Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
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Re: Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
#2"I don't fucking want innovation," the ex-employee recalls Pincus saying. "You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
"The former employee, who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly about his experience at Zynga, said this wasn't just bluster. Indeed, interviews conducted by SF Weekly with several former Zynga workers indicate that the practice of stealing other companies' game ideas — and then using Zynga's market clout to crowd out the games' originators — was business as usual."
No surprises there...
Re: Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
#3I have only a second hand exposure to farmville due to an avid player close to me. I wouldn't say they don't innovate - or at least they mask it real good. Farmville is full of new stuff that ties in together all the time, but general framework looks to be less keen on innovation.
I wonder how long can they run with it though. It's like where you have an ultra strong brand for games and you innovate by pushing various forms of gameplay scenarios (think of mario in various games not related to original genre mechanics). Farmville is just like the opposite, brand is the mechanics and framework.
Seasonal stuff they put in is the only innovation over original concept they snitched from Harvest Moon and alike. So I guess farmvilles ultimate fate likes where genre-locked games go - e.g. fighting games (street fighter, mk...) where original fad fades away and leaves in core player group. If they're lucky - and with so many users, they'd have to screw up pretty badly to lose all of their gaming audience.
Re: Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
#4I have only a second hand exposure to farmville due to an avid player close to me. I wouldn't say they don't innovate - or at least they mask it real good. Farmville is full of new stuff that ties in together all the time, but general framework looks to be less keen on innovation. I wonder how long can they run with it though. It's like where you have an ultra strong brand for games and you innovate by pushing variou…
The concept owes a lot to Harvest Moon, but let's not kid ourselves, those are very different games.
FarmVille is a well-oiled machine designed for virality, keeping people playing through social obligation and fear of loss, and monetization. It has its own peculiar kind of beauty to it. You're a 40 year old woman and your aunt, who you always keep meaning to talk with but never find the time to do, needs help with her cow. Not helping her with her cow says you don't love her. That is genius. Evil genius, but genius.
Harvest Moon, on the other hand, is a fully single person game with a story which optimizes for good reviews in magazines, because that drives box sales and that is where they make their money. It can afford to take twenty minutes until you get any control of your character, because you've already bought the game and can be assumed to wait it out. Any designer proposing that at Zynga would probably be shot, thrown out of a window, or shot after they were thrown out of a window, because it would kill the viral coefficient.
Re: Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
#5Ethical considerations aside, this seems like a solid management strategy to me. They have the brand to push through large mass of users , who are not so much into gaming as they are into socializing. If I were an investor in Zynga, I would be very happy , although I would probably use a part of the 10x ROI to buy a sweet gaming rig and play real games.
Re: Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
#6I have only a second hand exposure to farmville due to an avid player close to me. I wouldn't say they don't innovate - or at least they mask it real good. Farmville is full of new stuff that ties in together all the time, but general framework looks to be less keen on innovation. I wonder how long can they run with it though. It's like where you have an ultra strong brand for games and you innovate by pushing variou…
The concept owes a lot to Harvest Moon, but let's not kid ourselves, those are very different games. FarmVille is a well-oiled machine designed for virality, keeping people playing through social obligation and fear of loss, and monetization. It has its own peculiar kind of beauty to it. You're a 40 year old woman and your aunt, who you always keep meaning to talk with but never find the time to do, needs help with h…
remember Farmtowm? (yeah, they copied Harvest Moon, but they were the first to bring it to Facebook... before Zynga released FarmVILLE 2 months later)
Re: Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
#7The "social" games space is ripe for revolution. There's no fun there, nothing virtuous in what they consider gameplay. You don't even play with your friends, so much as exploit them for personal gain.
It's a very cynical view of how to spend time with people. When the leading social games company is led by a guy like Pincus, what more can you expect?
Re: Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
#8I heard the CEO speak at Startup School last year, and he claimed that he wanted Zynga to be an internet treasure--something with lasting value. Sounded good to me.
His high minded spiel then seems contrarian to the report here, and I'm tempted to believe the report. Makes me less inclined to see what else he has to say.
If it's true, I'm guessing eventually, he'll lose developer and gamer mindshare in that people won't want to work for Zynga. Then, would it be on its way to an internet treasure?
Re: Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
#9To me this sounds like Zynga just took an idea that was already out there, improved upon it, and executed the marketing/business side of things better than their competitors.
The blatant art rip-off is evil, but the methodology of "taking something proven, and making it better" is not.
Apple does this all the time, and I don't fault them for it.
For the HN crowd who "can't find an idea for a startup", maybe this is a really good method of finding one. Look at what's successful out there, and emulate to make it better.
Re: Zynga CEO: "Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
#10I heard the CEO speak at Startup School last year, and he claimed that he wanted Zynga to be an internet treasure--something with lasting value. Sounded good to me. His high minded spiel then seems contrarian to the report here, and I'm tempted to believe the report. Makes me less inclined to see what else he has to say. If it's true, I'm guessing eventually, he'll lose developer and gamer mindshare in that people wo…
I would definitely go with the report. I have lost count of the number of software companies that I have encountered that win marketshare with similar ethics to that being reported here about Zynga. They talk up sunshine and value in public but then go Ballmer on their employees.