7 ms·
Zynga is a company that makes online games. And people often criticize Zynga for making games (online games, Flash games, Facebook games, casual games, etc.)
by pud 14y ago
Zynga is a company that makes online games. And people often criticize Zynga for making games (online games, Flash games, Facebook games, casual games, etc.)
- czhiddy 14y agoI think most of the criticism is about how Zynga is completely devoid of creativity and originality. They're the software equivalent of Chinese shanzhai electronics manufacturers.
- Karunamon 14y agoCalling the software that Zynga makes a "game" is insulting to real games. Zynga's are usually different skins on top of a number incrementing simulator (for example, anything with "ville" in the name), that happen to increase a little bit faster if you bug your friends (often and repeatedly) and have them increment their numbers too, and you can only increment your numbers so often - but more if you pay real cash money! There's usually no skill, no challenge, no fun, just a bald-faced hook into the effort/reward system in the mind. The closest thing Zynga has to real games are Bingo, Poker, and Words With Friends. I'm not even going to count that last one because they bought it from someone else.
- MartinCron 14y agoThank you. Glad to see that someone got my joke.
- jrockway 14y agoAll games can be boiled down to a one-phrase description. If you talk about real games, you can categorize them as "trick-taking" or "deck-building" and so on. The details are what make the games fun, not the basic mechanics. (Therefore, "increment a number" games could theoretically be fun. Though I personally find them more boring than watching paint dry. At least the paint eventually dries and you can move on to something else.)
- benihana 14y ago>Calling the software that Zynga makes a "game" is insulting to real games. No True Scotsman fallacy. Just because you don't think they're games doesn't make it fact. They make games, and people criticize them for it. The only thing your post did was help better prove OP's point.
- danilocampos 14y agoThey make crappy games and people criticize them for the crappiness, not the game part.
- Karunamon 14y ago>They make games, and people criticize them for it. First, Zynga is not criticized for making games, they're criticized for making Skinner boxes and passing them off as games. Quality, in other words. Second, just because you think they make games doesn't make it fact. Definition of a game per Google: A form of play or sport, esp. a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck. Zynga's "games" (with very few exceptions) lack any form of skill, strength, or luck. Push button, receive reward, pay us cash or spam your friends and you can push the button more often. That is literally all there is to most Zynga games. I'm not even engaging in hyperbole here! Compare with even the most grindtastic MMO's out there, even the most rehashed FPS or football franchise you can think of, and there's still a skill component that these wannabes can't grok.
- meepmorp 14y ago> Definition of a game per Google: > A form of play or sport, esp. a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck. Resorting to a dictionary definition to argue a point is nearly always a sign you've got a weak argument. But in this case, I want to point out the "esp." just after the first comma in the definition you cite. It means especially. In context, that means that games need not adhere to the conditions specified in the subordinate clause. Also, I swear Wittgenstein had something to say on this topic.
- 14y ago
- audiodude 14y agoI'm sorry but I have to disagree. My mom used to play some tropical island game. She told me that she loved hearing the waves crash as she "landed on her island". For her, that game was every bit as entertaining as Borderlands 2 is for some hardcore console gamer.
- marshray 14y agoWell, there's no way your data will be complete until you get your mom to do an in-depth review of Borderlands 2.
- zevyoura 14y agoDo you consider WoW a game?
- Karunamon 14y agoWoW still has a skill component. I did mention MMOs..
- rscale 14y agoI view Zynga roughly the same way I'd view a casino where nobody ever booked a win. The parallels are strong, right down to Hosts for Whales who blow $10k+ while playing. I'm happy to see them fail because I firmly believe they violate the tenet that entities should create more value than they capture.
- kaonashi 14y ago>And people often criticize Zynga for making games That's not why people criticize Zynga, and I think you probably know that.
- Aloisius 14y agoGames can be won. Zynga mostly makes toys.