Based on this I don't think they'll have a hard time finding new employment: https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=zynga+%22ping+me%22+OR...
Very few of those are for Austin. Many are from CA/NY companies.
Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
61–70 of 223 posts
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.)
Calling the software that Zynga makes a "game" is insulting to real games. Zynga's are usually different skins on top of a number incrementing simulator (for example, anything with "ville" in the name), that happen to increase a little bit faster if you bug your friends (often and repeatedly) and have them increment their numbers too, and you can only increment your numbers so often - but more if you pay real cash mo…
>Calling the software that Zynga makes a "game" is insulting to real games.
No True Scotsman fallacy. Just because you don't think they're games doesn't make it fact. They make games, and people criticize them for it. The only thing your post did was help better prove OP's point.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#63If any of the Zynga engineers are reading this article, we are looking for a few good engineers where I work. We develop with Unity3d and Obj-c for the front end, and Scala for the back end. We also are willing to consider remote for great candidates. careers@bentoboxinteractive.com
Why don't you guys put some stuff up on your website? Every section is just empty. As an indie game developer using Unity3d (and funnily enough an ex-Zynga employee too) I wouldn't even bother contacting your studio when every section of your site is just empty.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#64It seems to me that Zynga's biggest mistake was 1) not expecting that social gaming craze to take a dive and 2) not figuring out early enough what to do next when the social gaming craze died down ... those two things are related.
So rather than predicting and pre-empting the dive in social gaming, Zynga is in a tough situation where they're facing the harsh reality as it comes. As a result, they're stuck with a huge, bloated company not prepared to quickly pivot or create innovation in new product categories.
I don't know what else Zynga can do right now but to downsize and to refocus the company on building what's next and not what was. It's almost like they need to find a new product strategy and business model. And it will take a lot of insight, leadership and team to get it done.
What they have going for them is that they have a lot of cash and a lot of experience in the social gaming genre.
But what they have going against them is momentum which includes employees losing faith in the company.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#65Conceptually, 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…
As a software developer who lives in Austin, I find it disconcerting whenever I hear about developer layoffs, especially in our city. I hope this is just an isolated incident of bad company strategy than an overall industry trend.
On the bright side, there may be some good people to be found in the ash pile.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#66Any idea what kind of severance package the developers received?
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Calling the software that Zynga makes a "game" is insulting to real games. Zynga's are usually different skins on top of a number incrementing simulator (for example, anything with "ville" in the name), that happen to increase a little bit faster if you bug your friends (often and repeatedly) and have them increment their numbers too, and you can only increment your numbers so often - but more if you pay real cash mo…
> Calling the software that Zynga makes a "game" is insulting to real games. No True Scotsman fallacy. Just because you don't think they're games doesn't make it fact. They make games, and people criticize them for it. The only thing your post did was help better prove OP's point.
They make crappy games and people criticize them for the crappiness, not the game part.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Calling the software that Zynga makes a "game" is insulting to real games. Zynga's are usually different skins on top of a number incrementing simulator (for example, anything with "ville" in the name), that happen to increase a little bit faster if you bug your friends (often and repeatedly) and have them increment their numbers too, and you can only increment your numbers so often - but more if you pay real cash mo…
> Calling the software that Zynga makes a "game" is insulting to real games. No True Scotsman fallacy. Just because you don't think they're games doesn't make it fact. They make games, and people criticize them for it. The only thing your post did was help better prove OP's point.
>They make games, and people criticize them for it.
First, Zynga is not criticized for making games, they're criticized for making Skinner boxes and passing them off as games. Quality, in other words.
Second, just because you think they make games doesn't make it fact.
Definition of a game per Google:
A form of play or sport, esp. a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck.
Zynga's "games" (with very few exceptions) lack any form of skill, strength, or luck. Push button, receive reward, pay us cash or spam your friends and you can push the button more often.
That is literally all there is to most Zynga games. I'm not even engaging in hyperbole here! Compare with even the most grindtastic MMO's out there, even the most rehashed FPS or football franchise you can think of, and there's still a skill component that these wannabes can't grok.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which was a ripoff of the classic mid-1990s SimFarm.
Not sure I would call SimFarm (SimAnt or SimIsle) classic. SimTower on the other hand.
SimFarm was a classic but rather I'd hesitate to call FarmHappy a SimFarm clone. SimFarm is perhaps the most complex Sim game, I had an easier time with even SimIsle. Gameplay wise there is almost no intersection.
What disappoints me about the current social gaming genre is how many games what would have otherwise been decent tycoons are ruined with slot machine mechanics.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Farmville was a blatant ripoff of Happy Farm - it just happened to be the first clone to hit the U.S. market from China and be successful.
Which was a ripoff of the classic mid-1990s SimFarm.
Not quite - they both just happen to be farm themed.
Happy Farm was legitimately a social game - even further than Farmville ended up being. In fact, almost two thirds of the Chinese population that played admitted they did so only so they could steal crops from their friends.
It's almost a case study into the Chinese culture unto itself.