Still, PopCap and Armor Games are better at what zynga does, and they actually makes innovative games that aren't there just to feed you ads. They just don't have the benefit of a built in audience of millions (facebook).SnipErlite said:
Zynga and the Rise of the New Gamer
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
and not just the PC industry... there is some fault on the PC gaming side where each new game demands a little more horsepower than the next. would be nice if they could extend the compatibility/playability cycle a little like most console games do - you can't go designing for a new console everytime you write a game, because there's really only a new one ever 4-5 years - unlike on a PC, where last year's average gaming rig just can't cut it anymore.
Oh totally, I love PopCap purely for making Plants vs Zombies. I don't like Zynga but I have a grudging respect for their success.jmoore4ska said:
I didn't mention it because it wasn't important to the point I was making.JordanMillward_1 said:
I have never before seen such a massive concentration of stupid. I think my I.Q. plummeted just from reading that.Petchyy said:
Also, to reiterate: Zynga isn't popular because it is accessible. There are plenty of flash game developers who design good, simple, and entertaining free games. Zynga is just well known because it is on facebook and shamelessly spams the notifications and newsfeed of anyone who is friends with a player. If PopCap made a Facebook game, then made sure that it showed up in your feed 25 times a day or more, i'm sure they would get a lot of attention, at the expense of their integrity.
Hm, i'd say i respect their success the same way i respected the success of Bernie Madoff. He may not have earned his billions, but he certainly scammed his way to having billions.SnipErlite said:
I don't think merely having money means you deserve respect. It's how you make your money that gets respect from me, and Zynga made theirs by partnering up with ads that installed spyware and programs that scammed their users for money through "fine print." Just because they stopped, allegedly, when they got caught doesn't mean their legacy of shady practices gets a free pass.
It is time for people to learn the basics of FB. You can hide all of the annoying newsfeeds for all of the stupid flash games on FB without hiding your friends' real posts. If it wasn't for this ability I would have given up FB shortly after creating my account.jmoore4ska said:
Oh I know, but one has to respect one's enemies somewhat right?jmoore4ska said:
I just mean I appreciate they're damn successful and that garners a little respect, although I strongly dislike them for all the scamming and shady deals and spyware things. For that, they are bastards.
Personally, I think Farmville isn't that fun either...but that's not really the point. It caters to something many people inhernetly have deep within our psyche's.
By nature we are collectors and hoarders, and games like Farmville are all about collecting ribbons, building materials, unique gifts, etc. and putting them on display. It really isn't too much unlike collecting Xbox achievent points or PS trophies...it's all about bragging (even if it only to yourself) that you have the biggest farm, or maybe the coolest layout.
My wife can spend literally hours on this thing daily...very addictive to her...and she normally hates video games. I think she enjoys this because in it's basic form the game is very 'passive' in its most basic premise....You click and wait and collect.
I think many women like these types of games because they aren't violent, you don't have to memorize ludicrous buttone mashing combinations, there's no 'crap' talk...it's like shopping at the mall to them....She can walk around and 'decorate' to her hearts content as a timesink.
By nature we are collectors and hoarders, and games like Farmville are all about collecting ribbons, building materials, unique gifts, etc. and putting them on display. It really isn't too much unlike collecting Xbox achievent points or PS trophies...it's all about bragging (even if it only to yourself) that you have the biggest farm, or maybe the coolest layout.
My wife can spend literally hours on this thing daily...very addictive to her...and she normally hates video games. I think she enjoys this because in it's basic form the game is very 'passive' in its most basic premise....You click and wait and collect.
I think many women like these types of games because they aren't violent, you don't have to memorize ludicrous buttone mashing combinations, there's no 'crap' talk...it's like shopping at the mall to them....She can walk around and 'decorate' to her hearts content as a timesink.
I'm sorry, but the only reason Zynga is even a known name is Facebook. Without Facebook we wouldn't be talking about them right now. Without Facebook they would have 0 votes in March Mayhem. This isn't a case of passionate gamers rising up to vote for their game. This is the case of Zynga spamming all of Facebook for votes. This is NOT "the rise of a new gamer". This is a the rise of people who already spend hours looking at pictures on Facebook who decide to spend some time clicking stuff on a Facebook application. Zynga games are games the same way Reality TV is real.
I'm all for the Wii and companies like PopCap bringing the rise of GOOD casual gaming and introducing games to non gamers, but the last thing we need is to hold up a company to praise who steals peoples ideas, scams their own customers, and their only claim to success is being lucky and riding on the backs of the latest "it" social networking site.
I'm all for the Wii and companies like PopCap bringing the rise of GOOD casual gaming and introducing games to non gamers, but the last thing we need is to hold up a company to praise who steals peoples ideas, scams their own customers, and their only claim to success is being lucky and riding on the backs of the latest "it" social networking site.
