Posts Tagged ‘zynga’

1. Zynga targets Whales, not true fans

   October 10, 2011

   Last week, Patrick O’Luanaigh, CEO of nDreams, wrote a post that gave four reasons why he thinks Zynga has peaked.

   Reader Clr64 made the following comment:
   I’ve recently started playing Adventure World after a long break from playing social games (no time)

   It’s a fun game but annoying as hell…

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   Posted in: Opinion

   Tagged with: adventure world, social, true fans, whales, zynga

   8 Comments

2. Four reasons why I think Zynga has peaked

   October 4, 2011

   I believe that every game has a ‘fair average value’ which I’d define as the amount that the average player feels is about right to spend on that game each month. Some players will spend much more, some less (and many will pay nothing in a free-to-play model), but there is a fair value that feels right for an average median player. I simply don’t believe that Zynga get this concept.

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   Posted in: Guest Post, Sales

   Tagged with: free games, free-to-play, ndreams, patrick o'luanaigh, sales, social games, zynga

   7 Comments

3. Is Zynga breaching the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading regulations?

   July 25, 2011

   Last week, I wrote a post about a new big monetisation banner that popped up when I returned to Zynga’a Cityville. I wondered if it was a last-ditch attempt to get me to spend money (although I have since been told that a number of regular players have also received the banner.) One (anonymous) commenter [...]

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   Posted in: Analysis, Featured

   Tagged with: cityville, consumer protection, law, monetisation, scarcity, special offers, zynga

   3 Comments

4. Is this a last-ditch attempt by Zynga to charge me some money?

   July 21, 2011

   I logged in to Cityville on Sunday doing some research for a new book idea I’m working on. (More about that soon). I haven’t played for months, and as I cleared withered crops and collected some ancient rents, this in-your-face sales screen popped up. I noted: A big discount (30%) off That the amounts being [...]

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   Posted in: Analysis, Featured

   Tagged with: cityville, monetisation, scarcity, special offers, zynga

   7 Comments

5. If you sell access to content, start looking for a new business

   June 30, 2011

   This post originally appeared in the Digital Content Monetization newsletter and is reproduced by kind permission. You can find further posts under the DCM tag. Earlier this week, I gave a lecture to 25 students on a game design course. I asked them to put their hands up if they had bought a CD this [...]

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   Posted in: Featured, Opinion

   Tagged with: advergaming, basic access to content, dcm, digital content monetization, free, internet, opinion, social games, zynga

   11 Comments

6. Does Zynga intentionally kick players out of its games after two months?

   June 6, 2011

   At the Gamification Shoreditch conference last month, Raf Keustermans said that Zynga had a duration of only two months. That means that the average user only stays playing any one of its games for two months before they quit. Raf used this to suggest that even Zynga, the doyen of social games, can’t keep players [...]

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   Posted in: Analysis, Featured

   Tagged with: cityville, conversion, retention, social games, zynga

   2 Comments

7. “You aren’t a gamer until you’ve had your first X vs Y sneerfest, for fun or profit”

   September 13, 2010

   Last week, I wrote a post about the sneering attitudes core gamers have towards social games. The genesis of the post was a deeply-prejudiced article in the SF Weekly about Zynga’s business ethics. I didn’t take issue with the ethics question. I think it is good that an investigative journalist is shining a light into [...]

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   Posted in: Featured, Opinion

   Tagged with: angry, gamasutra, social games, zynga

   14 Comments