Copying Trumps Creating For FarmVille Creator Zynga

Posted by Soulskill on Monday September 13, 2010 @06:12AM from the at-least-they're-honest dept.

theodp writes "The good news for Zynga is that it scored the cover of SF Weekly. The bad news is that the FarmVillains cover story starts out by describing the secret to the toast-of-Silicon-Valley company's success thusly: 'Steal someone else's game. Change its name. Make millions. Repeat.' SF Weekly says interviews conducted with several former Zynga workers indicate that the practice of stealing other companies' game ideas — and then using Zynga's market clout to crowd out the games' originators — was business as usual. 'I don't ****ing want innovation,' one ex-employee recalled Pincus saying. 'You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.' Another quipped that 'Zynga's motto is "Do Evil."' Valleywag piles on with an item on the existence of Zynga's underground 'Platinum Purchase Program,' reportedly geared towards making players known as 'whales' part with a minimum of $500 at a time for imaginary credits."

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Re:like the people that buy NY lotto tickets? by hesiod · 2010-09-13 08:10 · Score: 0, Offtopic

You can do that if you want, and I've seen it. Maybe some people scratch them off for the slight bit of suspense (and of course the ensuing let down) or maybe they don't realize they can just scan them.
But really, I was only saying that I don't think the CA lotto has no way to check for potential fraud from the people selling tickets. I wasn't really addressing the futility in the revelation of the result via scratched-off latex gum. All in all, it might as well be a piece of paper with a bar code printed on it. Actually, not even that is necessary...
At this point you don't even need the printer and reader. Just a box with a screen and a slot to feed in the money, and it tells you you've lost without even printing anything. If it takes credit card, just stick the card in and keep pressing a button until you win. And networked with lottery HQ, it would be more secure. It would be even more horrific than casinos, rows upon rows of slack-jawed, pasty, old people jamming quarters into slot machines.
Hmm... I think I'd prefer it kept as-is, actually.