Taiwan Today

The social networking Web site Facebook’s application Happy Farm has recently exploded in popularity in Taiwan, with an overwhelming majority of the global community’s users of the game hailing from the island. Of the roughly 3.7 million gamers around the world who enjoy the game, about 3.2 million are residents of Taiwan. According to the latest tallies, about 3.85 million Taiwan Internet users have become members of Facebook. In other words, more than eight out of every 10 members on the island play the game. Happy Farm has become even more popular than the application developer, Hong Kong-based international Facebook platform startup 6 waves, had anticipated. The online game’s popularity has grown to such an extent that it frequently crashes because of the huge number of users rushing to log on to play at a given time, forcing addicts to often wait in agony for the opportunity to satisfy their craving. Chen Yao-tian, general manager of the Taiwanese online gaming firm Fun Town, said that prior to Facebook’s appearance on the scene, social interaction online was more difficult, with users having to form relationships with others one at a time. Facebook has fostered an active online community that has allowed netizens to now build friendships more easily, she added. With Happy Farm bursting on the scene, even government employees and police officers have gotten hooked on the game. The Central Personnel Administration under the Executive Yuan recently issued a memo to the various government departments requesting that civil servants be discouraged from visiting Web sites irrelevant to their work during work hours. The Council of Agriculture was the first to respond this week by blocking its employees’ access to Facebook and the application Happy Farm in the agency’s offices. Shih Jen-tsung, director of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ office of information management, pointed out that his ministry had even earlier blocked access to the popular sites Facebook, YouTube and MSN. So, he added, MOTC employees of course do not use the Internet for gaming during office hours. (SB)