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Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

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Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#21

Post by potatolicious »

wavephorm wrote: post #15

Zynga is a bullshit company, they know it, we know it, but in the real world the people playing their games really don't give a shit as long as they can earn one banana per click. So they keep clicking, over and over. Welcome to the real world of internet marketing.

Except we have good reason to believe that Zynga has peaked. They haven't been able to replicate the success of Farmville, their active user base is shrinking, and customer acquisition is becoming prohibitively expensive.

All in all it certainly looks like the "glorified slot machine" formula of "social gaming" is dying, and that is immensely gratifying to me.

Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#22

Post by kevinh »

I find it truly bizarre just how many employees Zynga has, considering the number of products they produce. Mobile development has shown us time and time again that a game like Farmville can be easily made with 5 employees. There must be a gigantic bureaucratic they have to fight in order to get anything done with that gigantic mass of employees.

Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#23

Post by wrwgergwerg »

jason_slack wrote: post #16

I can see NimbleBits being miffed a bit, but they have not released an update in a very long time. I tweeted @eeen and he said there is no update anytime soon. My wife cannot play Tiny Tower anymore, she has every floor possible (153), 12 vacant floors (waiting for more floor types to build), 30 million coins and 250 bux. Is this what an "iPhone Game Of The Year" acts like? It seems to me that Tiny Tower was a great…

This should be downvoted like crazy. That's good for your wife, she has better things to do.

Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#24

Post by teej »

tensor wrote: post #6
wdewind wrote: post #3

Honestly, this isn't really even that bad. There are a ton of games ripped off of Zynga that are MUCH closer to the Zynga assets. You could argue Tiny Tower ripped off Sim Tower etc. The whole thing is stupid. We all stand on the shoulders of giants, even other giants.

Standing on the shoulders of giants generally means you evolve or build upon your predecessor. I haven't played either game, but this looks to be a plain reimplementation of the game right down to the mechanics with little or no change. Based on other similar news stories in the past, it seems like this is Zynga's general business plan. While it appears profitable and is legal, it's hardly a laudable practice.

I could do a screen-for-screen comparison of Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 and you would have a hard time telling them apart. Each actually has distinct gameplay that sets it apart. I think it's a stretch to say there's clearly "little or no change" from 4 cherry-picked screenshots.

Zynga has actually had an improving track record in the last 6 months with Adventure World, Hidden Chronicles and Dream Zoo. They're still sticking to "hit" genres, but they have been pushing out of cloneville and taking more risks.

Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#25

Post by marknutter »

replace Zynga with Epic and Tiny Tower and Dream Heights with Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament.

Video game companies copy each other. It's up to the consumer to decide which version is worth their money. I for one welcome some competition to Tiny Tower, especially after the game was ruined for me when I found out that setting the iPhone clock ahead allowed you to cheat the game..

Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#26

Post by Uchikoma »

molmalo wrote: post #8
wdewind wrote: post #3

Honestly, this isn't really even that bad. There are a ton of games ripped off of Zynga that are MUCH closer to the Zynga assets. You could argue Tiny Tower ripped off Sim Tower etc. The whole thing is stupid. We all stand on the shoulders of giants, even other giants.

I don't know. It's like saying that all those *ville are copies of Sim City. Maxis's games were centered on simulation, while this new generation of games are targeted to a much more casual gamer. And it's bad when a Giant tries to crush a little studio, copying their games, while at the same time, suing others for doing the exact same thing. (Vostu)

According to some, Zygna is not targeting casual gamers but casual gamblers (same motivations, same demographic)

There was a discussion about that on HN some days ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3453040

Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#27

Post by ww520 »

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. As long as Zynga is not directly using digital materials from Tiny Tower, I don't see the problem.

The game industry is a massive fest of copying each other. How many Doom clones are out there? Or the Pacman variety? Or the Breakouts? Space Invaders?

Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#28

Post by wavephorm »

potatolicious wrote: post #21
wavephorm wrote: post #15

Zynga is a bullshit company, they know it, we know it, but in the real world the people playing their games really don't give a shit as long as they can earn one banana per click. So they keep clicking, over and over. Welcome to the real world of internet marketing.

Except we have good reason to believe that Zynga has peaked. They haven't been able to replicate the success of Farmville, their active user base is shrinking, and customer acquisition is becoming prohibitively expensive. All in all it certainly looks like the "glorified slot machine" formula of "social gaming" is dying, and that is immensely gratifying to me.

That's exactly the same thing as saying the number of people who fall prey to email marketing has peaked.

Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#29

Post by intended »

tobtoh wrote: post #12
tedivm wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd agree with you if they were just similar, but the mechanics are the exact same- every aspect of it. There's a difference between "standing on the shoulders of giants" and flat out cloning something- with the first you take an idea, improve it, and make it your own.

You could similarly argue that Tiny Towers is virtually identical to Farmville, except with a different skin applied. All involve mindless clicking, items (shops/services instead of crops) with variable 'build' times. They have the worthless cash and 'premium' cash (in-app purchases). Tiny Towers has very little game mechanics innovation over Farmville (besides maybe that elevator).

I would have to disagree very strongly here.

Farmville in its current iteration is designed to involve your facebook freinds at every level.

Its reward schedule is blatantly designed to encourage social sharing - basically making players skinner boxes for other players.

Tiny tower on the other hand can be played in entirely single player fashion, without really being bothered by "Oh you need 3 paint flecks to paint window X! 5 windows, 2 chairs, 4 cuboards, 2 cashiers left to open store! Ask your friends for parts"

Farmville is far more diabolical than tiny tower. Its obvious the tiny tower guys are more into making a game, while farmville is just plain sinister.

Re: Zynga Shamelessly Rips Off 'Tiny Tower' With Canadian Release of 'Dream Heights'

#30

Post by georgieporgie »

tensor wrote: post #6
wdewind wrote: post #3

Honestly, this isn't really even that bad. There are a ton of games ripped off of Zynga that are MUCH closer to the Zynga assets. You could argue Tiny Tower ripped off Sim Tower etc. The whole thing is stupid. We all stand on the shoulders of giants, even other giants.

Standing on the shoulders of giants generally means you evolve or build upon your predecessor. I haven't played either game, but this looks to be a plain reimplementation of the game right down to the mechanics with little or no change. Based on other similar news stories in the past, it seems like this is Zynga's general business plan. While it appears profitable and is legal, it's hardly a laudable practice.

it seems like this is Zynga's general business plan

People seem to have forgotten this already:

Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus, who reportedly told his employees, “I don’t fucking want innovation.”

http://www.sfweekly.com/2010-09-08/news/farmvillains/

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