Poll: Should Zynga be allowed to participate in March Madness this year?

[Irridium]

This is kinda related, but I was apparently away from the escapist for the entire month of march, I knew march madness existed, but I guess I ignored it.
I had no idea that /b/ came and "helped out".
Exactly what happened, it sounds like it was pretty chaotic, something about mutilated children? That happened?

Yep. They posted shit-tons of gore. Twice. And at first voted for Zynga.

T'was quite chaotic indeed.

OT: Meh, whatever. I'd prefer not, but thats only because all the traffic they brought it brought most of the site down.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

This is kinda related, but I was apparently away from the escapist for the entire month of march, I knew march madness existed, but I guess I ignored it.
I had no idea that /b/ came and "helped out".
Exactly what happened, it sounds like it was pretty chaotic, something about mutilated children? That happened?

Some people were actually caring and voted, others trolled the threads and posted pictures from a morgue. It got to the point where they threatened to attack the site if Zynga got to the finals. Thank god Steam stepped in and got the word out.

 

[SeanTheSheep]

Zynga, makers of Farmville

There isnt a single element of gaming in that. Games are distractions and entertainments,

Farmville uses the same methods to keep people playing.
Namely the Skinner Box, which Extra Credits did an episode on not so long after they arrived here, so I'd advise you to look that up, it's an interesting concept that works really well on the people that play each game.
As for the "distractions and entertainments" part, Farmville is a distraction, and it entertains millions of people. I'm not exaggerating there, millions of people play Farmville and are entertained by it.

OT: Personally, I hate Zynga and its games, but that doesn't mean it should be locked out. Yes, they got their fans to come and vote, many other developers did too.
Zynga is still a game developer, and as such have a right to be considered for the bracket of 64

 

[viranimus]

/shudder

I am reminded by GameFAQs game of the decade competition that had No representation in its final for games such as Portal, WoW, Halo, CoD:Insert initialisim here, Bioshock, representation from bioware, or anything that had any sort of realistic reason to be classified as game of the decade worthy and was instead dominated by Nintendo. The company who has spent the last decade recreating the same set of games repeatedly and has been panned for it.

I do find it difficult to consider zynga a game developer because there really is no game aspect to what they produce. They seem more along the lines of simulators than games. Not trying to diminish them, but they really dont seem like a game developer. But honestly given that the precedent was set in the past that they have been considered as a game developer, then honestly I see no reason why they should be disqualified from competing again. Everyone has different opinions and tastes, so I think its logical to allow it to be representative of such a wide variety of flavors.

 

[Internet Kraken]

I notice a distinct lack of a neutral option.

I honestly don't care if Zynga gets in or not. After 2 years of March Mayhem I've learned it's best to just ignore it. Besides, Minecraft is going to win due to the ridiculous cult obsession this website has for it anyways so it's not like it matters if Zynga gets in.

Whatever the decision, let's not call 4Chan in again.

Maybe the mods learned their lesson, or maybe they're masochistic, but quite frankly, I don't want to see dismembered children all over the forums again.

For that one reason, I would say "no", but I'd have to kick out Turbine for the same reason (both companies actively whip their fanbases into a frenzy).

Nobody here called 4chan in. They just decided to troll this website because it's pathetically easy, and what better time than what basically boils down to a fanboy flame war?

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

While I certainly don't believe that only big budget developers should be able to compete, I think that we should uphold a certain standard of quality of development in the March Madness, which Zynga frankly does not meet.

Furthermore, in Zynga's place, I think that this year Cleril Calamity Studios should be a contestant. It would be interesting to see one our own's studio be in the competition, and, while the games are not high production value, they are quite well crafted. Certainly better crafted than those of Zynga.

 

[Vykrel]

dude... Zynga shouldnt even be allowed to participate in video game development.

horrible company, honestly.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

Doesn't matter, the Valve Fanboys already on this site far outnumber the new accounts made my zynga hordes.

 

[zehydra]

Zynga is a company that doesn't care about making games. It only cares about making money, and it noticed that you can make a lot of money with little facebook games. They have zero respect for gamers, the gaming industry and intellectual property. There is no reason we should acknowledge them as a legitimate game company.

 

[OldAccount]

People still play Farmville? I thought that fad died.

 

[Yvl9921]

I notice a distinct lack of a neutral option.

Just don't vote if you don't have an opinion.

/shudder

I do find it difficult to consider zynga a game developer because there really is no game aspect to what they produce. They seem more along the lines of simulators than games. Not trying to diminish them, but they really dont seem like a game developer. But honestly given that the precedent was set in the past that they have been considered as a game developer, then honestly I see no reason why they should be disqualified from competing again. Everyone has different opinions and tastes, so I think its logical to allow it to be representative of such a wide variety of flavors.

Should Maxis not be allowed to enter then?

I totally agree with everyone saying that devs shouldnt be able to call in reinforcements, by the way. I wasn't aware that was the reason why Turbine won in 2009, I only showed up here as it was winding down and didn't pay much attention.

That is not why Turbine won two years in a row. Turbine won two years in a row because the fans posted links and encouraged voting, both in the forums and in game.

All the devs did announce it in their respective forums. And The Escapist mods came right out and said that they were thrilled for any announcements and promotion that the devs made anyway.

Sour grapes are so sour...

I stand corrected then.

 

[SkyeNeko]

My opinions:
1.) Yes they should be allowed
2.) No they are not a 'game' company. Theyre running an add on for a social network >>
3.) Yes /b/ should be allowed to come and act just like Zynga did.

Dude, are there even ANY Zynga fans on this site???

 

[Radelaide]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
No matter how many fanboys say they shouldn't be in it, they are a legitimate game company. Last year's tourney saw an unfortunate flow of hypocrisy because Zynga encouraged their player base to vote, which ALL OF THE COMPANIES DO IN SOME FORM.

Pretty much this. They may be one of the worst companies in the business (for their admitted fraudulent activities), they're still a legitimate company who have a user base of several million. Your question could also be, "Should Valve/Bioware/someothercompany inc be allowed to participate in March Mayhem this year?"

All the companies involved encouraged their users to vote, Zynga just has... more. You'll live.

Whatever the decision, let's not call 4Chan in again.

Maybe the mods learned their lesson, or maybe they're masochistic, but quite frankly, I don't want to see dismembered children all over the forums again.

This is wrong on so many levels. What makes you think the mods had a lesson to learn? As an IRC mod who got called in to deal with all the traffic that 4Chan crashing the servers and taking some stress off the forum mods so they could deal with the raid, I think they did a good job. 4Chan got called in because someone took the voting too seriously. It's the internet you guys, stop taking it so seriously.

 

[AvsJoe]

Underhanded tactics or not, Zynga is a legitimate gaming company and should not be barred from March Madness. They should definitely be ranked higher than 7th this year, though.

 

[brunothepig]

I see no reason why not...
However, I do think the facebook integration should be removed. It's true Zynga went further with the spamming than any other developer, not to mention reports of being massive sore losers...
But otherwise, hey, maybe we will learn from last year and just totally outvote Zynga in the first round. COME ON PEOPLE! BAND TOGETHER!