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Spam concerns
Many of Zynga's games involve players posting messages to non-players, often for in-game benefits. Many non-players have notably complained about such communications created by those games that appear to them as "spammy." Peter Jamison described Zynga's communications as a "deluge" of "unwanted gifts or requests for neighborly 'help'".[57] Facebook groups created to express displeasure regarding overexposure of Zynga's games attracted millions of members.[42] As a result of this, Facebook modified their application developers policy to prevent applications from sending messages to news feeds of friends or submitting updates to the notifications bar.[58][59] Kotaku attributed the removal of Facebook notifications to a decline of users of Zynga games in April and May 2010.[60]
Game quality
Critics like Nick Saint of Business Insider have said that Zynga's games have essentially the same mechanics even though they have different premises and settings.[59]Georgia Tech professor Ian Bogost came up with the name "cow clickers" for such challenge-free games that demand little more than clicking on things,[61] and eventually created the satirical Facebook game Cow Clicker, an "attempt to distill the social game genre down to its essence". The game has become quite popular.[62]
The criticism applies to the "social games genre" in general, though Zynga is emphasized as one of the most cynical companies. Ian Bogost has four points of criticism: the concept of enframing ("In social games, friends aren't really friends; they are mere resources"), compulsion ("brain hacks that exploit human psychology in order to make money"), Optionalism ("the gameplay in social games is almost entirely optional. The play acts (...) can be skipped [by] spending cash money (...). Social games are games you don't have to play.") and Destroyed Time ("social games (...) also destroy the time we spend away from them. (...) ")[61]
Replication of existing games
Zynga has been accused several times of copying game concepts of popular games by competing developers.[63][64]
The launch of Mafia Wars sparked a lawsuit from the makers of Mob Wars.[65] An attorney for Psycho Monkey, the creators of Mob Wars, said that in making Mafia Wars, Zynga "copied virtually every important aspect of the game."[66] The suit was settled out of court for $7–9 million.[67]
An Ars Technica column said that Zynga's Café World and Playfish's Restaurant City were "nearly identical"; Café World was released six months after Restaurant City. Its gameplay, design, graphics, avatars, and even in-game items are almost identical to the ones in Restaurant City. Many players who have played Restaurant City and Café World have noticed the extreme similarities between both games.[68] In addition, journalists have remarked that Zynga's FarmVille is similar to Farm Town, with Peter Jamison calling it "uncannily similar."[57][66]
In September 2010, SF Weekly reported that an employee recalled Mark Pincus advising him to "copy what [Zynga's competitors] do and do it until you get their numbers."[57]
NimbleBit founder Ian Marsh has accused Zynga of copying its award-winning Tiny Tower game to create Dream Heights.[69][70] Within a week, Buffalo Studios alleged that its game Bingo Blitz was copied by Zynga in making Zynga Bingo.[71] Pincus responded by saying that tower-building games have existed since SimTower (1994) and that Zynga uses mechanics and ideas developed throughout the history of video games to create "best in market games". He added that Bingo Blitz has similarities to the discontinued Zynga game Poker Blitz.[72] In response, Marsh argued that other tower games like SimTower and Tower Bloxx are substantially different from Tiny Tower and Dream Heights, and that Zynga copied Tiny Tower's "core gameplay mechanics and rules" and tutorial steps.[73]
Other companies have responded by copying Zynga's games as well. Playfish, publisher of Pet Society (a game similar to Zynga's Petville), announced the creation of Poker Rivals to rival Zynga Poker.[64] Playfish then launched a game called Gangster City, which is similar to Mafia Wars.
Zynga founder Mark Pincus has dismissed the criticisms, saying that competing video game makers have always released similar titles for each genre of game.[42] The managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners said that creating similar competing games has "always been part of the game industry."[66]
Following Zynga's January 2012 release of Hidden Chronicles, Paul Tassi of Forbes wrote that Zynga "refuses to innovate in any way, and is merely a follower when it comes to ideas and game design."[74]
Viability
Many journalists have questioned the viability of Zynga's business model. Ray Valdes questioned the long-term prospects for Zynga, saying that it would be difficult for the company to make new titles to replace old ones whose novelty is fading.[13] In December 2009, Tadhg Kelly, writing for Gamasutra, said that Zynga was at the "end of the beginning," noting that Zynga's business model is dependent on Facebook continuing to operate in the same manner and users continuing to expect the same quality of games, among others. Kelly also compared Zynga to Atari, which also churned out large numbers of simple games prior to the North American video game crash of 1983 and further claimed that Zynga's approach of creating similar clones of popular games would be impossible for deeper games.[75] Tom Bollich, a former Zynga investor, said that it is impossible to make a cheap viral game, and that retaining customers is difficult.[57]
In an October 2011 article in The Wall Street Journal, Ben Levisohn said that Zynga has "issues that could limit its upside," such as its dependence on Facebook and its reliance on a small percentage of users and a small number of games for most of its revenue.[76]
Scam ads
Through 2009 Zynga made money from lead generation advertising schemes, whereby game participants would earn game points by signing up for featured credit cards or video-rental services. These were criticized as being less cost-effective than simply buying game points, and in some cases, being outright scams that would download unwanted software or unwittingly sign up for a recurring subscription.[42] One ad signed up players for subscriptions to expensive and unwanted text-messaging services.[43]
On October 31, 2009, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch said that Zynga intentionally worked with scam advertisers, and that lead generation made up a third of Zynga's revenue.[77] Arrington also alleged that Facebook was complicit in this.[78] On November 2, 2009, CEO Mark Pincus announced a reform in its offers: Tatto Media, a major offer provider that enrolled users into recurring cell phone subscriptions, would be banned, all mobile offers would be removed, and offer providers would be required to pre-screen offers.[79]
Arrington continued to question Pincus' role in the scams, republishing a video of a speech by Pincus.[80] In the speech, Pincus said:
So I funded [Zynga] myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this Zwinky toolbar which was like, I don't know, I downloaded it once and couldn’t get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business.
