Farmville goes Gaga: Watch out for the sheep on motorcycles…

Adding yet another weapon to her arsenal in her drive to overwhelm the world, pop singer Lady Gaga has announced that she will be joining the popular Facebook social game FarmVille to promote her upcoming album.

In a press-release, FarmVille creators Zygna’s executive vice president of business, Owen Van Natta said, “We’re focused on creating cool new ways to entertain and surprise our players.” He continued, “Our partnership with Lady Gaga offers many new experiences: Exclusive access to music in-game, a mobile contest, a free album bundled with Zynga game card purchases and limited edition virtual items across ten Zynga games. We want to thank Lady Gaga for working with us on this truly great surprise.”

Gaga — if the dress made of meat or the title of her smash-hit single, “Born This Way” did not tip you off — must always be unique, and typically her add-on to FarmVille will have it’s own name: “GagaVille”.

On this “farm”, in keeping with her carefully constructed and flamboyant image, fans will find colorful crystals, magical unicorns, sheep on motorcycles, and as Zygna says, “if we can cram it in, some leather and glitter.”

In the continued drive to build frenetic fervour over Gaga’s latest album up until now, singles — such as the latest this week -– have been released one by one on YouTube. Singles from the album, also titled “Born This Way”, will now be however be making their world debuts in the game, beginning 17 May, when the game debuts, until 21 May when it will end.

Zygna explains that, beyond getting “exclusive” first listens to the albums, there will be other features to the game for fans of the Lady. Such features will include a “Words with Gaga” contest, where Zynga and Lady Gaga will reveal a new word each day that relates to the artist or her new album, prizes for which will include concert tickets and signed merchandising.

GagaVille is course, at the end of day, about making money.

Correspondingly, there will be “limited edition” and “exclusive” Lady Gaga virtual items on RewardVille, the add-on Zygna added on earlier this year in its drive to be less reliant on Facebook for business. Beyond that a download of “Born This Way” — redeemable May 23rd when the album is officially released — will be bundled as a free download with the purchase of special Zynga cards for in-game transactions, exclusively for Canadian and American “monsters” (Gaga’s moniker for her fans).

As Gaga put it, “I want to celebrate and share ‘Born This Way’ with my little monsters in a special way that’s never been done before… Zynga has created a magical place in FarmVille where my fans can come play, and be the first to listen to the album.”

Taking these developments into account, it becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss reports that the end of the world is not next year, but actually begins at the end of this month, two days before the album is released.