I used to loathe games like Farmville, Mafia Wars and the like when they were huge on Facebook. I would give my wife a ton of crap for playing games like this because a) they required too much effort from friends and b) you had to wait hours, or even days just for something to happen in the game to help you advance.

The premise makes sense. By making stuff take forever or requiring additional help game developers can minimize story development while creating long lasting game play.

Recently I became the owner of an iPad and with that came my sudden desire for tablet gaming.  I don’t have a lot of money to throw around so I stay away from the paid games, so many of the free games I started playing fell into similar realms with the Facebook games I loathed. A few in particular are Monster Life, Happy Street and The Simpsons Tapped Out.  Monster Life and Happy Street I can get away with ignoring if need be, but I still reach a point where I can’t really do anything until something populates and 20 minutes or more passes.  The Simpsons on the other hand are a whole other story. On multiple occasions now I have needed Cletus to grow a crop, which takes something like 7 or 8 hours and when I return the crop is dead.

Needless to say its frustrating.  What happened to the days where games had a plot?  Imagine if in Super Mario Bros. you reached the castle and Toad told you you had to come back in a half hour to save the princess?