Black Sheep

The game industry is incredibly tight knit and continues to act, despite its size, like it’s this small community. After going to a few conferences you begin to see the same faces and remember the names. In times of crisis, like the closure of 38 studios the community comes together to support one another and try to help those affected find new jobs. In general the attitude is incredibly positive and open.

However, there is one exception to the rule. Zynga.

When Marguerite and I attended GDC, we must have heard three of four pot shots taken at the company from devs at the IGF finals, or during their talk. It seems as if they are unofficially blacklisted from the game development community.

And why is that?

Because they approach game design from a pure business standpoint. Their games Farmville, Mafia Wars, Words with Friends, are all constructed to leech as much money from its players as possible. And what everyone finds so infuriating is that they are so successful to the point of a near monopoly like control over the Facebook platform.

So everyone was more than a little happy when Zynga’s stock went into freefall last week. Since January their stock was on a slow, but steady decline since Facebook itself has suffered from a shortage of users. But over the course of Friday the shares dropped from $10 a share to less than $3. The founder and the rest of internal business staff all decided to unload their shares at the same time, which screams bad business.

We will see how this plays out, but as of this moment, Zynga looks like it won’t be around for very much longer.