Why all the Zynga hate?

[klaynexas3]

it's because casual gamers are trying to become the more mainstream gamer. if that happens, more companies will sell out or new companies will pop up and start making more of them. and the thing is, most of them are just the same thing with a new screen or title here or there. i and most of the escapist people don't want that. i have nothing against social games themselves, but when they try to become more than what they are, we could see some trouble. example: there has been a lot of zombie craze in the last decade, mostly in the few years. suddenly, when zombies are at the top, valve decides to make a zombie game. see, even the biggest and greatest of developers will sell out just to make a quick buck. if they lost to a social game company, how well do you think that might go over?

 

[robbaz]

I don't think facebooks brats "casual gamers" come here register and vote on zynga.

Hang on, is that also what zynga do? simple facebook apps?

 

[MercenaryCanary]

I started hating them when they made me give them money to get better at Mafia Wars.
That, and the games they make tend are to be repetitive as hell.
This is how my usual session of Mafia Wars went:
Click.
Click.
Click.
Done.
I eventually began to realize that I had done nothing at all, and felt no sense of accomplishment or thrill.
Fuck man, at least Runescape would let me kill things! I was actually involved somewhat!
But no, they have to make this browser game that does nothing at all.
It just seems to embody everything I hate about games at times these days when I play a Zynga game because the majority of the players are idiots, you can't do anything fun or exciting, and you now have to pay money on a few of their games just to upgrade your shops. I don't even have to bring up the malware thing that was talked about.

 

[R1k0Ch3T]

I'll be honest that I came here just because of the Valve v. Zynga thing, after a friend told me about Zynga beating all those other developers.

But still, I've been respectful, at least I think. It can be a little frustrating to see people voting so they can get a pink horse or somethin like that, but still. I'm sure almost all of us can agree that Valve's the better developer, no matter what a poll on some forums says.

Now that being said, I'm gonna stick around here. After seeing all the crazy shit going down in that 400+ page monstrosity, and then browsing the rest of the forums, I can tell this is a pretty rare event, and that the rest of the community is actually pretty cool.

 

[robbaz]

I think i also stick around here, a lot of thick people that vote for some odd flash developer ^^ for no apparent reason is fun enough.

 

[centauri2002]

Just because someone plays flash applications or nintendogs does not make them a gamer.

No, it doesn't make them a hardcore gamer. However, under a textbook definition, what Zynga makes counts as games, thus, those who play them regularly are gamers. It's just semantics.

Perhaps it is semantics but I consider someone a gamer if they play a variety of games (and I don't mean a variety of Zynga games as they're pretty much all the same anyway), whereas the majority of Zynga users haven't ventured outside of Farmville yet. So, therefore, they're Farmville players. If they say they've had a go at other games then, fine, they're a gamer.

But, then, I guess it's just the way you look at it.

A bit more on topic: For me, personally, I've never hated Zynga, and I hope none of my posts in the polls have ever implied that. I've tried to remain as level headed as possible. I'm more frustrated at how unbalanced the competition is. Yes, it may be a simple popularity competition and, yes, it's not supposed to be taken seriously but what's the point in any competition if there's no fairness in it. Of course, one competitor is always going to have some advantage of some sort over another but Zynga's is so blatant and so huge, there just doesn't seem to be any point in voting any more. It isn't about them advertising on their game pages, I don't mind that because anyone is allowed to do that, but it's the fact that their fans are able to log in and vote via their gaming platform - Facebook. Some have argued that any company could advertise the competition on Facebook but Zynga are the only developer in the competition to operate solely on Facebook, that's where they base their games so of course their fans are going to see the adverts and, because it's easy to vote for Facebook users, of course they're going to vote.

That's my only problem with Zynga in this competition. I know a lot of people have a problem with their past business practices as well and it's a valid point but it's not what's unbalancing the voting. I just don't see the point in a competition that isn't fun. Also, the spamming, lack of coherency in posts, and hate in the threads just takes any kind of enjoyment I could garner from the debates that have been going on in them as they just get buried, and mostly ignored.

This is my first March Madness so I'm not sure what the others were like, apart from bits and pieces I've heard (none good), but were they civil and enjoyable at any point? If not, then perhaps The Escapist should consider another event to bring in new users for next year.

 

[TheLefty]

Because they recruited an army of (picking words intelligently) uneducated people to vote for them which in turned [messed up] the brackets. On a site for hardcore gamers we need more strict rules as to what qualifies in the listing.

