Either way, 95% is a lot, and this doesn't bode well at all for anyone lower in the food chain.
More generally, I'm not thrilled by things that try to monetize my relationships with friends and family, which includes, to a degree Facebook itself.
The general rule: if you have the patience to wait for your energy to recharge, you can play for free (and without neighbors) for quite a while (weeks or months). You might miss out on some fancy extras, but even still, it's not bad in terms of length and depth, when compared to the 'free trial' phase of so-called "hardcore" games.
Not everyone has to play video games or want to.
Regardless, many people do try to promote activities or groups that they are involved with. Golfers who want to keep their courses uncrowded is a poor example; generally games get better as more people play.
Perhaps I've given the impression that I'm deeply passionate about Zynga becoming a success and for the world to unite under a flag of better gaming, but that's not what I'm after. I want to eliminate the stigmas of gaming, and as another poster said, expand the market.
That said, I'm bewildered by the anti-Zynga crowd here. No one forces people to play Farmville, and though I really hate the game, I'm not going to blame Zynga for people wasting their life away, just as I don't blame Blizzard for the people hooked on WoW. It's a choice people make.
Why do you want non-gamers to "feel good about
gaming"? Why do you care?
More gamers == more demand for games.
I care more about gaming than I probably should, and I'd welcome a larger community as well, but not if it means gaming comes to resemble the lowest-common-denominator shit we get from Zynga, et al.
If you want "hardcore" games, there is no shortage of new ones coming out.
Maybe you should stick to articulating your own opinions, rather than expanding on another's for him? I don't care if people play whatever rubbish issues forth from the bowels of Zynga's marketing department, but I'm not going to celebrate it in the name of getting more people playing games, either. At any rate your beef seems to be that I commented at all, or that you think I was rude, or just that I posted something you don't wholly agree with, or that I was criticizing someone's 'comment style' whatever that means (I think the pot might be calling the kettle black on that one). Not sure really what your problem is with me personally but my patience for your pointless sniping has worn thin so I think I'll conclude with 'fuck you' and be done with it.
Feel free to bring the issue up again when you see ducks and poker in the latest FPS.
I feel I have to say that this might be the saddest reason to want a company to do well: that its context is even more depressing.