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Can you say what product you are working on? How would you describe the game design philosophy for your team, or Zynga overall? I think when people say Zynga i
by andrewljohnson 14y ago
Can you say what product you are working on? How would you describe the game design philosophy for your team, or Zynga overall?
I think when people say Zynga is evil, they largely point to three things:
* spaminess of the games
* propensity to copy other products rather than come up with original ideas
* tuning of games to maximize revenues from individual players
Do you think these are fair judgments about Zynga's methods? Is Zynga more guilty of these tendencies than other gaming companies?
- Alex_r 14y agoAs a hardcore/indie gamer myself, I understand that a lot of hardcore gamers are turned away by Zynga. But I'm not Zynga's target audience, and that's okay. And there's a lot of sympathy for your point about the "spaminess." However, going from spammy/over-monetizing to evil has always seemed a tad dramatic to me.
- jlgreco 14y agoI think the leap from "spamminess" to "evil" is helped by those other two things he pointed out.
- krickle 14y agoThe games are designed to both get people addicted, and to get your friends involved by manipulating social gift reciprocity obligations. I think we'd have settled for "awful" up until the clawbacks, now we know the leadership at Zynga is sociopathic at best. Maybe not evil, but totally unscrupulous, totally unsympathetic.
- motoford 14y agoI think the reasons you list are why people really dislike Zynga, but those things alone are not enough to explain the pure hate people have for the company. The reason I think they are evil is the way they treat their employees, beginning with forcing developers to give back stock before their IPO. This latest stunt is just piling on.