Zynga profits drop like a rock.

I'm somewhat happy in that sense that I dislike games like Farmville and stuff, but thats just my opinion.

...what's a casual gamer?

Someone who is in denial that gaming can be an actual hobby.

Someone who plays/buys games irregularly.

When did anyone say this? 'Casuals' by definition wouldn't care. They wouldn't even bother to find out who developed the game they play on the subway every morning.

What has happened is core gamers feeling that the casual demographic was getting a bit too much attention and game companies deciding that the casual demographic needed that attention.

Honestly, casual gamers wouldn't be bothered at all if we have a Great Videogame Crash of December 2011.

I'm okay with this.

Enough with the shitty in name only facebook sequels making quick bucks out of intellectual property.

All those man hours can be spent elsewhere.

edited 8th Nov '11 2:38:53 AM by thefran

I love how everyone considers casual gamers a cancer, when they're really more like the truckers of gaming.

Casual games are the romantic comedies of gaming. They're aimed at an odd demographic, they're largely paint-by-numbers and no self respecting artist really wants to do them. But they bring in a ton of money so they keep getting made.

Also the guy behind Monaco.

edited 8th Nov '11 3:53:59 AM by thefran

thatguy pretty much hit the proverbial nail on the head.

I used to be a Farmville/Mafia Wars/Cafe World player or whatever because a lot of my friends were into them, but then I quit (and started again, and then quit a second time) because it got boring, and my friends' game updates just would not stop clogging up my Facebook feed.

haha. so much bitterness. I still love how people insist that Zynga games are stupid and worthless, when, after a quick trip to google, it looks like Zynga's expected to be worth about twice as much as EA when it IPO's.

y'all need to keep in mind that your opinions do not apply to every other demographic.

Fun fact: Zynga's major demographic is women over the average gaming age (30).

edited 8th Nov '11 10:02:48 AM by ch00beh

That makes it fit my romantic comedy analogy even better...

yeah, I totally agree with you on that one. Zynga markets toward a niche that has been completely unfilled, except for some light coverage from The Sims. Yeah, those man hours could be spent elsewhere, but that leaves an entire section of the population uncared for so that redundant products aimed at the same demographic can be made over and over.

Ville-clones. SO MANY.

Sims Social is a Ville-clone, pretty much. Click on something, it does Something to fill a need or improve a skill, and drops coins, xp thingy-boppers and maybe some collection item.

SO THERE I WAS, MAKING SOME TOAST IN MY KITCHEN, WHEN OUT POPPED MY TOAST AND A BUNCH OF WIERD LOOKING COINS CLATTERED OUT OF IT TO THE FLOOR. ALSO, A MAGAZINE OF SOME SORT, WHICH DISAPPEARED WHEN I TOUCHED IT. YAY TOAST.

(Great, now I got the Toast song stuck in my head.)

the civ facebook game looked promising, not my thing but it seemed a lot deeper then most games on fb.

there's probably an equivalent number of shooters out there.

Not totally unfulfilled, as noted, since there are still a number of other successful companies catering to the casual crowd. My issue with Zynga is not that they make casual games, it's that they make lazy casual games by basically reskinning the same game multiple times. Also, large-scale firing of people is not cool.

I have a lot of respect for the casual industry. There are ways in which I feel it's gone beyond what the "regular" games industry is willing to do. There's also more variation there than it's sometimes given credit for, as you probably wouldn't believe what people have done with the simple hidden object game formula unless you see it for yourself.

Escape the X games are really neat, yes.

My problem with Zynga is that there games are the most shameless efforts at exploiting conditioned-response as a substitute for actual entertainment value. They are literally the most unvarnished examples of Skinner boxes posing as games. Which, if that's what you like to "play", fine. However, Zynga basically makes their money off of people with gambling-like addiction potential. Their business model is built off finding the people who can be programmed into giving them thousands of dollars, and then making off with their last buck.

Doesn't surprise me at all, there's no where near enough innovation in the games to keep the profits flowing. Used to play Mafia Wars addictively, but it got boring.

I still play Castle Age daily, but that one has always been better due to the genuine notions of team spirit in the monster battles and guild mechanics. Also, I primarily use a second FB account for that so as to not bother my main one (I do nothing but play CA on its account).

Never played any of their games, but from what I've seen, they fit my username pretty well.

Never played any of their games either, but I do have to take schadenfreude in seeing egregious abuses of Bribing Your Way to Victory fail to actually pay off.

Except that 'exploiting conditioned-response' is one of the core principles of modern marketing. Saying that Zynga does it excessively is like saying that some humans breathe more oxygen than others.

^Fair point. It applies in equal measure to World Of Warcraft and most other RP Gs, to various extents.