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Bulgarian Politicians Reprimanded Over 'FarmVille' Addiction

by Terrence O'Brien on March 31, 2010 at 09:50 AM

Bulgarian Politicians Repremanded Over 'FarmVille' Addiction
We knew that 'FarmVille' was popular, and potentially addictive, but we were always under the impression that it was bored stay-at-home parents and 13-year-old girls that were driving its popularity. We never imagined that the Facebook-based game would prove to be a major concern for the City Council of Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

A couple of weeks ago, several members of the council were found playing 'FarmVille' on their government-issued laptops, while they were supposed to be debating the city's annual budget. According to Novinite (a Bulgarian news site), council chair Ilko Iliev chastised the elected officials, but his scoldings seem to have had little effect. On March 18th, council member Dimitar Kerin was again discovered watering his virtual crops while in the chamber. He was promptly voted off the special committee on which he was then serving, and denied the bonus pay that appointment had awarded him.

According to Novinite, the only defense Kerin offered was to say that he was only at level 40, while fellow council member Daniela Zhelyazkova was already at level 46. We can only assume that Kerin was then told to stop being a tattletale, and forced to sit in timeout during recess. [From: Novinite, via: BoingBoing]

Tags: employment, facebook, facebookapps, FarmVille, funny, games, government, internetaddiction, socialnetworking, top

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