It hurt to know that one of the leads from the sci-fi strategy epic 'Alpha Centauri' was working at the place that made Farmville - a known sucker-magnet. It must have been soul-destroying.
Good luck to him.
I fear this "social" fad has wasted the time of a number of bright minds in the games industry. Has anything worthwhile and memorable come of it?
This board hates Zynga a whole lot more than their customers do because we are not their customers. This board is the equivalent of someone from an older generation sneering with contempt as I spend 12 hours straight in a raid.
My point is not to disparage this board, but to point out that anyone who plays modern video games shouldn't look down on casual games, because both have fully embraced addiction as a fundamental mechanic (as television did a long time ago, although it has recently upped its intensity as well).
Zynga is devoid of any emotion or creativity and is only seeking to make money through addictive mechanics, but have you played any SOE or EA games lately?
FarmVille is a game with hundreds of thousands of concurrent users, with a constraint to make as much money as possible and keep current users coming back, and with fierce competition. Sounds like an interesting space to be in.
Sounds more like a casino than game development to me.
"life" itself.
A large portion of "Life" today consists of the process of creating desire for the unecessary (U) by association of these U's with basic human desires (sex, food et al.)
Thus the economy is born and a constant insaitable need for growth, when conceivably in a different system for a global, connected, technologically advanced race such as ours, there could be plenty for all, and we could all be provided for. (Note (1) This smells of Utopia, I admit I don't know how we would deal with boredom -- perhaps via extraordinary expressions of the creative act?) (2) The point is that the current system is a paradigm, and to sustain itself must maintain separation of "have's" and "have nots", and thus must consist in some exploitation, lest the division be destroyed and the labour force caused to cease to exist. The only way such a labour force remains in check is that there most be "money" which is "earned" via a "job" and is "required" for the meeting of basic needs and thus is what makes you win in the "struggle for survival". )
And I don't think you established a connection to addictiveness either. (Your attempt requires me to agree with allowing you to decide what is "(un)necessary" for me and everybody else, which I do not concede.) Food, shelter, water, clothing, furniture, and the other human needs are not addictive. Even sex is generally not addictive.
Thank you for the compliment.
I am sorry for the misunderstanding, and perhaps anything I may have said to offend. The misunderstanding, I believe, stems from the fact that we define addiction differently. This is a matter of philosophy and opinion, and unless you would entertain me there I fear we would be communicating as one German to an Aboriginal, that is, not at all.
For what it is worth, I present my definition: For all objects and beings (X), addiction is that state whereby contact with X does not actually yield any utility (happiness, satisfaction, what ever you want to call it) but non-contact therewith is a source of discomfort. It's like an extrapolation of diminishing marginal utility, which, I must confess, I know little about. This definition of addiction is somewhat broad, but includes the narrower, more conventional versions, and contains a deep insight about human nature and the overcoming of addiction(s) in general. That is beyond the scope of this response.
It is also based on personal reflection and experience, which conventional scientists would deem "anecdotal" or not "statistically significant", but to me, this is a valid source of knowledge, especially if you have a strong, logically consistent metaphysical system which presents isomorphisms, as it were, with your own experience of Reality.
edit: Typo's
This encourages antisocial and exploitative techniques, which many consider soul destroying.
Interesting use of interesting.
The stuff you've used to qualify Farmville there would apply to directly to dealing in drugs, sex, weapons, money laundering - just about anything.
http://venturebeat.com/2010/02/18/zyngas-chief-designer-shar...
Key points to take away: - We launch new games on insignificant fractions of our overall budget - Metrics help us figure out whether newly introduced features actually help us earn more. - Devising a way to "shame" users into playing more was our most effective recent new innovation.