How Zynga's CityVille Drew 70 Million Players In Less Than a Month 101
An article at Gamasutra takes an in-depth look at how Zynga's new browser-based social game CityVille managed to accumulate tens of millions of players in the relatively short time since its launch early this month. Quoting:
"The Facebook interface induces a high degree of user blindness. It does not do a great job of exposing new games and applications, and lacks a directory or a 'Featured in the App Store' style of editorial (as Apple does for the iPhone), which means that for most developers there are huge problems in getting their games in front of users' eyeballs. With all of the free advertising channels on the platform now constrained or dead, this has meant that the Facebook economy has been acquiring an increasingly Darwinian shape. Where it used to be an egalitarian environment in which any developer could strike it big, over the last year it has become top-heavy with larger developers accruing exponential success, and cutting off oxygen to smaller companies by default."
Cross Promoting (Score:2)
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Yes, the game is designed that you need a number of contacts (facebook favorites) to reach a higher level. The game is designed to increase the number of players.
But you have to keep in mind that creating "clone" accounts is not forbidden, it is even encouraged this way. So the 70 million figure is heavily inflated (i guess) by clone accounts. My better half is playing this games, as are my dog, fish, rabbit, bird, and.. well you get the picture. But even with a high number of clone accounts 70 millions is
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Why hasn't Blizzard thought of this? Having a Protoss Carrier drop a "Bpne Fragment of the Queen of Blades" (item level 359 dagger) will instantly generate 5 million more SC2 sales...
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Re:Cross Promoting (Score:5, Interesting)
Surprisingly, she said, "enough, I can only handle two time waster games," and didn't sign up.
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Re:Cross Promoting (Score:5, Insightful)
Thus proving why I think Facebook should give you the option to block a publisher, rather than specific apps. I would *love* to be able to block everything by Zynga. Wouldn't think twice about it, either.
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Wouldn't think twice about it, either.
You wouldn't even think twice? zOMG, you're pretty hardcore, bro!
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I know what a phrasal verb is. I just find it amusing that they think they are sticking it to someone by blocking Zynga. As if they would even notice with all the gobs of money flowing their way.
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I highly doubt that realityimpaired is blocking Zynga to "stick it to the man." More likely, he wants to block Zynga because he hates seeing all the messages and advertisements coming up on his News Feed all the time. It's easier to block an entire publisher than block said publisher's 50 games.
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*she*. but yes. that's pretty much it. it's a non-stop spamfest, and seriously annoying.
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Why would you do this?
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It helps to have a really large population of lemmings which can be attracted by shiny new objects.
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Omg can I play this on my iPad?
No, it's a Flash game, so being able to play it would decrease the quality of your iOS user experience.
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I don't see where the mystery is, here. If you like *this* stupid shit, you're probably dumb enough to like this *other* stupid shit.
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Precisely the strategy used by Hollywood, TV producers, dead tree publishers, computers games publishers, etc... etc... for decades. Why? Because it *works*.
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Quote (Score:2)
I must be especially stupid today as I got almost no information about the title topic from that quote.
Is there a new trend about forcing the reader to RTFA that I should know about?
Re:Quote (Score:5, Insightful)
Heavens, no. You're supposed to leap to some conclusions which you then proceed to approach as fact. Toss out some speculation based on this while forcing yourself to use unnecessarily obtuse vocabulary and include links to wikipedia concerning certain phrases and concepts you're proud of. Others will then do the same, with a variety of other points of view and argue rabidly. Still more will complain that this is the case.
Thus do we generate page views and 'user generated content'. The article does not even need to really exist, as all this will still occur as well as others pointing out the lack of article!
That is the law!
Re:Quote (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, these games have absolutely no affect on the sex life of gerbils at all, what were they thinking? I would suggest the people who count up these numbers are nothing more than narcoleptic parrots, repeating things over and over without any sense or continuity.
It all comes back to the legalisation of marijuana, your either part of the solution, or stupid! See here [wikipedia.org] for details.
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Thank you and goodnight!
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-The Incredible Sulk
Oh, and you had better reply with a similar post or I will have to invoke Godwin's Wrath upon your nazi arse! wait, crap.
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Yeah you got me, in my in depth and ultra serious post, I had a grammatical error...
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Heavens, no.
They clearly made a secret deal with Facebook to promote their game while keeping the "good will" for being small.
Deals like this one are creating a virtual monopoly [wikipedia.org] that cripple the smaller, more honest, dev teams that really maintain a fresh gaming environment.
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Heavens, no.
They clearly made a secret deal with Facebook to promote their game while keeping the "good will" for being small.
Deals like this one are creating a virtual monopoly [wikipedia.org] that cripple the smaller, more honest, dev teams that really maintain a fresh gaming environment.
