Old MacDonald Had a Facebook FarmVille ...

Everyday, 27 million farmers rise to plow virtual fields and harvest facsimile produce, sharing their bounty with their Facebook friends. They're the devotees of the Web game FarmVille, a simple, social game that has become popular with women. There have been 118 million downloads and 60 percent of the "labor" is being farmed out to women, according to CNN.com.

Video games have long been dominated by men, but Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, the San Francisco-based, Internet-gaming company launched in 2007, purposely created a diversion that can be played in short or long spurts while multitasking. The thing he didn't specifically plan on? FarmVille's popularity with females. To put it in perspective, 75 million people play FarmVille a month — roughly equal to the number of people who ever played Tetris — and 45 million of those are women.

"Farmers" plant and grow virtual crops that can be harvested hours or days later and invite their online friends to play. It's downright neighborly. Similarly, Zynga's other two top creations, FishVille, with 6 million daily players (60 percent of whom are female) and Cafe World, with 9.5 million players (70 percent of whom are female) have that same folksy feel where the emphasis is on cooking food or caring for fish — and always sharing with friends. But the goal isn't to become a virtual mobster, as in Zynga's Mafia Wars with 70 percent male players, or competitive winning like in Zynga Poker with 75 percent male players.

"A farm is something that is internationally understood and known. It's cross-cultural, cross-gender, cross-age," Pincus told CNN. "A great social game should be like a great cocktail party. If you want it to appeal to absolutely everyone you invite, it has to be broad in its content so that everyone gets it."

But perhaps there's something else here. Maybe the popularity of Zynga's top games with female players is because FarmVille, FishVille and Cafe World appeal specifically to the psychology of women, who hard hardwired to communicate, nurture and connect, while Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker appeal to men's competitive drive.

Regardless of gender, Pincus seems to have come up with something for most everyone's playful spirit, whether it's building a crime ring, pulling down straight royal flush, serving up burgers, offering to share fertilizer, or feeding the fish. The upshot here is that virtual gaming on social networks has become far more inclusive, and social, for everyone. Now be on the lookout for Zynga's newest game, which launched in December, targeting all those pet-lovers in cyberspace – PetVille!

FarmVille image by RJ Bailey via Flickr.