Not allowed in Zynga's forums!
Well, that's not true - but you're most assuredly not allowed to express any opinions or input that are in any way critical of Zynga.
My most recent slap was for suggesting that it seems clear that Zynga is now employing altogether too many developers - and even some customer ~service~ reps - who do not play the game.
There is a great deal of evidence to support this notion:
Tedium. The game has become filled with it.
- Useless pop-ups. My personal favourite is "Awesome! You've planted your mystery tree seedling and now need some watering cans to nourish it! Ask your friends for some!" Yeah, because all of my friends will be really happy to click on a watering can image thinking they're collecting water only to find they're not getting a damn thing but a screen to send me a gift. I'll get right on that. NOT.
- Stupid things like super-crops which FILL bushel storage with useless bushels and require that the player click the arrow up once for each bushel they want to dispose of. When you SELL something from your gift box, you can click down as well as up, which saves a great deal of (useless) clicking - but that is not an option in the bushel storage, or when regifting items. The whole super-crop thing is useless and annoying, in my opinion. The only benefit to them is that it gives those well on their way in masteries ~new~ crops long/short-harvest crops to grow ... and that could have been accomplished much more effectively by ...gee, I dunno... actually giving us some new crops? How 'bout that?
- And most recently, not bothering to add a Use All option for raffle tickets. We know they know how to code Use All - they finally did for bees and animal feed and so on .... but raffle tickets have to be moved from gift box to raffle one at a time. Why are they even bothering to show up in the gift box, for that matter? Just put them where they need to go.
Greed
- New crops that cost FV$. Seriously? We're willing to cough up for the occasional FV$ crop for charity - it was a great idea for Haiti and so on - but for your own birthday celebration? You have got to be kidding me.
- Rising prices on everything. 300 FV$ for a platinum mastery statue - and then you change it so it only works on one farm rather than on both? How is that not greed? Land expansions that add up to about $50 of real money? Uh yeah...will get right on that. NOT. Speaking of shooting yourselves in the feet - do you not realize that if people have no room they also have no motivation to buy your cool buildings and animals and trees and ....what-the-hell-ever? Restrictions on land and storage only hurt your bottom line. DUH.
- Putting the items people collect (like horses) into the far too expensive misery game. Do you not understand that once people are prevented from getting something they have been collecting, they often STOP COLLECTING that thing altogether? If that was your goal - to make a whole lot of people with money to blow on your game stop being willing to blow money on your game - well done. Otherwise, how about you smarten the hell up and stop shooting yourselves in the feet just this once?
I get that Zynga is likely unhappy with their declining profits. A quick glance at their user stats over the course of 2011 make it very clear that they have GOT to be disappointed with revenue - but rather than trying to suck more money out of their loyal players who have stuck around through the various hiccups and mis-steps (most notably the throttle - don't even get me started on that one!! Worst idea ever - and it chased away MILLIONS of players; well-done, Zynga!) - how about you fix the problems that are keeping people (and their money) away in droves.
Suggestion #1
Developers and customer service reps MUST PLAY THE GAME.
If they can't be bothered to actually manage a farm, they should not be working on farmville. Period. Full stop.
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