—Mark Pincus, Speech from Startup@Berkeley
In response, Pincus noted that after offering the Zwinky toolbar, his team of ten decided to remove it since it was a "painful experience".[81]
Several days after the Techcrunch story, Zynga's most recent Facebook game FishVille, was temporarily taken offline by Facebook on claim of advertising violations. According to Zynga, Fishville had 875,000 users within two days of launch. A release from Facebook on its reasons for taking the game offline read that "FishVille will remain suspended until Facebook is satisfied that Zynga demonstrates compliance with Facebook restrictions – as well as Zynga’s own restrictions – on the ads it offers users."[82]FishVille was later un-suspended at midnight November 9–10.[83]
Several suits were filed against Zynga for promoting such offers,[84][85] including the class-action lawsuit Swift v. Zynga in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for violation of the Unfair competition law and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, after the lead plaintiff's credit card was billed more than $200 for offers she completed to receive YoVille currency.[86][87][88]
Pincus later said that he had been too eager to increase company revenues through advertising, and that operating in reactive mode by taking down ads only after receiving complaints had not worked. The company removed all ads for a time, relying only on direct purchase of game currency, then began reintroducing third party ads only after they had been screened.[42]
Treatment of employees
Zynga has an industry wide reputation of mistreating employees.[89][90] The company uses an adversarial employee management model, where departments are battled against other departments and employee against employee. In October 2011, employees complained to management about long hours and stressful deadlines. This reputation has killed several proposed mergers and acquisitions, including Popcap and Rovio and it nearly derailed the acquisition of MyMiniLife, which developed the technology that is the basis for FarmVille. There are multiple reports of employees who plan to quit the company and cash in their stock options as soon as the IPO is finalized.[89] A recruiting firm reportedly sent cookie baskets to over 150 Zynga employees.[90]
Beginning in 2009, Zynga reduced equity packages for a limited number of employees by offering them the choice of accepting a smaller equity package or being fired.[3] In November 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported that Zynga had demanded that some employees give back their unvested shares or face termination. The company's executives justified the strategy as being in the best interest of the company as the stock could be used to attract other top talent.[91][92] Although a San Francisco employment lawyer said in The Wall Street Journal that Zynga's actions would violate the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, no court has ruled on the issue since it has been rare for companies to demand non-vested stock as a condition of continued employment.[92]
Intellectual property
In September 2009 Zynga was threatened with legal action by Nissan for using their trademarks in the game Street Racing. Zynga subsequently renamed and changed the thumbnail images of all cars that were branded Nissan and Infiniti to "Sindats" and "Fujis" with the thumbnails changed.[93] At the time they also renamed and redesigned automobiles depicted as being made by GM, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Saab, and others.
In September 2009, Zynga initiated trade secrets lawsuits against Playdom and 22 other rivals,[94] including Green Patch which Playdom acquired in November 2009. These lawsuits were finally settled in November 2010.[95]
In October 2010, Zynga was criticized on Hacker News[96] and other social media sites for having filed a patent application[97] relating to the ability to purchase virtual currency for cash on gambling and other gaming sites. Commentators said that significant prior art exists for the concept.
In January 2011, Techdirt reported that Zynga had sent a cease and desist letter to Blingville alleging trademark infringement for its use of the letters "ville" in the name of a proposed Facebook game. Blingville has filed a suit for declaratory judgment that it is not infringing a Zynga trademark.[98] As reported in Gamasutra, Jay Monahan of Zynga responded by saying that Blingville's "[use] of the name 'BlingVille' is an obvious attempt to capitalize on the fame and goodwill associated with Zynga's family of 'ville' games which includes FarmVille and CityVille".[99] In November 2011, Inside Mobile Apps wrote that Zynga's lawyers demanded that mobile game developer Latman Interactive abandon its trademark registration for the game Quackville.[100] Night Owl Games has also filed a lawsuit for declaratory judgment that its game Dungeonville does not infringe any Zynga trademarks after Zynga protested Night Owl's registration of the Dungeonville trademark.[101]
On May 20, 2011, it was reported that The Learning Company, owners of The Oregon Trail trademark, filed a trademark infringement suit against Zynga, which is planning an "Oregon Trail" expansion to FrontierVille.[102] The Learning Company had previously contacted Zynga about an Oregon Trail game on Facebook, but Zynga declined.[103] On May 24, Games.com writer Brandy Shaul wrote that Zynga was dropping the Oregon Trail name and soliciting new names for the expansion.[104] The name of the expansion is now "Pioneer Trail".
Other criticism
In March 2009, CEO Mark Pincus admitted that Zynga has been running gambling affiliate ads in their Facebook games for a year.[105]
In late May 2010, the Norwegian Consumer Council filed a complaint to the Data Inspectorate regarding breaches of the Data Protection Act.[106]
In August 2010, the San Francisco city attorney's office complained about the firm's guerrilla marketing campaign for its Mafia Wars game that pasted fake money on city sidewalks, calling it "vandalism".[107]
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