I don't know the answer, but I do know that Zynga is fail.
Zynga is fail whether or not they take long-term or short-term approaches to running their company. I actually have some friends who work for them though, so I feel sorry for them and hope they'll make it through ok.
The shareholders get to decide. They hold all the cards.
On paper, yes. In practice, I wonder... I mean, it seems like a lot of the boards pretty much ignore what the shareholders want and do their thing anyway... or the shareholder ballots (at least the ones I receive) are non-binding. I suppose if enough shareholders (or enough big shareholders, anyway) scream bloody murder, then they can get a company to change course. However, this rarely seems to be the case.
Apparently, Blizzard sent interview offers to all the Zynga employees that have been let go.
Not only then. My Twitter feed lit up like a Christmas tree with other gaming companies talking about having jobs available to Zynga employees who were let go. The only one I remember off the top of my head was Harmonix, but they were far from the only ones.
Apparently, Blizzard sent interview offers to all the Zynga employees that have been let go.
Damn. Given the poor quality of Zynga games, I figured a bunch of those guys wouldn't have a chance anywhere else in the gaming industry.
The games were low quality, true, in a way. They were low quality as games, but if you consider what they were intended to be and the function they were intended to serve, their design is flawless. The designers did their job ludicrously well.
Not to mention - especially with the MMO developers - Zynga was a company that mastered addictive gaming. You think MMO developers are going to miss the chance to snap a few of those fuckers up?
Plus, as crappy as those games were as games, it's entirely possible whatever sort of back-end they used to manage all their users and stuff may have some interesting technology whose creators could be useful to other companies.
Plus, as crappy as those games were as games, it's entirely possible whatever sort of back-end they used to manage all their users and stuff may have some interesting technology whose creators could be useful to other companies.
Oh yeah, that shit was all solid. That's the thing with these sorts of matters - It's not always the obvious, as we both know. I mean, sure, some dude worked at Zynga - but what if they want him for his previous expertise, from before then? I know Zynga, despite appearances, had some heavy hitters on staff.
You know what's funny? A friend of mine offered me a job at Zynga almost exactly one year ago. They were going to pay to relocate me to the Bay Area (my favorite place) and would give me a hefty salary. I turned him down because I was making mad monies in New York, and (even though I wanted to move back there) couldn't stomach the thought of working for Zynga. I'm glad I stayed.
So this has to be one of the more devastating legal losses I've seen recently. Remember Silicon Knights, maker of that Too Human game that utterly flopped? Well, they apparently sued Epic over the Unreal engine, and not only lost, but have been ordered to recall and destroy all unsold copies of their games (ever) that use the Unreal engine.
Silicon Knights originally sued Epic over issues they were having with the Unreal Engine while making Too Human. They then said they dumped the engine and made a new one to use for Too Human, and apparently also used for the game X-Men: Destiny. Epic counter-sued claiming SK had stolen parts of the Unreal Engine code for their engine, which is the suit they won requiring SK to pay them over $9 million and they are required to purchase and destroy all unsold copies of Too Human and X-Men: Destiny.
Also it should be noted that a former SK employee came forward not long ago and said that while working on X-Men: Destiny most of the SK team was actually working on a Eternal Darkness 2 prototype instead of Destiny. Finally Activision got fed up with SK not delivering Destiny and announced a release date for it, basically forcing SK to actually work on the game they were supposed to be working on.
Basically SK has been a huge mess for a while, and it's all starting to come out now. Hopefully someone will write a piece on it similar to the one about Kaos and the troubled development of Homefront.
I have the non-MMO SWTOR I got in some mega-cheap sale. I can't even stand the first hour. Definitely not going to waste time with the F2P MMO version.
I have the non-MMO SWTOR I got in some mega-cheap sale. I can't even stand the first hour. Definitely not going to waste time with the F2P MMO version.
The game is just slightly different from WoW anyway. If you don't like WoW you will be hard pressed to like this game. I tried to give it some slack because I like KOTOR but I find nothing about WoW interesting and there was a point where I just couldn't take it anymore.
I don't care about the gameplay, but if the dialogue trees are as good as the other Bioware games I enjoy playing, it will be worth it to me at the price of free.
I don't care about the gameplay, but if the dialogue trees are as good as the other Bioware games I enjoy playing, it will be worth it to me at the price of free.
They're not, but that is just my opinion. If you want any sort of experience close to being as good as KOTOR story wise you will probably find it in the Sith Spy (or whatever the class is called)
I don't care about the gameplay, but if the dialogue trees are as good as the other Bioware games I enjoy playing, it will be worth it to me at the price of free.
Aye, if you play it casually just to play through the story arcs it's not so bad. It's not necessarily high return on the (time) investment, but it's free. And I think that since I had a "real" account unlocked by owning the game before I don't have to suffer all the weird free-to-play stuff. I just can't do a lot of the multi-player stuff.
