Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#11

Post by potatolicious » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 3:33 PM UTC

jiggy2011 wrote: post #10

Deestan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They would if it worked, but email spam is mostly solved these days. Everyone uses a spam filter.

I was thinking more along the lines of "get 100 credits in this game by giving us your gmail password/control over outlook so we can send to people in your contacts list" rather than outright blind spamming.

I imagine that GMail, Yahoo, AOL, and all of the major email providers would slam that door shut pretty quickly. Much faster than Facebook closed the door on inter-friend spam.

After all, a webmail provider gets nothing from such behavior, and it represent a giant security liability.

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#12

Post by michaelochurch » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 3:38 PM UTC

I name this Praziquantel Day.

(Praziquantel is a drug used to kill tapeworms.)

This is very, very good for Facebook. They are upgrading their brand and image by doing this.

The major reason Google+ Games did not succeed is that preferential treatment was given to mainstream developers (e.g. Zynga) who didn't expect us to thrive and therefore gave us their second-string stuff, as opposed to indie developers who would value us and the access we could offer them and give us a very high (brand-defining) level of quality. Having raised this issue, and having proposed an alternative strategy that would have worked exceedingly well, is the major reason I am no longer at Google.

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#13

Post by Narretz » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 3:49 PM UTC

>>> Zynga now has its own games platform, but players will no longer be able to share their progress on Facebook.

Isn't every app allowed to share certain things on a user's FB page? Why wouldn't this be possible for Zynga games?

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#14

Post by xanadohnt » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 3:50 PM UTC

nicholassmith wrote: post #2

Could this turn out to be the nail in Zynga's coffin? Seems like investors are getting cold feet, staff reductions, and a general malaise seems to surround the brand. Losing that access as a key partner to Facebook and becoming just another user is going to force them to make very rapid changes to adapt.

IMO the "general malaise" you and I feel is the minority opinion held by technically-savvy people. The 90% of Facebook users who are not could care less. The trick now will be whether Zynga can transition from the unlimited access to casual users of Facebook to their own, or other gaming communities, where those audiences will be much more discriminating.

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#15

Post by tatsuke95 » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 3:57 PM UTC

nicholassmith wrote: post #2

Could this turn out to be the nail in Zynga's coffin? Seems like investors are getting cold feet, staff reductions, and a general malaise seems to surround the brand. Losing that access as a key partner to Facebook and becoming just another user is going to force them to make very rapid changes to adapt.

I think the nail in the coffin was the last quarterly report. At this point Zynga is priced right around the liquidation value of the company. Nowhere to go but up (or out of business)!

Long Zynga 2014 calls in the hope they pull off a miracle of online gambling.

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#16

Post by zerostar07 » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 4:06 PM UTC

Facebook is also enforcing new terms for its developers: From December on, applications that run on external domains instead of appearing as an iframe inside facebook will be severely restricted in their access to facebook[1]. This move is supposed to force indie developers to move their games to facebook where they can't use AdSense (it's not allowed by facebook) and can only use facebook's own payments system (it's mandatory).

Zynga could have used this 2 year time window to grow an independent social gaming network, but they failed to do so. It was inevitable that this would happen.

[1] https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/09/05/platfor...

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#17

Post by nicholassmith » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 4:14 PM UTC

xanadohnt wrote: post #14

nicholassmith wrote: post #2

Could this turn out to be the nail in Zynga's coffin? Seems like investors are getting cold feet, staff reductions, and a general malaise seems to surround the brand. Losing that access as a key partner to Facebook and becoming just another user is going to force them to make very rapid changes to adapt.

IMO the "general malaise" you and I feel is the minority opinion held by technically-savvy people. The 90% of Facebook users who are not could care less. The trick now will be whether Zynga can transition from the unlimited access to casual users of Facebook to their own, or other gaming communities, where those audiences will be much more discriminating.

The general malaise more effects them in terms of recruiting talent, it'd be a rare occasion that a top developer would go work for a company circling the drain. Whether Zynga needs top developers I suppose is the question.

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#18

Post by slig » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 4:16 PM UTC

potatolicious wrote: post #11

jiggy2011 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking more along the lines of "get 100 credits in this game by giving us your gmail password/control over outlook so we can send to people in your contacts list" rather than outright blind spamming.

I imagine that GMail, Yahoo, AOL, and all of the major email providers would slam that door shut pretty quickly. Much faster than Facebook closed the door on inter-friend spam. After all, a webmail provider gets nothing from such behavior, and it represent a giant security liability.

One could wish. I'm still getting spam from linkedin and couple of others "social networks" (badoo and similars) even after reporting every email from them as spam.

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#19

Post by pekk » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 4:37 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #12

I name this Praziquantel Day. (Praziquantel is a drug used to kill tapeworms.) This is very, very good for Facebook. They are upgrading their brand and image by doing this. The major reason Google+ Games did not succeed is that preferential treatment was given to mainstream developers (e.g. Zynga) who didn't expect us to thrive and therefore gave us their second-string stuff, as opposed to indie developers who would…

Facebook gave preferential treatment to Zynga too, so that can't be the reason Google+ Games did not succeed. Perhaps it is more relevant that Google+ is not widely used and those who do use it are less likely to be into things like Farmville (demographics).

Re: Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship

#20

Post by michaelochurch » Fri, Nov 30, 2012, 4:43 PM UTC

pekk wrote: post #19

michaelochurch wrote: post #12

I name this Praziquantel Day. (Praziquantel is a drug used to kill tapeworms.) This is very, very good for Facebook. They are upgrading their brand and image by doing this. The major reason Google+ Games did not succeed is that preferential treatment was given to mainstream developers (e.g. Zynga) who didn't expect us to thrive and therefore gave us their second-string stuff, as opposed to indie developers who would…

Facebook gave preferential treatment to Zynga too, so that can't be the reason Google+ Games did not succeed. Perhaps it is more relevant that Google+ is not widely used and those who do use it are less likely to be into things like Farmville (demographics).

To beat an incumbent, you have to be superior.