At 11/23/09 10:34 PM, Luis wrote: This article kind of annoyed me cause FarmVille and Mafia Wars are such terrible 'games' if you even want to call em that.. but who am i to judge if the guy who made them is worth 1 billion.... i suppose if anything, there is still some profitability on the net ... meh.

It's always upsetting when simple and often poorly made games make more money than the huge games which take a lot of time and effort, but that's how it's always been.
FarmVille is an okay game, I feel. Casual, with some nice touches, decent inter-account features and artwork. Although, I was once watching my girlfriend playing it and thinking "why the hell isn't there a rake all button or something?", and then I realised, the enjoyment that people find in the game is through the grinding-like behaviour, making it remarkably similar to an online RPG.
There are bits of truly bad game design in there though; if a person clicks on a 'ready' cow, chances are that they want to milk it. So why the hell do you put the milking option as the third thing on the bloody drop-down list?!

I've never played either, but I've seen FarmVille in action

By the way, if any of you see a girl in this forum asking for a team to make a game for her involving candy, be sure to tell me. Thing is, my girlfriend came to me once with an idea for a game (well, more of a storyline; no idea how the game would play), and I said I'd help some time. Recently she told me that she wanted an even cut of the money for being the 'concept designer'. After being scolded for laughing at her, I told her to ask in the Flash forum and see how people responded.
Yeah, I'm a jerk.

Mobsters, Vampires, Pirates, & Farmville invites.

The single fastest way to get un-friended, un-followed, subtracted, deleted, and generally forgotten about, by me, on any social networking clusterfuck site. Utah's Gigantor had the right idea, and I know an awful lot of Draconius types.

Grrr.

At 11/24/09 02:12 PM, doctormario wrote: Mobsters, Vampires, Pirates, & Farmville invites.
Grrr.

I agree with Paranoia in it being a moral dilemma of what exactly you are in the game dev scene for. I think as a developer its only frusterating when you see stuff out there and you KNOW you can do better and you KNOW you have so much more to offer to the scene and nobody is givin you a chance.

The one interesting thing, from these little e-trends and gaming in general is how the 'gamer' is changing, how that persona and the traditional profile of what is a gamer is evolving. wii fit, Farmville, etc are all examples of like a different breed of gamer with games/apps that are 'dumb-easy' and accessible to that kind of gamer. I dunno... i feel like i just made more questions rather than answeres through my own meandering logic.

At 11/24/09 02:50 PM, Luis wrote: The one interesting thing, from these little e-trends and gaming in general is how the 'gamer' is changing, how that persona and the traditional profile of what is a gamer is evolving. wii fit, Farmville, etc are all examples of like a different breed of gamer with games/apps that are 'dumb-easy' and accessible to that kind of gamer.

I have this little hope inside me telling me the more 'dumb-easy' games the mass population plays, the more they will be accustomed to different kinds of 'games', therefore eradicating the term 'nerdy' from the typical 'gamer' stereotype.

I'm not sure what the downsides are to everyone thinking video games are cool, but what's there to lose when we already have 'hollywood' video games on the market?

Also, on the business side of things, it seems as though business representatives were the ones pointing the Farmville creators, etc. in a certain direction, as the driving force behind the design, rather than an actual video game designer. In turn, creating over 250 million dollars for that company in the past year...

At 11/24/09 05:06 PM, Starogre wrote: I have this little hope inside me telling me the more 'dumb-easy' games the mass population plays, the more they will be accustomed to different kinds of 'games', therefore eradicating the term 'nerdy' from the typical 'gamer' stereotype.

NEEEEE------EEEEERRRRD!

what if you worked your ass of on a minigame for someone(windowskiller) and theyy justcomplained when you did it for them for free?

FarmVille and Mafia Wars are such terrible 'games' if you even want to call em that.
i know right i meen you dont see all the flash celebritys on newgrounds worth "one billion"

At 11/24/09 08:01 PM, zrb wrote:

At 11/24/09 07:53 PM, lgnxhll wrote: FarmVille and Mafia Wars are such terrible 'games' if you even want to call em that.
i know right i meen you dont see all the flash celebritys on newgrounds worth "one billion"

Use better grammar >:P
And spamming is my daily job, stop it !

uhh ok

At 11/24/09 08:01 PM, zrb wrote:

At 11/24/09 07:53 PM, lgnxhll wrote: FarmVille and Mafia Wars are such terrible 'games' if you even want to call em that.
i know right i meen you dont see all the flash celebritys on newgrounds worth "one billion"

Use better grammar >:P
And spamming is my daily job, stop it !

spamming is wasim's job.