So I'm going to (attempt to) buy a Wii U this weekend. I had no intention of buying one until the wife played with it in a Target last weekend and made a case for getting one. Traditionally, our house has been the place to gather for our other friends, and since the Wii U is a hard sell at this point, we figure we'll be the only people we know who will get one. We can all tear into the novelty together.
Most of the launch games look like garbage, but since it's not hard to round up 4-5 players, we could get our money's worth of fun playing the new Mario game, Nintendoland, and whatever other titles come down the pipe before the thing loses its shine.
The fact that I didn't realize the Wii U was coming out this weekend, nor did anyone I know really talk about this fact until I noticed this thread, says a lot about my expectations.
Rym even as recently as six years ago would have bought it sight-unseen launch weekend. Rym of today is waiting to see what people say.
The fact that I didn't realize the Wii U was coming out this weekend, nor did anyone I know really talk about this fact until I noticed this thread, says a lot about my expectations.
Rym even as recently as six years ago would have bought it sight-unseen launch weekend. Rym of today is waiting to see what people say.
I think this phenomenon is called "Reaching your thirties." Welcome. ;-)
AFAIK it still only supports one Wii-U screen at a time. There aren't any games that seem to be really taking advantage of it the way the three GameCube games did. All the games Nintendo has on 3DS and Wii-U are just re-runs of existing games. Some of those I kinda want, like Layton, but it's not cheap. I already have tons of unplayed games, why buy more? By the time I get around to them I'll be able to download every 3DS game every for the 3DS emulator built into my eyeballs.
Wii-U is looking even sadder than 3DS. Of all the Wii U launch titles, the only one that seems worthwhile is Mario, and I haven't beaten the Wii one, which I own.
Nintendo has a lot of problems, but I really think this is their biggest. With every successful console they launched, they also launched game-changing games to go with it. Wii-U is just full of Wii games and 3DS is full of DS games.
The fact that I didn't realize the Wii U was coming out this weekend, nor did anyone I know really talk about this fact until I noticed this thread, says a lot about my expectations.
Rym even as recently as six years ago would have bought it sight-unseen launch weekend. Rym of today is waiting to see what people say.
I think this phenomenon is called "Reaching your thirties." Welcome. ;-)
Are you kidding? I'm gaming more than ever. ;^)
Nintendo is doing a shade of what they should have done almost a decade ago. It's just too little, too late. Nintendo went from omnipresent innovator to archaic relic in the span of a few years.
If the Wii-U looked like it would do even half of what I wanted from the GameCube/GBA link, or the non-existent Wii/DS link, I'd buy it in a second. I just have no faith in Nintendo anymore and started ignoring them about the same way I ignore Sony.
Comments
Not to mention - especially with the MMO developers - Zynga was a company that mastered addictive gaming. You think MMO developers are going to miss the chance to snap a few of those fuckers up?
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/181262/Silicon_Knights_ordered_to_destroy_code_games_related_to_Epic_trial.php#.UJ6TtMXA92I
And did I mention that they have about 5 employees at this point, BEFORE the verdict?
Also it should be noted that a former SK employee came forward not long ago and said that while working on X-Men: Destiny most of the SK team was actually working on a Eternal Darkness 2 prototype instead of Destiny. Finally Activision got fed up with SK not delivering Destiny and announced a release date for it, basically forcing SK to actually work on the game they were supposed to be working on.
Basically SK has been a huge mess for a while, and it's all starting to come out now. Hopefully someone will write a piece on it similar to the one about Kaos and the troubled development of Homefront.
Most of the launch games look like garbage, but since it's not hard to round up 4-5 players, we could get our money's worth of fun playing the new Mario game, Nintendoland, and whatever other titles come down the pipe before the thing loses its shine.
Rym even as recently as six years ago would have bought it sight-unseen launch weekend. Rym of today is waiting to see what people say.
Wii-U is looking even sadder than 3DS. Of all the Wii U launch titles, the only one that seems worthwhile is Mario, and I haven't beaten the Wii one, which I own.
Nintendo has a lot of problems, but I really think this is their biggest. With every successful console they launched, they also launched game-changing games to go with it. Wii-U is just full of Wii games and 3DS is full of DS games.
My daughter is hosting a Wii-U party on Sunday. We will have Nintendoland, Ass Creed, Mario and Zombie-U.
I could host or travel Turkey weekend for a Wii-U meetup.
Nintendo is doing a shade of what they should have done almost a decade ago. It's just too little, too late. Nintendo went from omnipresent innovator to archaic relic in the span of a few years.
If the Wii-U looked like it would do even half of what I wanted from the GameCube/GBA link, or the non-existent Wii/DS link, I'd buy it in a second. I just have no faith in Nintendo anymore and started ignoring them about the same way I ignore Sony.