Zynga Introduces Retail Game Cards For FarmVille

[OmegaXIII]

I find this a lil disturbing that people care that much about their virtual farm

I find it disturbing that you don't already have one D=

Seriously people, get over it. More people are playing this than most of the games you actively play put together. You can judge it all you want, saying that it isnt a real game, but its hard to make such a statement convincing, or even make it matter in the first place, when they have a fanbase of 80 million people. And I'd imagine that the majority of them are just people who are actively on facebook, and play from time to time while chatting with friends. That hardly qualifies as a "fanboy".

Hehe, yes i'm a stubborn one.

I wasn't making a case for it not being a legitimate game, i was more making a point about how people are so willing to pour money into a totally virtual entity for relatively little benefit. The one off charge for a game i can understand, but to then use your own money to further something with no real positive impact on anything but your score seems counter-intuitive to me. This idea goes far beyond Zynga's games, it's more of a swipe at exchanging money for little more than a bit of extra e-peen.

 

[jayc4life]

Right. I can buy boosters for games that I can progress through and get everything through regular play, just faster via cash injection? No thank you.

This smacks me as the same way as EA were once selling Skate cheat unlocks through PSN and XBLA for people too lazy to actually progress through the game. Fair play to them because they know it's going to make them boatloads of money (hey, they're a business too after all, and it's all about the Benjamins), but for the rest of us, it's just "yawn, move along, nothing to see here".

Seriously, I don't see why people would have an issue with companies looking to make an extra bit of wedge. I mean, they're not exactly self-sustainable if they just give everything away for free. God, if every game was free we'd still be in the NES era because there'd be no R&D money for technological advancement.

 

[John Funk]

Zynga, and it's related games, are not news worthy. Get off the rotten teat, cater to your followers and fanbase...

This place is going to hell... =(

Eighty million people disagree with you. Seeing as how Zynga was quite the buzz at GDC, so would many game developers.

I would be more than willing to bet that many of the Escapist regulars play FarmVille et al and just don't say anything because of the ridiculous attitudes on display against anyone who dares to enjoy a filthy casual game.

Zynga, and it's related games, are not news worthy. Get off the rotten teat, cater to your followers and fanbase...

This place is going to hell... =(

You're welcome to leave. Seriously. We've covered them plenty in the past [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/global/search/?cx=005672590579257297818%3Amkmrjhvsnwa&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=Farmville+more%3Anews&sa=Search&siteurl=www.escapistmagazine.com%252Fglobal%252Fsearch%252F%253Fq%253DFarmville%2526cx%253D005672590579257297818%253Amkmrjhvsnwa%2526cof%253DFORID%253A9%25231193#1161], so I don't know why we'd stop just because you have your knickers in a twist. You really shouldn't presume to talk for our "followers and fanbase" - I expect we know who they are a lot better than the average poster on these forums (who thinks that it's them).

What the hell does this mean for any of us here who have actually been here for more than two days?

What it means is that this is an area of the industry that, while generally ignored as "real gaming", is becoming increasingly large and publicly recognized. Think of it this way: A game on Facebook is large enough in its own right to not only start producing game cards, but also to get them sold in major retailers. It's not easy to get a product into these kinds of stores, and this is a significant enough event to notice.

It has at least as much significance as free-to-play MMO's testing the Kwedit system [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99294-Free-to-Play-MMOGs-Testing-Kwedit-Score-System].

Two Escapist staff members telling me that Zynga is the way of the future. Fuck that shit. Browser games are nothing new, they're just stepping into territory that isn't there. This is what you want your site to revolve around, have at it. Been following the site for years, i get to 11 posts and that's all I can stand.

Consider me canceled.

Read into it whatever you want. Browser games, for most hardcore gamers, aren't the way of the future. But to ignore their impact just because they aren't the sort of games that *you* find appealing is pure unbridled foolishness.

What part of "Facebook game starts getting in-store presence at major retailers" *isn't* newsworthy?

 

[CloggedDonkey]

and they timed this with MM, how cunning. anyone else think these guys would make great spies?