[Discussion, Roadmap] Did Zynga change SGG roadmap for Empires? or Delay roadmap

[Gryphonknight]

Zynga

@BoolzSan_CrewKNIGHTS

SG goes to the Zynga way and keeps it up

Interesting that allegedly Zynga started by ripping off everyone ( common for many wealthy companies ) but was forced to buy Merge Dragons and Empires and Puzzles because they were both FUN and maximized micro transactions

Personally I think SGG, after being burned with Oddwing, is taking advantage of Zynga’s capital to faster implement its own maximum, efficient, micro transactions not Zynga forcing more micro transactions on SGG

Notes

Do not click, soooooooo ranty

Oddwing

Sometimes I catch myself wanting to compare pre Empire and Puzzles SGG with other specialty group casino owners - trying to earn back years of poverty by using Merciless RNG - until I look into all the help SGG got when starting up. It was a hail mary. But it was not their first, and only, chance to avoid starvation, nakedness, homeless, and poverty

Still, it is almost impossible to ethically mix micro transactions and Merciless RNG

Companies are trying to find alternatives

@Gryphonknight

SGG should put Oddwings on GameClub, I would love to try it.

Gacha and FOMO

From another discussion

Live service

I heard Genshin Impact is a live service game with lottery style RNG, and Fear Of Missing Out, mechanics. A freemium business model similar to Pokémon GO ( my wife was part of the original beta test ) and Empires and Puzzles ( my wife has played since v1.2+ )

So I strongly advise only Free 2 Play

Cosmetic, and power up, honey traps built into the business model will easily support the game without you needing to financially contribute

As a small business owner I think it is a brilliant way to rake in cash which pays back investors, buys capital investments and hires high quality talent

RNG/ Paywalls

As a game designer, modder, tabletop RPG GM/ DM, game forum moderator, the thing I hate most is the core tenant “95% of all high level content will be only available to 0.01% of the players”

Ethics

As an student of probability, history and ethics, I realize it is extremely hard - though not impossible- to get super rich without crossing a lot of ethical lines

Highly, profitable Gacha is usually implemented as unethical. Do not get me started on real life landfills and discarded Magic The Gathering basic lands

One gacha costs players $ 68,901+ USD for a 99 out of 100 chance of getting the highly sought after limited time hero Gravemaker. Another gacha costs players $ 19,892+ USD for a 99 out of 100 chance of getting the highly prized, limited time, 100% IV, shiny, Rayquaza. So for every 100 paying players who spend $ 15,000+ USD chasing Gravemaker, or 100% IV shiny Rayquaza, at least one will still fail to get the desired outcome

Ethical business uses of probability - various forms of insurance - are difficult to find. Marry into / join the US military and discover USAA insurance ( avoid the banking ). USAA dividend style insurance used to be significantly more common

Modders

Lately I have gravitated to games that encourage a modder community like Stardew Valley ( currently too poor to make mods for Skyrim or Fallout ). This not only encourages super fans, but hundreds of super fans / modders can prioritize changes, and updates, that are not business friendly but are player friendly

This is similar to right to repair ethics

100% Content

Lately I have heard Psychonauts 2 has an invincibility mode that intrigues me

100% content available to 100% customers

I love games with super granular difficulty setting

Zynga Buyout

Edit
The information about Niantic is outdated

Both egg mechanic and legendary pokémon mechanics are Merciless RNG, FOMO, loot box micro transactions

Click for Rant McRantFace

@Gryphonknight

Post Buyout

Does SGG post buyout have to be so jaded?

Niantic

Interesting Niantic was created by the core team that created Keyhole ( bought out by Google and turned into Google Maps ).

Without their passion project failing, Niantic’s core team is more optimistic. Leading to creative test platform Ingress - now Ingress Prime.

Which spawned Pokémon GO, then Harry Potter Wizards Unite, now planning 2x new games per year for next 5 years ( see notes ).

SGG

SGG poured their heart into Oddwings, and was badly burned.

They are creating updates -

Costume chamber

Tavern of legends summons

Alchemy lab

Hero academy -

That take the jaded approach, users do not need/ deserve balanced updates. To stay in this cutthroat, fadish business you need to prioritize making money.