At 11/24/09 08:53 PM, zrb wrote:

At 11/24/09 08:15 PM, Magical-Zorse wrote: spamming is wasim's job.

Damn he wins, I guess I lost my job :<
Better go cut myself like a little emo girl !

shes already at a bar making out with me.

Speaking of wireless stereo systems:

http://stereos.about.com/od/reviewsandre commendations/p/Roomcaster.htm

The tech is apparently on its way to power stuff with "waves."

At 11/24/09 07:47 PM, BoMToons wrote:

At 11/24/09 05:06 PM, Starogre wrote: I have this little hope inside me telling me the more 'dumb-easy' games the mass population plays, the more they will be accustomed to different kinds of 'games', therefore eradicating the term 'nerdy' from the typical 'gamer' stereotype.

NEEEEE------EEEEERRRRD!

OH SNAP.

If a game is played by millions of people, it's not a bad game (I haven't played any of them). Maybe from high up in your developer tower it is, but for the masses it obviously isn't. Depends on your definition of a good game, or a game for that matter, I suppose.

At 11/25/09 12:10 PM, Xeptic wrote: If a game is played by millions of people, it's not a bad game (I haven't played any of them). Maybe from high up in your developer tower it is, but for the masses it obviously isn't. Depends on your definition of a good game, or a game for that matter, I suppose.

Sometimes the masses opinion isn't that great to you, but it's your opinion that counts to you. Not everyone else's.

At 11/25/09 12:10 PM, Xeptic wrote: If a game is played by millions of people, it's not a bad game

Bull.

At 11/25/09 02:23 PM, Paranoia wrote:

At 11/25/09 12:10 PM, Xeptic wrote: If a game is played by millions of people, it's not a bad game

Bull.

Explain yourself. IMO It's not bull. It just depends on your definition of a good game. Millions of people play Farmville, or whatever it's called, so someone did something right there. That makes it a good game/concept in my opinion. It apparently has a quality that makes the game very appealing to a huge crowd. Not ever having played the game I can't say what that quality is, but it's there.

The "quality" as you would call it is obviously solely in viral advertising and the fact that millions of people who don't have any idea of what a decent game is lurk the website that hosts it for hours. This "farmville" abomination is an insult to humanity.

At 11/25/09 03:12 PM, Toast wrote: This "farmville" abomination is an insult to humanity.

Literally. Business men know a stupid easy game such as this will appeal to the masses (because maybe it parallels their stupidity?). It really is an abomination but the people who play it don't know it.

I think part of it is that everyone is obsessed with being on Facebook constantly when they're on their computer, or else they could step 2 feet away and play a game console, or even... GASP.... open a new browser window, cover up Facebook, and play other Flash games!

I don't see movie businesses making this much money off such crappy, low quality movies, but I guess YouTube covers that stuff so I wouldn't really know. Artsy film directors are probably as disappointed at Hollywood as artsy game developers are at huge budget game companies.

But these social networking games aren't even games. I think it's another form of receiving notifications and upgrades that make you feel good without having to annoy people directly and post on tons of pictures and walls.

@Bomtoons: those are some pretty awesome sound systems

At 11/25/09 02:51 PM, Xeptic wrote:

At 11/25/09 02:23 PM, Paranoia wrote:

At 11/25/09 12:10 PM, Xeptic wrote: If a game is played by millions of people, it's not a bad game

Bull.

Explain yourself. IMO It's not bull. It just depends on your definition of a good game. Millions of people play Farmville, or whatever it's called, so someone did something right there. That makes it a good game/concept in my opinion. It apparently has a quality that makes the game very appealing to a huge crowd. Not ever having played the game I can't say what that quality is, but it's there.

Farmville is formula-built. Zynga's marketing department pulled out calculators and decided what numbers to pump into the game to ensure maximum profit.

It's simple really, ADDICTION is not the same as FUN. People have a psychological need to "complete" things and accomplish goals.

i.e. what I made with edmund earlier in the year:

• Unsuitable Submission

  This submission contains age-rated material and requires an account to view.

