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Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office

techcrunch.com

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Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office

#31

Post by Jach »

danilocampos wrote: post #23

Conceptually, I love every bit of bad Zynga news. I like to be reassured that a company will, in the long term, fail when its products are cynically designed to manipulate. That a company will fail when their strategy assumes it's okay to blatantly, consistently, continuously lift design from other firms and products. Practically, though, bad Zynga news feels terrible . Because the guys who architected this repugnant…

I find it very hard to feel any pity for the employees that knowingly got involved with such a company, and I would be surprised if many of Zynga's best and most hardworking employees didn't jump ship long ago.

Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office

#33

Post by mbreese »

TimGebhardt wrote: post #17
jfernandez wrote: post #8

Way to try sweep it under the rug by announcing it during all of Apple's product news. Classy act Zynga.

Because other companies don't announce news on Friday at 4:00pm... Or because the White House doesn't make important news announcements on Christmas Eve when nobody's paying attention... I don't think this is a Zynga dick-move. I think this is a typical company move to bury a non-flattering story.

I tend to agree, but Zynga doesn't have enough good karma stored up to get much sympathy on this.

Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office

#35

Post by MartinCron »

pud wrote: post #24

Startups are hard. Even big startups are hard. Zynga is startupy, even though they're public. There's a lot of schadenfreude on HN when it comes to Zynga. Articles about Zynga's problems regularly make it to the top of HN. Some people think games are frivolous. They're not. Entertainment is (almost) a basic human need. Some people think Zynga players are somehow being tricked. They're not. They're being entertained.…

Some people think games are frivolous. They're not

I love games and don't think they are frivolous for a moment. I'm not sure what that has to do with a discussion of Zynga, though.

Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office

#36

Post by btilly »

pud wrote: post #24

Startups are hard. Even big startups are hard. Zynga is startupy, even though they're public. There's a lot of schadenfreude on HN when it comes to Zynga. Articles about Zynga's problems regularly make it to the top of HN. Some people think games are frivolous. They're not. Entertainment is (almost) a basic human need. Some people think Zynga players are somehow being tricked. They're not. They're being entertained.…

Thank you for the comment about your history. Back in the day I used to love Fuckedcompany.com.

BTW did you hear about the dot-commies?

They thought they had a right to everyone else's money.

Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office

#37

Post by untog »

mkinsella wrote: post #29
untog wrote: post #7

During the Apple event, no less. Maybe I'm very cynical, but that seems like a deliberate attempt to bury the story.

Which is exactly the opposite of what will happen. People are talking about it more because they tried to bury it during the Apple event.

We are, but we're hardly a major news destination. No mention of it on NY Times or BBC (still early days, admittedly), but look at The Verge homepage:

http://www.theverge.com/

Top bar is all Apple. Zynga story is an entire page scroll down.

Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office

#38

Post by comlag »

pud wrote: post #24

Startups are hard. Even big startups are hard. Zynga is startupy, even though they're public. There's a lot of schadenfreude on HN when it comes to Zynga. Articles about Zynga's problems regularly make it to the top of HN. Some people think games are frivolous. They're not. Entertainment is (almost) a basic human need. Some people think Zynga players are somehow being tricked. They're not. They're being entertained.…

I agree with the almost all your points except about them stealing ideas. Ripping off the same game from indie developers is wrong. It isn't them using basic ideas like a top nav or usernames, there are examples of them copying entire games[1]. 1. http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/01/25/everything...

Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office

#39

Post by pud »

MartinCron wrote: post #35
pud wrote: post #24

Startups are hard. Even big startups are hard. Zynga is startupy, even though they're public. There's a lot of schadenfreude on HN when it comes to Zynga. Articles about Zynga's problems regularly make it to the top of HN. Some people think games are frivolous. They're not. Entertainment is (almost) a basic human need. Some people think Zynga players are somehow being tricked. They're not. They're being entertained.…

Some people think games are frivolous. They're not I love games and don't think they are frivolous for a moment. I'm not sure what that has to do with a discussion of Zynga, though.

Zynga is a company that makes online games. And people often criticize Zynga for making games (online games, Flash games, Facebook games, casual games, etc.)

Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office

#40

Post by mobweb »

untog wrote: post #37
mkinsella wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is exactly the opposite of what will happen. People are talking about it more because they tried to bury it during the Apple event.

We are, but we're hardly a major news destination. No mention of it on NY Times or BBC (still early days, admittedly), but look at The Verge homepage: http://www.theverge.com/ Top bar is all Apple. Zynga story is an entire page scroll down.

This might also have to do with the fact that the story isn't really confirmed yet...
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