Google

It also could be the buyout company.

Google is not your friend - no company with that market share is your friend. see European Union history with Google - but the motto “Do not be evil” at least gives them a guiding principle.

Zynga

Zynga is problematic.

Zynga has a history of some very shady business practices.

Hope

I still hope SGG will become more Google/ Niantic than past Zynga.

But SGG may have decided to learn a more Farmville business oriented direction from Zynga instead of teaching Zynga a more Oddwings / Empires directed business.

Notes

Click for notes

Oddwings

@Gryphonknight

Notes

See also

([History] Small Giant games- Empires and Puzzles )

Keyhole

(John Hanke - Wikipedia)

Niantic moving forward

And finally, there’s news on Niantic itself. Alongside growing its existing games, it has a product roadmap for 10 new launches, with the plan to debut two per year. Following up to Eurogamer, Niantic clarified this meant “two new products that will take the form of AR games or AR experiences, beginning this year”.

(Pokémon Go Fest 2020 plans laid out, as Niantic talks future of its game and company | Eurogamer.net)

Don’t be evil

(Don't be evil - Wikipedia)

Zynga

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has a predatory attitude toward gamers, and has told his programmers that pumping up profits is more important than the experience of actually playing the game, ex employees say in an excellent new SF Weekly cover story. Disillusioned employees have even reportedly given Zynga an unofficial motto: “Do Evil,” an inversion of Google’s informal slogan “Don’t be evil.”

(https://gawker.com/5634379/the-secret-dealer-for-farmville-addicts)

practice of stealing other companies’ game ideas — and then using Zynga’s market clout to crowd out the games’ originators — was business as usual.

. . .

Michelle Kim, a public-relations official with Brew Media Relations, which helps handle Zynga’s press inquiries, said the company is loathe to cooperate with stories, absent guarantees of mostly positive coverage.

“Unless they know everything about the article, and that there’s not going to be anything negative in it, they’re probably not going to give anyone up” for an interview, she told SF Weekly. “It’s really hard to get them to say yes to press these days.”

. . .

Former insiders say that theft of other people’s ideas can be traced to Zynga’s origins. The company’s first efforts to establish an online presence began with a close study of board games, according to the early employee who was present for discussions of copying Mob Wars. These games littered Zynga’s offices, where the staff studied them and thought about how they could be adapted as online

applications. “All the popular board games were purchased with the intent of copying them,” he says. "This was in the early

days. That evolved into [copying] digital games.

. . .

According to St. John, the new generation of social games will have more depth. Such apps could prove better able to hold users’ attention over time, and their complexity would serve as a safeguard against the kind of profitable copycat-ism perfected by Zynga. “The only way to make games that are highly defensible” from copyright infringement and user boredom, he says, “is to make the gameplay richer and more sophisticated, or the business model richer and more sophisticated.”

. . .

“They’ve brought in people who know games, which is why FrontierVille is a much better game than what they’ve generally put out in the past,” he says. “They’ve moved somewhat away from the startup model and seem to have much better structure, from what I’ve heard from people still there. Of course, the real question is whether they can actually get the company value up to the point it needs post-IPO. Pincus will undoubtedly make his money and take off, as he has before, and the company’s bubble will burst.” Zynga’s roughly $600 million in venture-capital funding, he adds, is "a lot of investment to show value for

. . .

To continue dominating the social-gaming gold mine, Zynga might soon be forced to do something it has avoided in its short and celebrated history: innovate.

(https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/farmvillains/Content?oid=2178582)

Niantic giving back

• We’re upping our commitment to Treehouse, an organization dedicated to diversifying tech by making education more accessible. We are now committed to bringing on five UX/Designers and five QA analysts for apprenticeships, and hire 80-100% after apprenticeships.

• We’re expanding our partnership with Gameheads a nonprofit that teaches kids how to develop games from beginning to end. This year, they are going fully virtual and taking the program global. We’ll be providing $25,000 in scholarships, sponsoring their annual showcase with $15,000, and donating $20,000 to create a new “Developing for AR 101” program where students can earn college accreditation in partnership with Cal State.

(Taking action – Niantic Labs)

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