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How about the free users that are simply playing the games but aren't making them any money. I personally play Words with Friends, it's kind of fun and addictin

How about the free users that are simply playing the games but aren't making them any money. I personally play Words with Friends, it's kind of fun and addicting, but I use the free version of their app, I don't ever click their ads nor do I care to (and when I am on my home network those ad servers are blocked =)). I use resources in that they have to spend server time to keep track of my moves to send them to my opponents. Where is the win in that?

kevinh 15y ago
Ad networks generally pay mobile developers for impressions, not for clickthroughs, so you are making them money. I have to say that I'm very disappointed that you block ads. Certainly it wouldn't hurt to simply ignore the ads, given that you're using their service.
- X-Istence 15y ago
  I block ads because I hate being bombarded by random crap I am never going to consider buying. You can hate me for it (hell, I monetize some of my own sites with ads) but I really don't care. For a lot of services whose ads I block it is mainly because I am already paying a fee to get access and yet I still have to be bombarded with ads. Hulu is the worst offender in that department.
bermanoid 15y ago
The amount of money that you cost them for server time is negligible - when using WWF, you're sending a small handful of web requests for every move you make, at a very slow rate, and over the course of a day an average user of Hacker News probably puts more stress on these servers than a person does on Zynga's by using WWF. I'd guess that the expected monetary value of the increased engagement of your friends due to your presence more than makes up for the cost to provide the game to you, probably by a factor of 100 or more.
vladd 15y ago
Businesses cannot predict the future, so they must use probabilistic models, especially for budgeting. If you could build a magic crystal ball telling you if the following gamer who signs up is going to end up: a) spending $1000 in virtual currency over the next 3 years OR b) tell to his network of 20+ friends about the game OR c) use tons of resources, no payments and no promotion..., THEN lots of companies would be in your debt. The behavior that you described has been put into a basket by Zynga and mixed with the statistical behavior of average gamers in order to create their business model, where they assume that X millions of advertising and Y millions in R&D and SysOps bring Z millions in revenue, preferably with Z > X + Y. 90% of gamers are non-paying and probably do little in terms of word of mouth promotion, so they just pull these averages downwards. But, as long as, on average, Z > X + Y, everything is ok for Zynga. Because it's the only way in which they can operate without a crystal ball.

kevinh 15y ago

Ad networks generally pay mobile developers for impressions, not for clickthroughs, so you are making them money. I have to say that I'm very disappointed that you block ads. Certainly it wouldn't hurt to simply ignore the ads, given that you're using their service.

X-Istence 15y ago
I block ads because I hate being bombarded by random crap I am never going to consider buying. You can hate me for it (hell, I monetize some of my own sites with ads) but I really don't care. For a lot of services whose ads I block it is mainly because I am already paying a fee to get access and yet I still have to be bombarded with ads. Hulu is the worst offender in that department.

bermanoid 15y ago

The amount of money that you cost them for server time is negligible - when using WWF, you're sending a small handful of web requests for every move you make, at a very slow rate, and over the course of a day an average user of Hacker News probably puts more stress on these servers than a person does on Zynga's by using WWF. I'd guess that the expected monetary value of the increased engagement of your friends due to your presence more than makes up for the cost to provide the game to you, probably by a factor of 100 or more.

vladd 15y ago

Businesses cannot predict the future, so they must use probabilistic models, especially for budgeting. If you could build a magic crystal ball telling you if the following gamer who signs up is going to end up: a) spending $1000 in virtual currency over the next 3 years OR b) tell to his network of 20+ friends about the game OR c) use tons of resources, no payments and no promotion..., THEN lots of companies would be in your debt. The behavior that you described has been put into a basket by Zynga and mixed with the statistical behavior of average gamers in order to create their business model, where they assume that X millions of advertising and Y millions in R&D and SysOps bring Z millions in revenue, preferably with Z > X + Y. 90% of gamers are non-paying and probably do little in terms of word of mouth promotion, so they just pull these averages downwards. But, as long as, on average, Z > X + Y, everything is ok for Zynga. Because it's the only way in which they can operate without a crystal ball.