really gutted for the talented people who work there. 100 people have to find jobs tomorrow, that's never easy.
Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
71–80 of 223 posts
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#72Also rumored to have shut down their Boston and Chicago offices.
The Boston office did the Adventure World game. I tried it out and found it pretty frustrating - you can only do a few things before you run out of energy and need to harrass your friends or wait 24 hours. It's not a mechanic that works well with an adventure - nobody wants to chop through a few bushes and then wait to enter the temple. Plus there's this gratuitous Indiana Jones thing which is just glommed on.
>you can only do a few things before you run out of energy and need to harrass your friends or wait 24 hours
This is a theme that exists throughout most Zynga games.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.)
>And people often criticize Zynga for making games
That's not why people criticize Zynga, and I think you probably know that.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#74Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#75Conceptually, 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 hate to admit it, but the fact that casinos continue to exist goes to show that the Zynga model will probably hold true.
Both employ game dynamics to get participants to part with their money - the only difference being that casinos require you to pay up front, and Zynga doesn't have the same level of overhead.
The company will only face a race to the bottom, though, as others enter this space and competition for user time ramps up.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#76Earlier 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.
> Top bar is all Apple.
Not sure what you mean by "top bar", but there's a Windows 8 Review above the fold.
Also, remember that the Zynga story is "From Polygon" (Polygon is The Verge's sister gaming site), so it wouldn't be at the top regardless.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#77Conceptually, 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.
Any developer with half a brain should know that the game industry should be avoided like the plague. Long working hours, abusive management, racism (the Kixeye debacle), the issues just go on and on.
Take patio11's advice and go into B2B, you'll make money hand over fist with much more manageable working hours.
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#78Conceptually, 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 hate to admit it, but the fact that casinos continue to exist goes to show that the Zynga model will probably hold true. Both employ game dynamics to get participants to part with their money - the only difference being that casinos require you to pay up front, and Zynga doesn't have the same level of overhead. The company will only face a race to the bottom, though, as others enter this space and competition for u…
Important distinction is that in casinos players can make money. Well, as we know, only a small percentage does and overall it is the house that always wins, but humans are very bad at judging laws of probability. This "flaw" is still not in Zynga's games, and since FB prevents gambling with real rewards it will continue to be so.
Your last sentence will probably hold true, unless they start producing something innovative and useful for a change..
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#79Hey Zynga people, we're based in Austin and hiring for front-end. And our culture is pretty much the anti-Zynga: bootstrapped, slow growth, sane hours, no deadlines, strong design focus, and respect for our team and our customers.
Let's get coffee at the downtown Medici: http://www.paperlesspipeline.com/jobs
Re: Zynga May Have Just Laid Off 100+ Employees From Its Austin Office
#80Earlier 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…
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. My mom used to play some tropical island game. She told me that she loved hearing the waves crash as she "landed on her island". For her, that game was every bit as entertaining as Borderlands 2 is for some hardcore console gamer.