4 ms·

Zynga, Where the Numbers Never Lie

48 points by curtis 12y ago

gabeio 12y ago
They really did become arrogant... they bought a whole other company just for one game, draw my thing(mobile), and then destroyed the website(omgpop.com, previously iminlikewithyou.com) which had multiple other long lived games that still had hundreds of users.
- spacehome 12y ago
  Hundreds of users? Not merely dozens? I can totally understand a company on Zynga's scale killing games that have tens of thousands of DAUs.
  - gabeio 12y ago
    Yes probably more than hundreds (but I have no idea), which is why they bought the company but most of the users at that time were centered around Draw My Thing. There were still two or three very active games on the main site though. Admittedly there were multiple nearly dead games and also games that you had to know to access...
    - arfliw 12y ago
      It's called Draw Something and omgpop was a tiny site when they shut it down. Something like Alexa 2 million. It had effectively no users. Every tech company does that to surplus assets in an acquisition because keeping them running would require more resources than they are worth and they'd be a distraction. Google killed several Slide games that were relatively big. Same reason.
spiritplumber 12y ago
We helped build the LED tunnel at Zynga's office entrance (that was objectively fun) and the Zynga guy basically treated us like day laborers, at one point even going "Look, I also am an engineer, except I make fifty times more than you" when he asked something that violated the conservation of energy. Eventually I had to ask Keith to do all the talking with the guy because I was this close to stuffing him in a server rack. I'll be happy when they go away.
- strathmeyer 12y ago
  I'm always curious at what point in dealing with Zygna and their allies we are supposed to pretend that they don't steal from other programmers or try to ruin the business. When speaking with them or other programmers about them I am always super polite but when there are facts that it are too taboo to bring up, we can form conclusions about the entire company.
  - spiritplumber 12y ago
    It didn't come up for us, we were doing a hardware project. What did come up was the fact that this one guy in particular somehow knew how to do our job (whether that be the metalwork, the electronics, the firmware...) better than us, about half a dozen times. I guess the sociopath attitude thrives in that environment.
    - fennecfoxen 12y ago
      Perhaps it does. My encounter with a small group of Zynga programmers happened on Caltrain a week or three after the little kerfluffle about RSU grants being cancelled (they had originally inquired about a game I'd been playing on the train). We had a bit of a conversation about the incident; their conclusion was pretty much "sucks to be them".
    - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
      People with egos and poor social skills abound in many tech companies, unfortunately. I think the sociopath label is applied too liberally, meaning you were probably dealing with a plain old asshole (real sociopaths have real social skills and make you like them so they can better manipulate you).
      - spiritplumber 12y ago
        Sociopaths try to manipulate you if they think they can get something out of it. If they think you're just beneath them, they revel in being asshats at you and knowing that there is nothing you can do about it. The measure of a man is making sure that you do something about it anyway.
ransom1538 12y ago
I was there hacking in the beginning. With the Eris S, roger dickey, neil, kenneth, etc. They entered into a market with free users and based their predictions on this. FB cut them off by limiting the virality. That was game over 2012. (Mobile ads cost money). Zynga is in deep shit. I mean deep shit.
ransom1538 12y ago
I was there hacking in the beginning. With the Eris S, roger dickey, neil, kenneth, etc. They entered into a market with free users and based their predictions on this. FB cut them off by limiting the virality. That was game over 2012. (Mobile ads cost money). Zynga is in deep shit. I mean deep shit.
Yhippa 12y ago
I found some videos on their Facebook page about Empires & Allies. It looks interesting. Almost like a 1:1 clone of C&C which is not surprising given Skaggs involvement. I will give it a shot when it's generally available but I predict it will have paywalls, timewalls, and encourage spammy messages to friends to proceed. Companies like Zynga I feel created a race to the bottom for mobile. There are some cool mobile games out there but most of the stuff on the Google Play Store are games specifically optimize to suck as much money out of your wallet as possible.
golergka 12y ago
Just a bunch of comments here, and seems like people didn't seem to read the article at all and just jumped to the traditional Zynga bashing. Which, considering what's the article is about, is very ironic.
Fizzadar 12y ago
Fascinating account on the rise and subsequent collapse of Zynga. Given what was said, and as the author pointed out, why the hell is Pincus back and Don out? Some very strange goings on over there... edit: it's nice to see them outputting something a little more interesting than Farmville :)