I know the whole deal, but that isn't the point. You shouldn't HAVE to learn anything about FB to stop from being spammed. Nobody likes it. FB has the power to stop it, but does not. It isn't about being ABLE to stop it; it's the fact that there's something you need to stop in the first place.DMac the Knife said:
Ugh... The Wii was designed to capture the demographic of non-gamers and would-be gamers as well. Zynga is going after non-gamers on the PC which has the benefit of not needing to shell out 200$ for a Wii, and thus lowering the threshold of entry to... well nothing since most people(in the US and Europe) own a PC and have an internet connection. Its a step to rope people in but as we all know from the amount you rope in many will never go anywhere with it. Some will hunger for more, some will just plant crops for a time and lose interest.
I kind of wish that there was some other type of game for no-barrier entry. Farmville seems to be the only thing that has captured such an audience. It seems like a bit of a leap to go from it to say an easy RPG, or a fighting game. I suppose anything that makes people sees games are fun is nice and inevitably helps make my favorite hobby more mainstream and accepted.
I kind of wish that there was some other type of game for no-barrier entry. Farmville seems to be the only thing that has captured such an audience. It seems like a bit of a leap to go from it to say an easy RPG, or a fighting game. I suppose anything that makes people sees games are fun is nice and inevitably helps make my favorite hobby more mainstream and accepted.
Hear, hear!Bigeyez said:
Shamus is right in the sense that casual games are good for even hardcore gamers. They ensure the continuuation of the medium, and many are legitimately fun. Zynga, however, simply piggybacks on a site that will probably be dead in a few years, like myspace before it. When facebook or its various successors to-be die, and Zynga along with them, what will you be able to say about their contribution to the gaming as a form of expression?
Very little.
Free games are plentiful on the internet, my friend. As many people on the thread have said, try PopCap, Armor Games, etc.Twilight_guy said:
I don't think this is all so spot on accurate...
If I want to take on a new hobby only 2 roads come to my mind:
1- I ask a friend that does the activity in the first place if he/she can teach me.
2- I pay a professional to do it.
Both of them are basically "go find someone to teach me".
I don't know why gaming should be different. Everybody always try to say how games are the new medium to entertain and/or tell a story, the new books the new movies, etc. ¿Do you expect to learn how to read only by buying a book?. But I´m not saying it is impossible because the analogy stops working being that nobody has to be taught how to see a movie (except those people that though the train was REALLY going through the screen).
Another thing, unless you are a really impulsive person you wont buy all the things before having a clue that you might get the hang of it, maybe renting a surf board and having some classes before buying the board and expecting it to teach you how to use it.
Also games do go a long way to teach you how to play, the fact that there is a tutorial and a difficulty curve proves it. And if you have two brain cells to rub together but don't know what R3 is, you try every button and if that doesn't work you go check a manual, and if that doesn't work you ask somebody, and if that doesn't work you go look online (and the people that uses farm-ville knows how to google, hell my mom knows how to google and she can't even access her facebook account).
The information is there and not everybody that knows it now was carried by the hand THE WHOLE WAY, at the most they got themselves to ask for help.
People that play farmville want to play farmville, they are not sitting there moaping wishing they knew what to do when that tutorial tells the to crawl under the pipe...
If I want to take on a new hobby only 2 roads come to my mind:
1- I ask a friend that does the activity in the first place if he/she can teach me.
2- I pay a professional to do it.
Both of them are basically "go find someone to teach me".
I don't know why gaming should be different. Everybody always try to say how games are the new medium to entertain and/or tell a story, the new books the new movies, etc. ¿Do you expect to learn how to read only by buying a book?. But I´m not saying it is impossible because the analogy stops working being that nobody has to be taught how to see a movie (except those people that though the train was REALLY going through the screen).
Another thing, unless you are a really impulsive person you wont buy all the things before having a clue that you might get the hang of it, maybe renting a surf board and having some classes before buying the board and expecting it to teach you how to use it.
Also games do go a long way to teach you how to play, the fact that there is a tutorial and a difficulty curve proves it. And if you have two brain cells to rub together but don't know what R3 is, you try every button and if that doesn't work you go check a manual, and if that doesn't work you ask somebody, and if that doesn't work you go look online (and the people that uses farm-ville knows how to google, hell my mom knows how to google and she can't even access her facebook account).
The information is there and not everybody that knows it now was carried by the hand THE WHOLE WAY, at the most they got themselves to ask for help.
People that play farmville want to play farmville, they are not sitting there moaping wishing they knew what to do when that tutorial tells the to crawl under the pipe...
There are lots of free games yes, but not as many with players numbered in the millions. Many people will play Farmville because it is a giant but will not see other such free games and thus have limited access to the breath of gaming.jmoore4ska said: