

Zynga creative chief quits - anigbrowl
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444506004577618133483225566.html?mod=WSJ_hpsMIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

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luriel
_"Zynga creative chief"_ sounds like an oxymoron.

~~~
dsirijus
I don't like Zynga, but...

Why all this bashing? Not creative? Back in 2009, Zynga was THE role model for
basically all viral methods on Facebook platform. You didn't have to do any
R&D, just check out what they were doing.

That's creative allright in my book.

~~~
doomlaser
[http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-
gaming...](http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming-
ecosystem-of-hell/)

 _"A typical scam: users are offered in game currency in exchange for filling
out an IQ survey. Four simple questions are asked. The answers are irrelevant.
When the user gets to the last question they are told their results will be
text messaged to them. They are asked to enter in their mobile phone number,
and are texted a pin code to enter on the quiz. Once they’ve done that,
they’ve just subscribed to a $9.99/month subscription."_

~~~
dsirijus
I'm quite aware of the "scams" they were pulling back then. Those "scams" were
the ones that were indirectly getting most of the FBs profit.

But I'd kindly direct you to The Worst Argument [1], if the implied shadiness
of becoming of Zynga is the argument you're trying to do.

But, along those lines - 'creative accounting' is an example of shady
practices which are very creative indeed.

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4441734>

~~~
chris_wot
Perhaps you should redirect that reference to your not relevant link to the
author of the article that is cited and quoted. You asked why Zynga was
getting beaten up so much, you got an answer to your question.

~~~
dsirijus
The parent to which I replied edited the comment, so you can't see the
relevance.

~~~
chris_wot
In that case, I apologise most sincerely.

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doomlaser
"Mr. Verdu, whose last day was Tuesday, will be _starting a new venture funded
by Zynga_ , the company said."

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bobbles
My two favourite games on my iPhone were Draw Something and Words with
Friends.. until they were bought by Zynga.

The apps have become so 'social' and zyngafied to the point of almost being
unplayable. (Constant spam for other apps, 'fake' notifications for Zynga app
updates, HUGE decrease in performance, and so on)

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samstave
The day OMGPOP was bought by zynga - I deleted the game. Never went back.
Never will play a zynga game.

The day quora fucked with user settings, I deleted my quora account.

I put my mouth where my money is. I am not content to be fucked with.

I have never had a facebook account for the same reasons.

I am sensing there is a market here.... (I'm lying... there has always ben a
market here - just nobody with balls to tackle it - plus given the NSAs BS.. I
am guessing there is one HNer that has not only the balls, but the technical
chops to handle a great service... RDL)

~~~
eropple
So if you think that everyone to date is wrong and that there really is money
in it--why aren't you doing it yourself? If you think it's a lack of "balls"
keeping others from catering to your niche, do it yourself. But rather, I
think that you're not giving people enough credit. Why would they cater to
_you_ when they can cater to people with lesser expectations and freer,
larger-in-aggregate wallets?

It's not that there isn't a market. It's that that market is very high-
maintenance and, if you look at other similar products, probably extremely
difficult to effectively monetize. Targeting users who come with the twin
attributes of being touchy and quick to leave _and_ are probably unresponsive
to advertising and other straightforward "you don't pay" models does not
strike me as a brilliant decision. The success stories in the described niche
--Tarsnap comes to mind--seem mostly to be very small businesses or strange
attempts at capturing the zeitgeist a la App.net. (Tarsnap being a small
business isn't an inherent negative; I personally have little use for the
"startup startup startup, business plans optional" silliness that seems to be
infecting the tech sector and cperciva has built a great product. But you're
not complaining about Dropbox, you're complaining about Quora and Facebook,
which have very different business needs.)

.

Or, put another, admittedly more cynical way: I don't know many people who
want to cater to a market segment that will hate them as soon as they start
needing to find ways to make payroll. Some people price themselves into or out
of a market segment. You behave yourself out of what have heretofore been
economically viable ones. Which is totally fine if that's your bag, but
following that up with complaints that people who want to make money aren't
interested in catering you is...curious.

There are generally easier ways to make money than to build low-barrier-to-
departure services for demanding, temperamental people. So it goes.

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__________
_Why would they cater to you when they can cater to people with lesser
expectations and freer, larger-in-aggregate wallets?_

Is that a serious question? If so: because at some point a larger, but highly
competitive market promises much less profit than a smaller one that is
completely untapped.

~~~
eropple
Sure, but not thinking we're at that point isn't a failure of "balls", it's an
economic calculation. The person I replied to wasn't thinking in terms of
economics, he was thinking in terms of WANT WANT WANT.

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VSerge
The title is a bit misleading. He is starting to work at a venture funded by
Zynga, so it is more like switching jobs than really quitting.

~~~
zachinglis
Exactly what I was thinking.

Zynga are noticing the issues they're having and trying to create a few more
lifeboats.

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ddt
The moment Zynga decided they were going to make their money as a me-too game
studio, they sealed their fate. You can get people in the Skinner Box for
awhile, and get them to peck you millions upon millions of dollars, but
eventually your brand is tarnished to the point where not even your most
active users will vouch for you. And now they're going through the process of
retiring executives and the standard hallmarks of a company desperately trying
to make something broken work.

~~~
robryan
Wasn't this pretty much when they were created? If anything Zynga was
considered to have even lower ethics earlier on, when they presented people
with super low quality offers like SMS signups for people to earn things
ingame.

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ulfw
They had a creative chief?

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Wingman4l7
That must have been a really hard job, trying to pick which game to clone
next...

~~~
wilfra
That's a bit unfair to him. If you read the article his job was to represent
creatives at the senior management level. That doesn't mean he was the
creative dictator and at a company so focused on data-driven development, he
probably didn't have much power at all. Which means he probably hated and/or
disagreed with many decisions that were made and argued against them. Would
explain him now leaving the company...

~~~
robryan
Or more cynically he supported the Zynga way and is only jumping ship now
because the company is sinking.

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kbatten
I have a terrible feeling that WSJ is using hackernews here. This post is
pretty meaningless, and the title does not agree with the few sentences of an
"article."

"Quiting" has a much different connotation than being funded by your employer.

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anigbrowl
It's my fault, not that of the WSJ. I could have picked a better word to
describe it.

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chris_wot
Guess people aren't laughing at Shay Pierce any more, huh?

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zerostar07
Does that imply they have a whole creative _team_ ?

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panacea
Who did you think came up with all the graphics for their 'games'?

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michaelochurch
Kids drawn in from the circus by Mark Pincus in the clown suit.

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wilfra
Here is the same story not behind a paywall:

[http://allthingsd.com/20120828/exclusive-zyngas-chief-
creati...](http://allthingsd.com/20120828/exclusive-zyngas-chief-creative-
officer-mike-verdu-exits-to-start-a-new-company/)

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protolif
Thanks for that! I was somewhat interested, but not enough to subscribe to
WSJ.

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andrewcooke
whenever you hit a wsj article that is firewalled, select the first line of
text, search for it, and go back to wsj from google. you'll see the whole
article.

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acheron
Yeah, that also works for NYT, the new Boston Globe site that's paywalled, and
most other paywall sites.

~~~
wilfra
NYT isn't paywalled. You just signup for a free account and you can view
articles.

