Thursday, May 27, 2010

FarmVille makes TIME Magazine's Top 50 Worst Inventions List

TIME Magazine has released its list of "50 Worst Inventions" and somehow FarmVille has made the list of one of the fifty!

The list of fifty worst inventions is compiled of "the world's bright ideas that just didn't work out". I'm not sure how TIME is rating success, as over 80 million people from around the world are playing FarmVille and the game developer, Zynga, has made itself a billion dollar company largely with the help of their number one game, FarmVille. It seems a little ridiculous for FarmVille to be on the same "50 Worst Inventions" list along with Agent Orange and Asbestos. For the complete list of fifty inventions read here: TIME's Complete List of 50 Worst Inventions

According to TIME, FarmVille deserves a spot on their worst list because of its addictive nature and for it's attribute of triggering unproductivty as a time-waster encouraging players to do "mindless chores on a digital farm, requiring endless clicking of a mouse to plant and harvest crops". Even so, Zynga, referred to as "evil geniuses" by TIME must have gotten something right with their "worst invention" because over "ten percent of Americans (alone) have created their online homestead (farms)."

Thursday, May 20, 2010

FarmVille and Facebook

According to the latest rumors, Zynga could leave not only Facebook but also all social networks on which millions of people spend hours of fun and entertainment with its games. The basis for this divorce, there is an intention to launch its own platform for social game, named Zynga Live. This structure would allow 250 million monthly active gamers direct access to the full range of games company, Farmville, Treasure Isle, Mafia Wars, without going through a social network.
Zynga has already planned to withdraw its game Yoville the social network Tagged.com, but has not indicated any launch date for Zynga Live. The initiative was driven by the deterioration of relations between Zynga and Facebook, in particular due to the cancellation early March provenineti notifications from third-party applications on user profiles. These alerts allow Zynga to ensure a strong promotion on 400 million members of Facebook.

More recently, Zynga has not digested the fact that Facebook developers inpone third of its system of credit, as the only means of payment on the network. Facebook takes it a 30% commission on the amount of past transactions for this system. According to Techcrunch, the relationship between Zynga and Facebook would be further cooled by the positions of two giants: the threat to block social networking and gaming company Zynga threatens to leave the social network. In almost three years, Zynga has become one of the most popular software company for online games on any device. Its main Beliefs & Causes FarmVille games (78 million active monthly players) play is the application most used on Facebook. Zynga Live now has over 4.6 billion dollars, or one third of the Activision Blizzard company MMORPG “World of Warcaft. While the software company Electronic Arts, which bought Playfish, is number two in social games behind Zynga, for $ 400 million in November 2009.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Facebook to Ban Its Most Popular Game?

Social gaming company Zynga's creations -- including the popular FarmVille -- could be evicted from Facebook in a bitter dispute over payment changes.

Social gaming company Zynga's creations -- including the popular FarmVille -- could be evicted from Facebook in a bitter dispute over payment changes, The (London
) Times reported Friday.

At the center of the dispute is the social network’s introduction of Facebook credits, a virtual currency that it insists is the only type of cash that can be used on the site. It takes a 30 percent commission every time the currency is used.

Zynga believes this is prohibitive and last year it launched its own site for the game, farmville.com, and is weighing up whether to launch its own rival social networking site.

The social network also allegedly tried to force Zynga, the Californian start-up company that created FarmVille, to keep its game primarily on the Facebook site. In response, Zynga was rumored to have threatened to leave Facebook, although the company reportedly tried to retreat from that position in recent days.

The growth of Facebook was attributed in part to the 83 million players of FarmVille and other Zynga games, including Mafia Wars, FishVille and Cafe World.

Although FarmVille can be played for free, it became a significant money-spinner for its creator, with players buying virtual items for their farms with real cash. Zynga, which launched the game in 2007, has estimated annual revenues of $150 million.

Sources at Facebook described Zynga as a bad actor, which is putting profits before its users, and suggested that if the situation persisted it would be best if Zynga’s games left Facebook altogether. A spokeswoman for Zynga declined to comment.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Farmville developer Zynga losing members, may leave Facebook

Two weeks ago, Farmville creators Zynga lost 3.1 million monthly active users across it’s Facebook gaming empire. Just last week, that number grew to 4.2 million. But even with losses in the millions, Zynga still stands as the leading social game developer with more than 244 million monthly active users total.

Social media company SecondShares posits that the loss in gamers may be due to the “branded” games now coming to Facebook. For instance, Family Feud, introduced to Facebook two months ago, has already passed more than 4 million users. Other gaming companies like Electronic Arts, 2K, Capcom and Microsoft are all hopping on board the social network site as well.

However Kotaku believes it may also be the effect of Facebook’s recent renovations. Zynga can no longer advertise their games through faux in-game news alerts due to the elimination of notifications pertaining to gaming applications.

Either way, TechCrunch reported last week that Zynga may be leaving Facebook altogether. After Facebook allegedly tried to push a deal with Zynga, forcing the company to remain exclusively on the Facebook platform, Zynga has been attempting to distance itself from the site. For instance, Zynga has launched Farmville.com that allows users to play the game off of Facebook and is reportedly in talks to launch a new social game network called Zynga Live.

Running their games on Zynga Live would stop Zynga from having to pay a 30% fee for Facebook Credits – the only payment platform Zynga and others can use. However it would also take away the integrated social aspect that has made games like Farmville and Mafia Wars so popular.

Read more: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/farmville-developer-zynga-losing-members-may-leave-facebook-20100512/#ixzz0no1Zl535

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

FarmVille creator experiencing drought?

Players in Zynga's popular Facebook games are dropping by the millions

It looks like some people haven’t been watering their crops.

FarmVille creator Zynga’s monthly active Facebook users have sharply declined. Two weeks ago, the company behind the hugely popular “Mafia Wars,” “Treasure Isle,” and of course, social gaming juggernaut “FarmVille, lost 3.1 million active users. In the last week, 4.2 million more active players fell by the wayside, according to SecondShares. The industry monitor reports that Zynga currently has 244 million active users.

These rapid declines may be due to the fact that Facebook recently changed how members receive notifications and gift requests. As of March 1, Facebook no longer delivers application notifications. These seemingly-constant and often cluttering alerts on Facebook served as free advertising for “FarmVille” and other social network games, regularly reminding users to play.

Things may get worse for Zynga as other video game companies enter the Facebook ring. EA, the company behind “Battlefield: Bad Company 2,” spent $300 million for Zynga competitor Playfish last year, showing a significant investment in the future of social gaming. EA's first game, “FIFA Superstars,” is reportedly coming to Facebook soon.

Zynga's success grabbed the attention of a lot of heavy hitters in the game industry, as well as several smaller companies. With this new flood of games, we’ll have to see if the “FarmVille” creator can keep its head above water.