You make a compelling argument. It's not fair, let's do something now - just let me investigate this Facebook thing first...[opens new tab, types in URL]
Aw crap.
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You do NOT interpret the word of the summarizer!
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Or, you can go the other direction and be a sanctimonious jerk.
Wow. really ? (Score:2)
Ooh! I know! I know! (Score:3, Funny)
Q:How did CityVille draw millions?
A: Like flies to shit?
Not Darwinian (Score:3)
the Facebook economy has been acquiring an increasingly Darwinian shape
Um, Darwinian evolution does not reward the most populous species, but the one that is best adapted to its environment. In Facebook terms, this would mean that the funnest game would be the best promoted. What's happening here is decidedly un-Darwin-like.
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If something isn't fitted to its environment, it won't prosper. In this case, the smaller devs may have excellent games, but their whole presence isn't fitted well to the environment (lack of visibility, lack of ability to exploit the user base etc.).
Zynga are excellent at exploiting the environment, which is a great way to prosper. Prospering means greater population base. That really is part of Darwinian evolution (if you prosper, you're doing well at exploiting the environment).
Note, they do mention i
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And since nature relies on Darwin's principle, we see parasites thrive.
My personal explanation why there is no God. At least no benevolent one. If there was, he'd have stepped in (like, say, a benevolent government wanting its subjects to compete on even grounds) and tossed those spongers.
I'd really wish our society wasn't so Darwinian...
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Oh, there's a God all right. The problem (if you want to see it that way) is that He gave us Free Will.
Any problems with the system are our own fault.
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So you're saying God is just playing a very advanced version of The Sims?
Fuckin' lazy bum! He should get off his tush and do something. I mean, ok, he's created Earth, but since?
That dude sure has a great PR department. Worked for a whole friggin' 6 days and gets worshiped for it forever.
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the Facebook economy has been acquiring an increasingly Darwinian shape
Um, Darwinian evolution does not reward the most populous species, but the one that is best adapted to its environment. In Facebook terms, this would mean that the funnest game would be the best promoted. What's happening here is decidedly un-Darwin-like.
This one of those evolutionary plateaus... (I hope)
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Um, Darwinian evolution does not reward the most populous species, but the one that is best adapted to its environment. In Facebook terms, this would mean that the funnest game would be the best promoted. What's happening here is decidedly un-Darwin-like.
um, the most populous species is the best adapted to its environment. it had to be in order to become the most populous species in the first place...thats by the very definition of Darwinian evolution, survival of the fittest and all...
now if there is another species, that appears to be more fit for the environment, but can't get a foothold because the old populous species is crowding it out, then that new species really isn't as well adapted as you thought, because that old populous species has become par
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Darwinian evolution does not reward the most populous species, but the one that is best adapted to its environment. In Facebook terms, this would mean that the funnest game would be the best promoted.
Well, on earth, how many more ticks and roundworms are there in this earth than eagles and antelope? Many have renounced creationism for darwinism because of guinea worms, smallpox and a host of other organisms that they cannot picture a loving god creating. It is disingenuous to claim evolution promotes the good, it simply promotes those who exploit their environment the best. Was the haast eagle not powerful and glorious? Is the Black Rhino not an awe inspiring beast? Yet the world is full of cockroaches,
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What makes you think "funnest game" is an import factor in fitness let along the only factor?
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Zynga has adapted to the Facebook environment incredibly well.
Many people underestimate the competitive advantage that colonizers have, and after an ecosystem is developed they ask, "Why in the hell did X become dominant here? Y is so much more superior." Well, X got there first and adapted well enough that they could leverage their position as colonizer to remain dominant in the face of a superior, but later, competitor. It's common in biology, and it seems that many fail to recognize the impact of it simp
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You're assuming a "fun" game is a "successful" game. Zynga's games aren't that much fun... they use some pretty nifty psychological tricks to get you hooked, kind of like WoW and EverQuest, only for a more casual audience. The design of the games is extremely clever, not from a game-design point of view, but from a B. F. Skinner point of view. They are designed to make you want to play not because they are fun, but despite the fact that they really aren't all that fun.
Zynga figured out how to drill right
Facebook gaming... (Score:1)
Blatant Ad for my FB game (Score:1)
....which is having its 'Oxygen Cut off', by Zinga.
Remember 'Owned!' on facebook, the game where you traded your gallery pictures, but moved to MYB about a year ago?
My game, 'Possessed', aims to fill the void left. However, I don't have the same viral marketing means that Owned! had at its disposal since Facebook have all but made 'player invite' requests useless, so have just a few 100 players. But, now this is posted on slashdot, I'm hopeing to have millions more in the next few hours!! (in my dreams
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If 70 million slashdot users sign up in the next few hours, then I can post a new slashdot story "How Tony's Possessed game Drew 70 Million Players In Less Than a DAY"...