It is NOT a good game by any measure. It's a formula, how long can we get people to play a pointless game for. People completed the game too! Just read the reviews, people complete it and still give it a bad score cause it's "stupid".

This is EXACTLY what Zynga is doing. They are getting people to play a dumb game for longer than they would like to.

I listened to a rep from their company talk about how they make games at the flash gaming summit. Their secret? They build one game that they can reskin to different themes. If someone else's game with a theme starts getting popular, Zynga notes the trend and skins their engine for that theme.

It's 100% marketing.

A product can be successful but not be quality. I have a vizio TV. It's an extremely successful brand (cause it's cheap).

Had it for 2 years. Recently it's been freezing, and not responding to the remote or button presses while frozen (unplugging it and plugging it back in fixes it). The warranty is up. It's quality is not good, but it's an extremely successful brand.

At 11/25/09 07:54 PM, Glaiel-Gamer wrote: Farmville stinks

I'm not too sure about that. I think a lot of people are entertained by Farmville. Just because the company who made it is manipulative doesn't mean people don't find it fun. Heck, there are plenty of great games that I played where I wasn't even having fun all the time. Sometimes I was pissed and kept trying to beat some ridiculous boss because I had a human need to complete things.

Games are meant to entertain, and if people are buying these games, it's probably because they are entertained by them. If I like a game, I don't care what anybody else says about it, it's fun for me and I'd have to be daft to deny myself of something I like just because it's not up to the standards of others.

my theory on why farmville is so popular. Okay, I think it's just the fact that people LOOOOOOVEEE using the dumb little apps in facebook, although they can go to another website and just play great games in a matter of seconds. It's like how people like to have comforts of having everything in their room so they don't have to leave. Well, that's part number one. It's not exactly the gameplay that shines out to people it's the socializing aspect. I send an invite to everyone and they add a chicken or something. That makes it bigger, and the farmville just spread to everyone else. It's just addicting, so you can get more and more animals, and showing off and stuff.

it goes on from there. It's just the accomplishment from getting great stats that keeps it going.

It's just my theory, feel free to shoot it down.

I think people just have a natural connection to games
where you level up until you reach the end. Finishing
the game is way more important than having fun, and
if you can customize your progress through different
stats you have and whatever, that only makes it better.

In their brain it's just a matter of seeing how deep the

rabbit hole goes, not having the time of their life.

Today, for instance, I played the new game of the week.

• 

  Level Up!

  by titch007uk

  Sandbox Platform RPG Comedy - Run, jump, collect gems and talk to zany NPC's to level up!

  Game

  2,062,244 Views

  (Ages 13+)

It was very entertaining; I'm a fan of RPG games normally,

but being able to level up pretty much anything (even idling)

just made my stat-whore senses tingle with joy.

However, in the game you fall asleep and have a nightmare

where some demonic creature attacks you, and you have

to do your best to defeat him without much instruction.

It's pretty difficult (especially the first time) but once you

lose you also somehow loose all your stats when you

wake up the very next morning.

That I absolutely hated. But I kept playing.

Soon though it just felt like a rush to level up until
you fell asleep. After a third loss to the stupid nightmare,
and a third loss of all my hard earned stats, I quit the game.

I could have very well lost my entire afternoon to the game
if you didn't lose your levels after a loss to the nightmare.
So I think that shows that people, and myself, love a game
where your progress is shown with extreme distinction.

At 11/25/09 09:10 PM, K-Guare wrote: lvl up the game!!!!

I loved it, but I couldn't find some last few gems since the gems restart everytime you lose to the nightmare, I was only able to beat him once thanks to a glitch.

WHO'S GONNA BE AROUND ON FRIDAY?

At 11/25/09 10:38 PM, Kirk-Cocaine wrote: WHO'S GONNA BE AROUND ON FRIDAY?

you know I am... ;D

At 11/25/09 10:44 PM, turtleco wrote:

At 11/25/09 10:38 PM, Kirk-Cocaine wrote: WHO'S GONNA BE AROUND ON FRIDAY?

you know I am... ;D

Cool.

At 11/25/09 10:38 PM, Kirk-Cocaine wrote: WHO'S GONNA BE AROUND ON FRIDAY?

What's on friday?

oh shit, totally forgot about it lol, i'm in london... but current plans gives me going to my girlfriends for the weekend from friday afternoon... hmmm

I've also got other plans on sunday evening too lol... are people still around on monday when i'm actually going to be free?