Farmville is a new age of casual gaming that has taken over our social networks. Mark Pincus, the mastermind behind the whole operation has found an interesting market that can change the way we look at social network gaming forever. The Zynga Game Network has created a forum of many popular online games, but the real phenomenon is how has it been turned into a multi-billion dollar industry?
Zynga’s empire is made up of cartoonish online games that even Mr. Pincus acknowledges are goofy. And most striking, given its financial success, is the fact that the games are free to everyone. Zynga makes money, by and large, only when a small fraction of its users pay real money for make-believe “virtual” goods that let them move up in the games or to give their friends gifts.
Its amazing to see how what many people may look to as a free common casual game can turn into something that people are willing to pay money for in order to get " level ups". After playing Farmville for about 20 min. i realized that it wasn't a game for me, but i was interested in finding someone who enjoyed the game. I asked My 17 year old sister who constantly plays this game and she basically plays the game to "out farm" her friends who invited her to play in the first place. Although my sister hasn't bought any Farmville "power ups", she states that its tempting to at times because i can take a long time to get your farm at the level you want it through regular game play. With Zynga being valued at $4.5 Billion, there seems to be alot of people who are willing to pay to upgrade their farms.
Is it possible to become a hardcore gamer on a casual gaming platform?
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