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Ex-zyngite here. To your questions above, my opinions. I'm no expert, just have some experience there. 1) The massive staff is due to massive success initial

Ex-zyngite here. To your questions above, my opinions. I'm no expert, just have some experience there. 1) The massive staff is due to massive success initially, then massive management mistakes continually, from the top down the chain. That's not to say there aren't great people fighting the good fight; There are many intelligent and capable people, but there's also a great deal misalignment of interests throughout the organization. 2) I think most of the games are pretty lame as well. I don't understand why Zynga customers pay for the games in most cases, but they do. Millions of them do. Zynga is very good at catering to their audience and giving them what they want but... 2.5) Typically what happens is a studio will operate trying to make the most profit in the shortest time, burning out its users with cheap grabs because that's what the higher ups demand. A lot of people in the trenches love games, and want to make great games, but get mired in the moment and vague demands from on high. I don't think social games are a fundamentally flawed model. Some of Zynga's own games had massive retention and monetization per user, but didn't scale. I think it's an equation no one has fully down yet.

wpietri 13y ago
Hey, you can answer something I've been wondering about. What portion of people at Zynga genuinely like the games they're making, and what fraction think they're terrible? I ask because one writer in Hollywood mentioned that she was surprised to discover that the people in charge actually like the dreck they shovel out. Her theory was that having real taste in Hollywood was a handicap to career advancement. I was wondering if Zynga was the same way.
- alexmorse 13y ago
  I worked closely with 3 studios, pretty closely with maybe 5 total. A studio tends to be about 50 people, maybe as big as a hundred. In those, there were many people that liked their job. By job I mean, the challenges, the scale, and environment. I only met a handful that were jazzed up about the game they were working on... and that was usually the most heartbreaking, because they just never had an opportunity to change things for the better as far as game design, or the art. There are two specific people I know as exceptions, that are tenacious as hell, and made concessions only when absolutely necessary. Total respect for them, but they're still pretty beaten down and discouraged. Intermittently, a lot of people got excited about games. Overall a lot of people derided the games they were making, a lot of the time.
yesplorer 13y ago
Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it. However, I also don't think social games are a flawed model. Just that it's a model that I don't believe will survive on the public market and that's why I think they should have just stayed private.

wpietri 13y ago

Hey, you can answer something I've been wondering about. What portion of people at Zynga genuinely like the games they're making, and what fraction think they're terrible? I ask because one writer in Hollywood mentioned that she was surprised to discover that the people in charge actually like the dreck they shovel out. Her theory was that having real taste in Hollywood was a handicap to career advancement. I was wondering if Zynga was the same way.

alexmorse 13y ago
I worked closely with 3 studios, pretty closely with maybe 5 total. A studio tends to be about 50 people, maybe as big as a hundred. In those, there were many people that liked their job. By job I mean, the challenges, the scale, and environment. I only met a handful that were jazzed up about the game they were working on... and that was usually the most heartbreaking, because they just never had an opportunity to change things for the better as far as game design, or the art. There are two specific people I know as exceptions, that are tenacious as hell, and made concessions only when absolutely necessary. Total respect for them, but they're still pretty beaten down and discouraged. Intermittently, a lot of people got excited about games. Overall a lot of people derided the games they were making, a lot of the time.

yesplorer 13y ago

Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it. However, I also don't think social games are a flawed model. Just that it's a model that I don't believe will survive on the public market and that's why I think they should have just stayed private.