The social gaming giant Zynga has been troubled of late, but the most telling issue is how much they’re spending to acquire new players. Marketing research shows that Zynga has been spending around $300 of the human dollars for every new player, while those players in turn spend on only an average of $150 human dollars on Zynga. While this looks like a great racket for somebody, that somebody isn’t Zynga. Can this mean the company has found the limits to the social gaming market space? Or, does it mean that players are discovering that Zynga’s general design process of “second verse, same as the first” doesn’t lead to new experiences? Game Politics has the story.
Eventually, someone is going to make a proper casual gaming Facebook MMO. Eventually, that MMO will tie character power to how popular a user’s Facebook is. Eventually, that MMO will let players buy into in-game circles of popular people, enhancing the player’s own popularity. Eventually, that MMO will make enough money to rule the world.