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If 70 million slashdot users sign up in the next few hours, then I can post a new slashdot story "How Tony's Possessed game Drew 70 Million Players In Less Than a DAY"...
Or just lie and say they did, then maybe they will.
Not that *that* could 'ever' happen.
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Well since most of us are at work and certainly some percentage of works block things like Facebook (well mine does anyway), you'll have to live with 30 mil now and 30 mil after work :)
[John]
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Not only Zenga. (Score:5, Informative)
I am helping a friend make a "facebook game" and within 1 week in alpha status with ONE post to friends we already have 10,000 players. He is studying Zenga's money making setups and asking how we can replicate them. I suggested lower prices to entice the dollars out of the wallet faster.
Honestly, if you can find some half-assed coders and a http server with mysql and php on it and have a game idea that is somewhat fun you can get a million players easily. I suck at PHP,HTML5, JS and it's working. IF he actually hired some skilled people and some skilled artists, he would be doing far better.
The number of facebook games out there that are crap are amazing and they have players..
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Why don't you do something of use to society instead, like deal drugs?
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Utilizing existing infrastructure to generate wealth with no more investment than personal time is of benefit to society. Creation, even of trivial objects, is of more benefit than blind consumption.
All of that is to say, making a shitty Facebook game is of more societal benefit than posting snarky comments on Slashdot. But just barely.
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By itself, no, it's not.
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With the reasonable expectation that a certain percentage will be returned in taxes and increased spending that will then, in turn, be utilized in some part to maintain the existing infrastructure, it is.
Dollars come from somewhere and go to somewhere, and a bit is lifted off the top every time it changes hands. That's what keeps the wheels turning.
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There's a difference?
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Maybe he likes the outside of a jail better.
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crack (Score:3)
Cityville (Score:1)
The name cityville means "city city". I wouldn't play the game on the stupid name alone.
no one remembers Sim City (Score:2)
i've spent days playing it starting on the commodore 64 where it was just a bunch of squares. farmville and others are just slightly altered versions of Sim City and Civilization. so many people play them because they are on facebook and don't need to spend $50 plus extra DLC money to play the game
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Actually those games are nothing like Civilization and only superficially like Sim City. There is really no strategy at all, it's basically a matter of putting in the time to get the levels. If you work at it, there's no way you can "lose" because you can always continue with a little more time and effort (or take a shortcut with money).
Amen to that (Score:1)
I have two facebook games Rogue Agent [rogueagentonline.com] and World of Avlis [worldofavlis.com] and I have a bear of a time getting players for them:
1) Because I don't have tens of millions to spend on ads
2) Because I don't have the flashy fla
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* They don't have to spend advert dollars to do that. Yes, they do have to spend coding, art, and QA dollars to get said object in the game.
Ah, so it's just like... (Score:3)
Where it used to be an egalitarian environment in which any developer could strike it big, over the last year it has become top-heavy with larger developers accruing exponential success, and cutting off oxygen to smaller companies by default.
Interesting, so it's like that thing... what's it called? Oh yeah: EVERYTHING, EVER.
Just be aware of sudden extra requirements (Score:3)
I was playing Farmville happily and suddenly Facebook said, "give us your mobile account number or you can't get back into your account".
Not a big problem- create new account that doesn't require mobile number- point friends at it, continue (well at least for now). But any progress made in Zynga games lost. So now I view Zynga games as something that can be lost arbitrarily without warning at any time.
So I quit. Took about a week and now that time is filled mostly with other equally dumb things. OTH, I am drawing again a little too.
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Nope. This one locked it. It *required* a mobile number. I have a "we'd like your mobile" number on the new account.
The other wanted my mobile number- it would send a text to the mobile number that I would type in as a password to unlock my account.
I posted on zinga and the post got over 150 responses of similar hits. It apparently happens frequently if more than oneperson uses facebook on your internet connection.
Seems to be a natural progression (Score:2)
as populations move off the farm and to the cities.
Cost per user acquisition (Score:3)
Zynga is the Devil (Score:1)
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How does that make zynga the devil?
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Half the CafeWorld players aren't active (Score:1)
Supposedly Zynga says I have 250 CafeWorld "neighbors", but half of those are "vacant" Zynga accounts.
They had some forced activities that drew everyone into CityVille, so their total numbers - based on looking at the many hundreds of "potential neighbors" my new CityVille shows - have about HALF of those accounts not playing - e.g. level 1 or level 2. You get to level 2 within the first game session tutorial.
And they provide no easy method to "drop" inactive "neighbors" to buff up their numbers.
70 million emails & a ton of spam (Score:2)
CityVille is requesting permission to do the following:
* Access my basic information
Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information I've shared with everyone.
* Send me email
CityVille may email me directly at myemailaddress@somewhere
* Post to my Wall