While fun to play for many, the overwhelming success of online games from Zynga can largely be attributed to how they gather acquaintances who otherwise would not have much to say to the other game, Chief Designer of the company, said on Tuesday.
"The games are about keeping in touch with people you care about," said Brian Reynolds, who spoke at the Conference Engage digital game that will be held this week in New York, in conjunction with Toy Fair 2011.
And while close friends certainly play Zynga with one another, the average user interacts more about FarmVille or MafiaWars with acquaintances "does not normally have conversations with," said Reynolds, in an interview, promising to reveal the secrets of success of Zynga.
Since it was founded in 2007, Zynga has been a runaway success, earning over 360 million users monthly games like FarmVille, Mafia wars and CityVille.
Hardcore gamers may scoff at the easy playability of Zynga Games, but Reynolds stated that Zynga is the future of the gaming industry, one where the games are created for a mass audience. Reynolds "games are not just for geeks anymore," he said.
The idea seems to have some support: The Wall Street Journal reported that the investment firm has estimated that the company could be worth $ 9 billion. If true, this lightweight service provider social games would be worth more than what is traditionally regarded as the largest digital game, Electronic Arts, which currently has a market capitalization of approximately $ 6.6 billion.
Zynga has focused on the development of games that "anyone can play," said Reynolds, dismissing the games as World of Warcraft as targeted for "hardcore" gamers. The trend is towards game concepts, such as executing a city or a company, which can be enjoyed by a wider audience, if more casual, he said.
The most powerful of these games, he said, is that they provide a way for people to communicate with one another, especially those that otherwise might not have much to say.
Reynolds points to the composition of the list of friends, most people on Facebook, where a considerable number of Zynga Games you played. While a couple of people on the list of friends from any person's close friends, most are more distant acquaintances, as ex-employees, distant relatives, friends from college or high school. These are people who probably cares about a person, though not enough to engage in a conversation with daily.
Social games casual acquaintances enables such a way to interact, working on a joint text, said Reynolds.
It is also important for the success of Zynga to the asynchronous nature of the games. Role playing games like World of Warcraft requires that a group of friends all meet on the service at the same time, should they want to play together, said Reynolds.
On the contrary, friends can play Zynga at any time, and still feel like they are working. Zynga Games are well-suited to fill the time between random stretches daily activities. Users can play for a minute or two in the morning, waiting for a plane, or between the activities in the workplace.
"While you're watching me, your employees are playing our games," Reynolds joked.
Reynolds noted that Zynga enjoyed some advantages compared to traditional games. Because its games are lighter, they can be developed more quickly than the three-year cycle that is the norm in the industry. Fewer designers are needed for each game and stakes are lower for each release, a game that fail to capture the public's imagination.
Also, because the graphic is bound by limitations of bandwidth online, designers must concentrate on the game, rather than e-aspect of the game.
A key to the success of Zynga is that games allow people to express themselves, said Reynolds. The game should both be open quite late and include sufficient creative elements so that when users complete certain objective or create something, it becomes an expression of their personality.
An example of expressivity, Reynolds finds Zynga Games allow players to marry characters their spouses imaginary. Consequently, more than 646,000 of these unions are homosexual marriage. By comparison, has noticed that there are only about 150,000 same-sex unions lawfully recognized in the United States.
The games should also provide a mechanism to share their creative works. He admitted that the Zynga seeds its status messages that get shared on Facebook with provocative statements modestly, like for example "Margaret needs some good screws", or "Scott just wood," in the hope that users will share these with a knowing wink-and-a-nod.
"Yes, this is what we do, make stupid jokes with one another," he said. "People want ways to begin a conversation with one another."
Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and General technology breaking news for the IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @ Joab_Jackson. E-mail address of Joab is Joab_Jackson@idg.com
No comments:
Post a Comment