Bulgarian Sets 'Fake' Guinness Record as '1st Public Official Fired for Playing FarmVille'

Dimitar Kerin, a Plovdiv councilor from the nationalist party Ataka, is pictured here playing Farmville on Facebook during a City Council session. Photo by Darik Plovdiv

Dimitar Kerin, the Farmville-addict Bulgarian city councilor of whom Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) reported in March 2011, has made it "undeservedly" to the Guinness Book of world records as "The First Public Official Fired for Playing Farmville."

Kerin, who as a member of the City Council in Bulgaria's Plovdiv was punished in the spring of 2010 for playing Farmville during an important budget debate, has been listed in the recently released Guinness World Records 2011 Gamer's Edition book.

A publication of Wired.com lists him as one of the "10 Guinness Gaming Records You Didn't Know Existed".

However, the information of the Guinness book appears to be wrong as Kerin did not in fact "lose his job" as an elected city councilor.

He was removed from the municipal committee that he was serving on; however, his removal from the committee was only temporary and he was restored shortly thereafter since it turned out that his ousting needed the support of a two-thirds majority of the votes to materialize, i.e. 26 votes out of 39, while only 20 councilors voted in favor of the motion and the other 19 abstained.

"How he won: By playing FarmVille during government discussions. Kerin, who was part of the Plovdiv (Bulgaria) Municipal Committee, lost his job (and won this record) by "using council-owned laptops to 'milk virtual cows' during important meetings," according to Guinness. The committee immediately voted to give him the boot," says the article of Wired.com.

The other nine participants mentioned together with Kerin's case by Wired.com are the First Game to Have an Officially Recognized Day, the Longest Survival on a 6-Star Wanted Level in Grand Theft Auto IV, the Most Lines of Commentary in an NFL Videogame, the Largest Collection of Pok?mon Memorabilia, the First Facebook Game to Cause a Lawsuit, the Most "F" Words in a Videogame, the Most Prolific Cooking Mama Record-Breaker, the Widest Variety of Player-Death Animations, the Most Expensive Virtual Property.

The other nine participants mentioned together with Kerin's case by Wired.com are the First Game to Have an Officially Recognized Day, the Longest Survival on a 6-Star Wanted Level in Grand Theft Auto IV, the Most Lines of Commentary in an NFL Videogame, the Largest Collection of Pok?mon Memorabilia, the First Facebook Game to Cause a Lawsuit, the Most "F" Words in a Videogame, the Most Prolific Cooking Mama Record-Breaker, the Widest Variety of Player-Death Animations, the Most Expensive Virtual Property.

Novnite.com (Sofia News Agency) reminds that a scandal has erupted in the City Council of Bulgaria's Plovdiv in March 2010 as several councilors have been caught milking virtual cows on the Facebook application Farmville.

The discovery was made by the Chair of the Council, Ilko Iliev, who reacted strongly scolding the eager Internet farmers. However, his reaction was to no avail, as the dedicated councilors continued developing their Facebook farms during the City Council meetings.

They were aided in this laudable endeavor by the wireless Internet network established as part of a recent all-out repair of the City Hall building worth BGN 2 M. The Plovdiv Municipality also recently purchased powerful brand-new laptops for all its 51 councilors.

However, the real scandal erupted when the most persistent Farmville enthusiast, Dimitar Kerin from the nationalist party Ataka, was voted out of the committee he was part of because of his Facebook addiction.

The proposal to remove Kerin from his respective municipal committee came from Todor Hristov, a former member of Kerin's party, who has argued that Kerin "needs more time for his virtual farm."

Thus, Kerin was removed from his committee with 20 votes in favor and 19 votes against; as a result, he has lost the additional pay he received as a member of a municipal committee.

The troubled councilor, Dimitar Kerin, has defended himself by saying he was not the only one in the City Hall watering virtual egg plants. He said he had reached only Level 40, whereas Daniela Zhelyazkova, a councilor from the rightist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party, was already at Level 46.

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