[Zynga Fail] Oh man, you guys HAVE to read this.

[fungusman]

So a leaked internal letter hit the blogs today addressing some issues that they were copying other peoples game ideas. There are some curse words so I'll NSFW it.

"After taking heat over allegations of copying hit indie game Tiny Tower, Zynga founder Mark Pincus wrote an internal memo justifying the company's strategy of cloning competing titles, citing the Google search engine and Apple iPod as successful products which weren't first in their markets. Pincus infamously told employees: 'I don't want f*cking innovation. You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.'"

Here is the slashdot link
Leaked Zynga Memo Justifies Copycat Strategy - Slashdot (http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/02/02/156248/leaked-zynga-memo-justifies-copycat-strategy)

Man this is such fail XD

[joz]

What the hell is a zynga?

[Tails]

What the hell is a zynga?
New pokemon perhaps?

[jim5cents]

Zynga is a game developer, mostly responsable for every other game you see on Facebook and other browsers. Farmville, Mafia Wars, Fishville, Zynga Poker are a few of their more popular titles.

In a nutshell, a smaller company named NimbleBit made a hugely popular game called Tiny Tower that Zynga basically cloned and then called Dream Heights.

Zynga is notorious for coping games, notable Mafia Wars from Mob Wars, Zynga Bingo from Bingo Blitz. Farmville from Farmtown, and Cafe World from Restaraunt City.

I don't know about the others, but I do know there was a lawsuit concerning Mafia Wars/Mob Wars, Zynga settled out of court.

This leaked memo doesn't shed anymore light on what everyone knew, that the owner of Zynga, Mark Pincus is basically a stealing SOB looking to take the work of others and make money on it.

[warghoul]

So they copy crappy games. That means they make crappy games...no wonder I've never heard of them.

[joz]

I never played those app games. I've gotten invites, but I always block them so I eventually stopped getting invites.

[jim5cents]

Crappy or not crappy, that is a matter of opinion. I can say that they are highly addicitive. One of the best things I ever did was quit playing Mafia Wars, I was seriously wasting up to 30 minutes a day playing that.

Their games are extremely popular and I think the company is valved somewhere in the 9 billion dollar range.

[Dudebro]

I played some FB games, but only of the RTS ancient China Variety. Those other games just bored the hell out of me. I do know a bunch of people who got addicted to Mafia Wars though.

[Slime Slayer]

I was seriously wasting up to 30 minutes a day playing that.
http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/508/watch-out-we-got-a-badass-over-here-meme.png

[joz]

Dudebro has a tie just like that one.

[Slime Slayer]

Dudebro has a tie just like that one.
Who are those turds anyway?

[Dudebro]

Dudebro has a tie just like that one.
Actually no. That hilarious picture is of Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist who does great work helping people understand science. He has an obsession with the cosmos, naturally, and that tie actually heavenly bodies like comets. I tried to find the exact pic that came from but no dice. This one has a cool quote so it's better anyways-
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/unyobroyo/science-literacy.jpg

My tie is paisley :teeth:

[fungusman]

Actually no. That hilarious picture is of Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist who does great work helping people understand science. He has an obsession with the cosmos, naturally, and that tie actually heavenly bodies like comets. I tried to find the exact pic that came from but no dice. This one has a cool quote so it's better anyways-
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/unyobroyo/science-literacy.jpg

My tie is paisley :teeth:


lol I'm watching a course of his right now and I had no idea this was that guy.

[Dudebro]

I like him a lot for the effort he puts into helping people understand science so I recognized him almost immediately. He's as cool as Bill Nye.

[KATZ]

He's as cool as Bill Nye.

all he needs is a cool theme song :D

[Dudebro]

Well he does have a pretty cool intro for the show he hosts, Nova Science Now. It's only 15 seconds long though-
Nova ScienceNOW PBS Opening 2008 - YouTube

Bill Nye has a catchier tune but he's also appealing to a young crowd. ;)