 

[Low Key]

I have nothing against Zynga. I used to play their poker game before I stopped going on myspace and facebook. I just feel the rules need to be modified because of their presence.

 

[dancinginfernal]

I don't hate Zynga, I just don't think they deserve the top position after Bioware made the masterpieces of ME2 and DA:O.

I mean really, if you think farmville beats that, you have mental issues.

 

[Snarky Username]

It's not Zynga hate, more or less, it's jut extreme Valve love.

Which is quite well earned because Valve is the best thing since sliced bread, or unsliced bread for that matter

 

[TwelveBaud]

I don't like Zynga for two reasons.

1. Extreme platform domination. I know of only two non-Zynga games that my friends use on a regular basis; most are too busy with *Ville and *World, because that's all their own friends use. Other companies are having problems entering the market because they can't compete with Zynga's cross-promotion, deeply-deployed userbase, and profits. Whether or not their games are good, those games are what people use, and anyone trying to compete with them or play non-Zynga Facebook games is a fool and a misfit, doomed to failure (company) / isolation (individual).

2. Near-mandatory recruitment. A lot of Zynga's games' gameplay is based around "Spam your friends with requests/gifts, get good things in return!" I've blocked many Zynga games from clogging up my news feed with "I found a lost Something! Help me find its owner!" and my requests page with "I want to give you a Something! Accept immediately so I can get an Otherthing!" However, I still can't see what my friends are actually doing in real life on their social network pages, because of whole pages' worth of Zynga game events. I want to know how they're feeling, what they're up to IRL, not how many acres their virtual, non-existant farm is.

The games themselves are good, for casual games, but there's no way I can make anything for Facebook now, because my friends will all go "Why are you wasting time with that when you could be helping me get a bigger pe-- aquarium?"

 

[Samcanuck]

I don't even know what zynga is...but if it relates to peggle, than its not all bad. These kinds of games are pretty much the only thing I can get my g.f to play with me.

 

[gigastrike]

It's not that I hate them, it's that they're beating all of these other developers that are held in such high regard. I really don't think that their games stack up to Valve's.

 

[Donald Linger]

Zynga sucks a$$ i like my hardcore game but i also played mafia wars on tagged facebook and myspace but they screwed us on tagged so i'm boycotting all there stupid game!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[JC175]

In response to the OP, I think PopCap are a fantastic developer. They make casual games but they do it well. Peggle was a bit too addictive and simple for my liking but Plants vs Zombies was awesome, it took a genre I've never really liked (Tower Defence) and made it fun and crazy.

The reason people don't like Zynga is because of a couple of things. Criticisms about "they don't make real games" aside (which I think is a crock of shit, personally), the main fault is that their games are bland, plagiarised, and operate in a similar way to a gambling addiction - if you don't log into Farmville every couple of days, all of your plants die and progress is lost.

Add to that the fact that the CEO admitted to scamming players of the corporation's games for additional profits and the fact that they're essentially dominating March Mayhem due to ignorance and yeah, it makes perfect sense that there's a lot of hate towards Zynga on these forums.

 

[Flack]

I think its a joke that they are even in the march madness.
Their tiny flash games may be fun for some people, and most of them are still beta, but they aren't anywhere near the same level as quality as every other developer in the march madness thingy.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Every year the Escapist paints the devil horns on someone and try the whole competition to stop there advances and fails. Last year it was turbine, this year it is Zynga. Next year it will be someone else. Sadly, Turbine has been turned away by rampant hate and Zynga will probably do the same.

 

[Pearwood]

If you enjoy Zynga's games more than anyone else's then from your point of view Zynga is the best developer and there's no reason you shouldn't vote for them. Personally I like more intellectual, engaging games so I voted for the companies making Portal and the better of the FFs (6, 9, 13).

 

[Plurralbles]

But... valve is in control of that, "blockbuster, netflix" thing. Steam.


Bringing most of the respectable PC games of the past years onto one site and creating a sort-of DRM that people ACCEPT is something that make Valve utterly kickass and do more for hte hardcore segment of gaming than Zynga will ever do, even if they made an extra billion players. Those billion will keep buying shovelware adn we'll be getting no where for an entire generation.

Oh and valve has made great games and respect their communities.


Does Zynga offer mods?

 

[otis1017]

These games tore my family apart. They were so addicting, my mother and father split over cafe world and farm ville. These games are my enemy. I garantee to you the day I can draw my sword, these companies will fall. Then they shall know the pain I've felt because of them.