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I didn't mean to imply this article was about how FarmVille started or grew.

This history of FarmVille implies it was better game mechanics than Farm Town, and Zynga's installed base, that lead to FarmVille's success: http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/01/farmville-history/.

I'd also hypothesize that Zynga grew because they:

* Had a working revenue model, so they could pay for advertising without burning cash. And being able to advertise in the place where someone plays is helpful for conversions.

* Built on a growing platform (i.e., Facebook)

Extensive use of analytics to guide their game design, I think.

i remember as there was an article or comment on hn about how zynga used mail marketing aggresively.