I hate Zynga games because of how buggy and slow they are.
But it's not like Zynga doesn't add value. The examples I've seen of Zynga copying the base of other games also have them making significant adaptations to better fit the market. Zynga really understands the market a lot better than many of the little guys, and they add lots of value to lots of users that way. I'm curious if there are counterexamples.
This is really disappointing for me.. (well.. from a games on my phone perspective)
I used to really like Words with Friends.
Then zynga did an app update where the icon was more about the zynga logo than the Words with Friends logo. (reverted after user backlash)
Then it was more and more 'buy our other games!' notifications.
Then the facebook integration slowed the app down so much it took 3-4x as long to actually play the game.
Yesterday I was saying to myself. Draw Something is so much better than Words with Friends, because it doesnt throw ANY of the zynga shit at me.
I actually found Draw Something to be pretty bad even before reading this. The whole game seems to be written in a too portable manner, ie., all UI elements self-written and noticeably different from UIKit, no GameCenter, the sizes are all weird...
I hope somebody does the reverse thing of Zynga and builds a LIGHTER, Apple-like version of it, I'd jump ship in an instant. Especially after going through the painful WWF fiasco. It might even be possible to get an App Store spotlight by being more "loyal" to Apple's way of doing things, and obviously not being portable.
But it's not like Zynga doesn't add value. The examples I've seen of Zynga copying the base of other games also have them making significant adaptations to better fit the market. Zynga really understands the market a lot better than many of the little guys, and they add lots of value to lots of users that way. I'm curious if there are counterexamples.