Tags: Green Wizard, Level

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 10:44 pm and is filed under Farm Town News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.