No more fun and games for Zynga as Facebook cuts apron strings Zynga can no longer cream off users from Facebook, after Mark Zuckerberg's company revised a lucrative deal the games outfit once had with the network. According to a US regulatory filing, Facebook has backed out of a very chummy agreement it had in place with Zynga since December 2010. It's likely that Facebook has lost …
Neither Facebook nor Zynga is particularly likeable. Zynga is a "game" company with the unfortunate habit of ripping off other company's games, turning them into thinly veiled skinner boxes and monetizing the hell of people addicted to them. Facebook is the company which hosted and gave them preferential status while all this crap was going on for a cut of the profits.
I wouldn't feel sad if either of them failed, but Zynga would be a good start.
Thanks, I've since done the obvious thing and read up on Wikipedia. Says:
- "2009, Zynga made money from lead generation advertising schemes, [...] These were criticized as [...] in some cases, being outright scams that would download unwanted software or unwittingly sign up for a recurring subscription. One ad signed up players for subscriptions to expensive and unwanted text-messaging services. [...] Michael Arrington of TechCrunch said that Zynga intentionally worked with scam advertisers, and that lead generation made up a third of Zynga's revenue. Arrington also alleged that Facebook was complicit in this."
- "Many of Zynga's games involve players posting messages to non-players, often for in-game benefits."
- Then a lovely quote from Zynga's founder/CEO: "So I funded [Zynga] myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this Zwinky toolbar which was like, I don't know, I downloaded it once and couldn’t get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business."
- And another: 'an ex-employee was cited quoting Mark Pincus as saying "I don't fucking want innovation. You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."'
There is more, there also a few positives though to be fair.
Stopped playing it when it became saturated with cr_app_y Facebork advertising which you could not turn off.
I do not now and will not ever join or use Facebook.
Apple, are you listening? When you start putting Twatter and Facebook etc stuff into your iOS, include a switch so that you NEVER EVER EVER have to have something you don't want thrust down your throat at every tap. This "social media integration" crap is not wanted by everyone so stop waving Zukerberk's dong in front of my face at every opportunity, will ya?!
/rant.
Apple, are you listening? When you start putting Twatter and Facebook etc stuff into your iOS, include a switch so that you NEVER EVER EVER have to have something you don't want thrust down your throat at every tap.
You could just, you know, not fill in the bits where it asks for accounts and passwords. That works.
Oh! I'm so stupid! Let's try that...
OK, so as I have no account details for Facebork or Twatter I've not filled anything in...
Visit my favourite IT online newspaper in Safari App...
Hit the icon for add bookmark...
Oh dear, item number 5 in the list "Tweet" - and I've been face raped again and it's YOUR FAULT.
/tongue-cheek
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