Zynga. What is going on?? Some thoughts and info.

Yoinked from Penny Arcade (credit: Dabe Alan)

So, more controversy has arisen regarding the activities of Zynga and their share price crashes as of late.

computerandvideogames.com have posted an article relating to an Investigation that is under way due to suspicious activity with share sales before the crash.

Kotaku seems to be the source post about this and has some interesting info.

Zynga have had a long string of successes in quick-fix-gaming using the Facebook social website as a delivery platform for these games. The games include the likes of Words with Friends, FarmVille, The Sims Social, Bubble Safari, the recent 'The Ville' and more. Their games have always been pretty big hits with the facebook community and I have played many of them over the last 3 years. I would gripe however, that their freemium pay model is highly flawed. I wonder if this is in fact something to do with their problems. Sure numbers are declining, but they still see in excess of 50 Million users every day across their games... There are companies with much smaller numbers that are flourishing.

And now I shall go into a rant about the Freemium system that Zynga implements...

One observation to make - look at the recently released Dragon City. It is a game that you can play with no pressure of spending money - it is addictive, fun, and for my wife and I, keeps us coming back for more. We have been tempted to get some in game currency, and for the cost of it, and its uses - it would not feel like a waste of money. Zynga's games however... You can spend a buttload of money for in game cash, which in turn gives very little return and is also inconsistent.

One example that shows this inconsistency is the game: Bubble Safari. One cash costs 10-15p depending on how much you buy, and you can spend as much as £70.00 in a single transaction. (seriously, thats twice the price of a newly released game!) This cash is then spent on boosts and power ups. The player can also buy gold (at about 10p for 100G) Gold is easy to earn in game, and cash comes in in dribs and drabs, or can be pried through friend-share, but takes time. So what now. We start a game! You are offered a selection of powerups for gold coin (cash equivalent for 6 extra bubbles? £2!! - and those bubbles are unlikely to push you to clearing the board or having enough bubbles left to get your score into the 1* region if you are struggling...) Next, as you are playng you can buy 5 bubbles for 2 cash. k... so lets do that... oh wait, I dont have enough cash, I need to pay real money. £1.48. What?! Thats the same price as nearly 15 cash... So... you fail the level and get to buy 10 bubbles to continue. this costs 4 cash, or again, £1.48. Completely inconsistent. I understand that it is a good point to try to milk the user of money - especially if they can see the end is in sight - but at the point you can buy 5 bubbles, you can also click 'buy cash' and bypass the charge window and use 20p worth of cash. I cant help but wonder if there is even a designer or tester on board for this :/

Its these levels of extortion that personally have stopped me playing their games. I wish I had access to the analytics info for the company. There are people out there with the disposable income to pay for these boosts at these levels, and if they have fun and dont mind paying, then why not? The value of money is only what we apply to it.

Perhaps I get a bit hot under the collar as I work for a company that looks up to Zynga as a role model and I want to develop a better freemium system, that does not suck the fun for a game, or forces the designers to create the game around eventually forcing the player to pay to continue - it should be that the players with the expendible income can use that disposable cash to improve the quality of their game. The normal user can struggle a bit, and invest time to advance instead.

Just my 2c. I think this is a huge factor in their collapse. They will get back on their feet, Im sure of it. The games are still being played, the money is still coming in - they just need to sell off assets or cut their outgoings (Which unfortunately means MORE job losses)

Feel free to add your own in the comments :-)

-V