48 points by curtis 12y ago

They really did become arrogant... they bought a whole other company just for one game, draw my thing(mobile), and then destroyed the website(omgpop.com, previously iminlikewithyou.com) which had multiple other long lived games that still had hundreds of users.

spacehome 12y ago
Hundreds of users? Not merely dozens? I can totally understand a company on Zynga's scale killing games that have tens of thousands of DAUs.
- gabeio 12y ago
  Yes probably more than hundreds (but I have no idea), which is why they bought the company but most of the users at that time were centered around Draw My Thing. There were still two or three very active games on the main site though. Admittedly there were multiple nearly dead games and also games that you had to know to access...
  - arfliw 12y ago
    It's called Draw Something and omgpop was a tiny site when they shut it down. Something like Alexa 2 million. It had effectively no users. Every tech company does that to surplus assets in an acquisition because keeping them running would require more resources than they are worth and they'd be a distraction. Google killed several Slide games that were relatively big. Same reason.

spiritplumber 12y ago

We helped build the LED tunnel at Zynga's office entrance (that was objectively fun) and the Zynga guy basically treated us like day laborers, at one point even going "Look, I also am an engineer, except I make fifty times more than you" when he asked something that violated the conservation of energy. Eventually I had to ask Keith to do all the talking with the guy because I was this close to stuffing him in a server rack. I'll be happy when they go away.

strathmeyer 12y ago
I'm always curious at what point in dealing with Zygna and their allies we are supposed to pretend that they don't steal from other programmers or try to ruin the business. When speaking with them or other programmers about them I am always super polite but when there are facts that it are too taboo to bring up, we can form conclusions about the entire company.
- spiritplumber 12y ago
  It didn't come up for us, we were doing a hardware project. What did come up was the fact that this one guy in particular somehow knew how to do our job (whether that be the metalwork, the electronics, the firmware...) better than us, about half a dozen times. I guess the sociopath attitude thrives in that environment.
  - fennecfoxen 12y ago
    Perhaps it does. My encounter with a small group of Zynga programmers happened on Caltrain a week or three after the little kerfluffle about RSU grants being cancelled (they had originally inquired about a game I'd been playing on the train). We had a bit of a conversation about the incident; their conclusion was pretty much "sucks to be them".
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    People with egos and poor social skills abound in many tech companies, unfortunately. I think the sociopath label is applied too liberally, meaning you were probably dealing with a plain old asshole (real sociopaths have real social skills and make you like them so they can better manipulate you).
    - spiritplumber 12y ago
      Sociopaths try to manipulate you if they think they can get something out of it. If they think you're just beneath them, they revel in being asshats at you and knowing that there is nothing you can do about it. The measure of a man is making sure that you do something about it anyway.

ransom1538 12y ago

I was there hacking in the beginning. With the Eris S, roger dickey, neil, kenneth, etc. They entered into a market with free users and based their predictions on this. FB cut them off by limiting the virality. That was game over 2012. (Mobile ads cost money). Zynga is in deep shit. I mean deep shit.

ransom1538 12y ago

Yhippa 12y ago

I found some videos on their Facebook page about Empires & Allies. It looks interesting. Almost like a 1:1 clone of C&C which is not surprising given Skaggs involvement. I will give it a shot when it's generally available but I predict it will have paywalls, timewalls, and encourage spammy messages to friends to proceed. Companies like Zynga I feel created a race to the bottom for mobile. There are some cool mobile games out there but most of the stuff on the Google Play Store are games specifically optimize to suck as much money out of your wallet as possible.

golergka 12y ago

Just a bunch of comments here, and seems like people didn't seem to read the article at all and just jumped to the traditional Zynga bashing. Which, considering what's the article is about, is very ironic.

Fizzadar 12y ago

Fascinating account on the rise and subsequent collapse of Zynga. Given what was said, and as the author pointed out, why the hell is Pincus back and Don out? Some very strange goings on over there... edit: it's nice to see them outputting something a little more interesting than Farmville :)