Emergence & Zynga
Transcript of Emergence & Zynga
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Emergence:
Story Killer or Story Maker?
or
How to get millions of people to send you moneyfor something that doesnt actually exist!
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Recall that
Traditional GAMES have:
DEFINED RULES
DEFINED SPACE
GIVEN SET OF COMPONENTS
SET OF VICTORY CONDITIONS
Source: Dave Szulborksi, TINAG
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Recall that
New media (ARG) GAMES have:
EMERGENT PROPERTIES
IMMERSIVE REAL WORLD ELEMENTS
COLL
ABORATIVE INTE
RACTIVE STO
RYTELL
ING
SELF ORGANIZING STRUCTURE(OF THE ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK)
Source: Dave Szulborksi, TINAG
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Recall that
A quest is a journeyacross a symbolic,fantastic landscape
in which aprotagonist or playercollects and talks to
characters in order toovercome challengesand achieve ameaningful goal.
Source: Jeff Howard Quests
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Recall that
the QUEST is wherethe following meet:
GAME ----------- NARRATIVE
GAMING ----------- LITERATURE
TECHNOLOGY ------------ MYTHOLOGY
MEANING -------------- ACTION
Source: Jeff Howard Quests
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Recall that
the four (key) properties ofour (key) properties of emergenceemergence in games are:in games are:
DiscoveryDiscovery -- The emergent properties of a system formThe emergent properties of a system forman explorable space. More complexity generally meansan explorable space. More complexity generally meansmore space.more space.
ChallengeChallenge -- A games emergent properties form itsA games emergent properties form itsstrategic vocabulary. New scenarios and obstacles canstrategic vocabulary. New scenarios and obstacles canemerge.emerge.
NarrativeNarrative -- story emerges from game eventsstory emerges from game events FantasyFantasy emergent properties dont necessarily supportemergent properties dont necessarily support
the fantasy. Contradictions are common creating absurdthe fantasy. Contradictions are common creating absurdfantasies.fantasies.
Source: personalhijinks.com
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Recall that
Conways Game of life simulated life asemergence through three rules.
Oversimplification
Not really a game
A closed system
Source: personalhijinks.com
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Enter
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is
A casual game developer located in SanFrancisco.
A company that develops browser-basedgames that work both stand-alone and asapplication widgets on social networkingwebsites such as Facebook and MySpace.
The #1 social gaming company on theweb.
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Zynga was founded in July 2007 by MarkPincus (and his dog).
They received USD $29 million in venturefinance from several firms in July 2008.
At that time, they bought YoVille, a largevirtual world social network game.
According to their website, as ofDecember 2009, they had 60 millionunique daily active users.
fun facts
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fun facts
Weighing in at 150 lbs, is Mark Pincus, frenetic visionary of Zynga. His DNA is onestrand entrepreneur and one strand competitive gamer. Mark founded Tribe.net(www.tribe.net), one of the first social networks in 2003. Prior to Tribe, he was thefounder and CEO of SupportSoft (Nasdaq: SPRT), the world's leading provider ofsupport automation software. Prior to SupportSoft, Mark co-founded Freeloader, the
first consumer push information service.
Zynga was named after Zinga, Chief Animal Officer (1995 - 2008), Marks 13-yearold American Bulldog who sadly passed away in late 2008. Zingas name camefrom Enzinga, the Swahili name for an African Warrior Princess
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Show me the $$
Zynga is supported in two manners: Viadirect credit card payments and partner
businesses.
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Farm Cash Crash
Through 2009 Zynga made money from lead generation advertisingschemes, whereby game participants would earn game points by signing upfor featured credit cards or video-rental services.
These were criticized as being less cost-effective than simply buying gamepoints, and in some cases, being outright scams that would downloadunwanted software or unwittingly sign up for a recurring subscription.
Pincus later said that he had been
too eager to increase company
revenues through advertising, and
that operating in reactive mode by
taking down ads only after
receiving complaints had not
worked. The company removed all
ads for a time, relying only on
direct purchase of game currency,
then began reintroducing third
party ads only after they had been
screened.
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Copy-wrong?
Zynga has also been accused several times ofcopying game concepts of popular games bycompeting developers.
The launch ofMafia Wars sparked a lawsuit from the makers of MobWars, which was settled out of court for $79 million.
Ars Technica noted that gameplay, design, graphics, avatars, andeven in-game items from Zynga's Cafe Worldand Playfish'sRestaurant Citywere "nearly identical.
Zynga's FarmVille is extemely similar to the earlier game Farm
Town.
Mark Pincus has dismissed the criticisms, saying thatcompeting video game makers have always released similartitles for each genre of game.
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But the biggest problem is
non-players who grow tiredof seeing updates abouttheir friends' social gaming
activity. Facebook groupscreated to expressdispleasure regardingoverexposure of Zynga's
games attracted millions ofmembers!
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GAMEPLAY Several Zynga games require an "Energy" characteristic to play.
Engaging in "Missions", a core feature of many games, consumes acertain amount of energy.
After expending energy, it slowly replenishes to the character'smaximum limit. This can take minutes or several hours (energyreplenishes whether or not players are logged into the game).
After energy is replenished, players can engage in additionalmissions. Waiting for energy to replenish is a significant limitingfactor in the games. Their support mechanisms take advantage ofthis.
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GAMEPLAY Some games exploit a variant of this, allowing for
planting or cooking of anything ones resources allow,then counting down to harvest or serving at whichtime the cycle is repeated.
The games usually have a gifting and/or helping
mechanic which encourages social interaction within thegame as well.
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STORY (?)