Do you remember the Heartland Facebook Game?

Last week I asked Heartland fans to submit the questions you would like to ask the cast at an upcoming Virtual Fan Event and the result was amazing to say the least. Since last week's blog, almost 3,000 questions were submitted by fans from all over the world. Wow! There were questions sent in from fans in Canada, the US, Switzerland, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Belgium, the UK and the list goes on. Thank you, Heartland fans, for sending so much love from around the globe!

All that said, yesterday was the deadline to get your questions in and today I am taking on the huge task of reading them. Every. Single. One. Now, not all of the questions will get answered, but I will do my best to send as many as I can to Amber Marshall, Michelle Morgan and Shaun Johnston.  Be sure to tune in when the date is released and find out if your question gets answered! 

This week seemed to be a big one for Heartland throwbacks, and one for me in particular.  And, since today is "Throwback Thursday" I'd like to share with you.  

A friend of mine, who worked on Heartland in the past, shared a Facebook memory recently that sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole and I know that some of you would be interested, so I'm taking you with me!

Many years ago, around Season 6, there was a Heartland Facebook game called "Heartland Ranch". I don't know that all of you would remember it, but it was kind of like the popular game of the time, "Farmville". You could build your own ranch, upgrade the buildings, look after horses and share things with your friends. The game even picked up a "Best Drama" prize at the Social TV Awards in LA in 2012. Sadly, these kinds of games slowly faded in popularity as technology changed and Heartland Ranch was turned off a couple of years after. 

If you are interested in more info about it, the website by the company that developed the game is still out there. I, for one, spent many hours playing this game, as did a bunch of the CBC digital staff. This was part of the job at the time, so playing this game on the job was allowed. It was all for testing purposes. That said, there was a bit of friendly competition over who had the best ranch. 

I know I have a bunch of images from the game somewhere around here so, if I am able, I'll share some of the artwork in a future post in the blog or on the usual social media platforms. 

I also really loved this Throwback to Maggie's… before it was Maggie's!  Heartland Executive Producer Michael Weinberg shared this cool bit of history on his Instagram feed earlier this week and I thought it was definitely noteworthy. 

Speaking of Maggie's… Here's an overhead plan of Maggie's from Season 7 when the interactive experience, "Heartland Companion" came out.  This was our vision of Maggie's at the time.  Is this how you would have pictured it if you saw a floor plan?

Ok.  I think that's enough Throwback for one blog post.  I hope you liked it. Until next time, stay safe out there.