Recently, I reconnected with an old friend, and it got me thinking about how I met her and how we became so close, despite never having met in person.
Let's go back to the days when Facebook had games that were played mainly by women. You added people to your FB so you could have neighbors for your games. You needed the free gifts from them to progress in your game.
Because I was unable to work due to health reasons and playing games kept my mind occupied to help relieve the pain I was in, I added a lot of ladies to my FB. Back then, none of my family members were on Facebook, except for my son, so adding strangers to play games with wasn't a weird thing.
Many of the games you played, you would never have to talk to anyone. You just needed them to send you the daily gift. There was Facebook's Messenger, but the laptop I had would freeze up if someone tried to message me, so they didn't unless it was something significant. I also did not have a cell phone at this time.
My Farm
The question then becomes, how did I get so close to people if they couldn't message me?
One of the games I started playing was called Farm Town. It was a simple game. You planted stuff. Hired people to come pick your stuff, so you made more money and decorated your farm with the extra in-game money you made.
The game's greatest feature was its inclusion of real-time messaging. I could type and play that game on my laptop without any lag. The kicker of the game was that you needed ten neighbors to hire people to come to your farm and plow.
I didn't know anyone else who played the game, so for a long while, I played alone and just enjoyed visiting other people's farms and working for them to see how they had decorated their farms.
Cheryle's Wedding Shower
It was during this time that I met my now friend of many years. She hired me to help on her farm, but her fields were not neatly arranged in rows. They were all over the place. I tried to keep my questions to myself as we talked while I worked at her farm.
Her farm was a wonder. She was building an ocean to fish in. It was so cool to look at, and I asked question after question about how she went about layering the water. She became one of my neighbors and a lifelong friend. Slowly, I met other people and finally got to ten neighbors.
I met people from all over the world and loved every minute of it. I had a birthday party at my farm, and we all had a blast trying to read what everyone was saying in the tiny chat box we all had.
There was no Discord or any other free platform where we could gather and chat on voice, but looking back, that was the key to all of us becoming so close. You had to be in the game and on the same farm to talk to someone. This meant you wanted to go visit your friends and see what they were up to. Did they need help? What cool thing did they make while you slept?
My Birthday Party
The game was simple yet offered the space and pace to relax and get to know people that you would meet.
My friend was getting married, and we had a bridal shower for her so that everyone from all over the globe could attend. It was a wonderful day, and one I think back on with a smile, recalling how much fun it all was.
Unfortunately, the game became larger. The game developers started making it so you had to spend real money on bigger machines. They added more layers to your farm, so if you went to visit, you could spend ten minutes jumping from layer to layer looking for them. Soon, you stopped looking because you didn't have the time.
It didn't take long before people stopped playing the game. It was too big, too time-consuming, and too stressful. Gone were the relaxing nights chatting with friends late into the night. You could not even get hired at other farms unless you had the new expensive machines, so meeting new people stopped happening too.
Anne's Birthday Party
It reminds me now of being new on the Blockchain. When you were new, you weren't on Discord, but you had conversations and met people in the comment section of posts. Most people did not wait twenty-four hours to get back to your comment. They answered right away, and the conversation could go on for hours in the comment section of some older posts.
I'm not saying Discord is bad, but it does have a way of keeping you off the Blockchain and reading posts and leaving comments.
Yet just like the old Farm Town game, the Blockchain wanted to grow to make more money, but by doing that, it separated everyone into too many parts.
While there is no leader on a decentralized blockchain, Witnesses are in charge of making sure our data is recorded. What the Witnesses need to remember is that if you take all the fun out of being here, people are free to leave, and they do because they now have too many layers on their farms to jump to.
You can build and grow, adding as many rooms as you want to a structure, but if you take out all the fun, those rooms will never stay full, no matter how many shiny parts you add. If the little people do not feel they are part of the whole, why would they want to help you make more money when they do not even know you?
Everyone is busy, big and little people alike. It might be time to revisit the Blockchain's roots and get to know who is truly here. You might be surprised.
If you are looking to get to know your Hive neighbors better, join in the Hive Community Activity #1 | Rock(s) by writing a post yourself or stop by the tag #hivecommunityactivity and see what your Hive neighbors found to write about! It's been fascinating to read the posts I have so far!
All photos are mine unless otherwise stated.
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