Mar 5, 2015

CityVille +9 Other Zynga Games to Shutdown

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Yesterday Zynga announced that CityVille is shutting down on April 30th. It’s very interesting that the date of this shutdown corresponds to the date that Apps need to move over to the new Facebook API which we have seen affects the newsfeeds [1]. It was also revealed that 9 other games will be shutting down. For more details on this, go here. One of them may be the real money game ZyngaPlusPoker but I’m not sure if that counts as one of the 10 [1].  For more details on this, go here. I don’t think many of us care about all the other games, we only care about Mafia Wars. This just brings the question as to when will this happen to Mafia Wars? It doesn’t look like Zynga is in very good shape right now so it could be sooner than later [1]. They lost 226 million in 2014 and they also announced that they are shutting down the Zynga China Studio. If Zynga hopes Mafia Wars players will continue to spend money than they need to do more to reassure us that the game will last. Fixing the loading issues and adjusting the game to eliminate the need of the news feeds would be a start. Just because there is a new destination on the way and 7 more months of the VIP Membership program in place doesn’t mean they can’t pull the plug at any time. Thanks to Oliver Occupy Scollon for providing all the links to make this post possible.

cityville

19 comments:

  1. Looking at the comments, there are a lot of people who are passionate about Pioneer Trails. I hope this can be resolved for the people that care about these games.

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  2. Looking at the "full list", I see quite a few games I used to play but eventually quit for one reason or the other, usually because Zynga made it not worth playing. They must make bank on MW for it not to be endangered at this time.

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  3. A part of me is hoping that they would just shut this game down... it would be the best way to kick the addiction, haha :P

    Another part of me tells me it would be awesome if Zynga were to sell the fame to the players :D If every account chipped in... say, we all paid $10 to take over the game from Zynga... i'm not sure how many accounts are still active, but I'm sure it would be a fair price :P Then we could finally turn the game over to someone who actually knows how to run a game properly... and who would make the game for gamers... and not just for the money. When you only make games to earn money... eventually you will lose your player base... and I think Zynga is HUGE example of this fact. You NEED to make games for the gamers... then your player base will grow and continue to do so... and then the money will come automatically... Zynga just doesn't get it... because they're nothing but a bunch of greedy suits who just don't care about anything or anyone... except for money.

    Sell the game to the gamers... :D

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    1. I've hoped for a long time that they would sell it to Spockholm.... those guys could fix the game, and if there weren't glitches or mandatory family limits, or a thousand things happening at once, or another flippin' limited time prop......and and and..... it could get fun again. I'd like that.

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  4. Wow, just reading the comments on that second link, it sure sounds familiar! I would NOT put it past Zynga to include MW in that list:

    "With all the bugs & reloads Pioneer Trail has and where no neighbor actually helps you out I will be glad to see this one shut down because no support unless you pay"

    "Zynga should be ashamed of themselves for even suggesting to want to close down Pioneer Trail… throwing 2 missions a week at us, not giving us time to complete those before the new batch rolls out… this results in a continiously growing backlog in missions, causing more and more people to give up the game because they think they will never finish… as a die hard fan of PT I still struggle along, no longer “obsessed” to finish all missions, but just picking the ones I like to do at that moment and if I get bored I can always choose another mission to sink my teeth in ;)"

    Replace "Pioneer Trail" with "Mafia Wars" and it still makes perfect sense!

    They haven't done squat about the SSLv3 loading issue (which seems to be easily remedied by simply disabling SSLv3 on their servers; at least it'd be a good start!) so why should they actually put any real work into re-coding for Facebook's new platform? Seems they don't have any real programmers left, just designers to change the cosmetics (copy/paste). And I certainly would't put it past those Z-holes to continue to sell VIP memberships and then announce a closure a week later!

    Been playing for over 5 years, and I'm not sure if I still play because I want to or because it's now just routine. I think the latter, as it's certainly not FUN any more! Maybe closing it down would be the best medicine for some of us! ;)


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  5. well i think its not wise to spend money on this games bc you are trowing it on the toilet so why suprised?

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  6. Lets face it, mafia wars isn't even fun anymore... I remember the good old days when I used to do everything manually and it was doable but now scripts do everything for me

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  7. I agree with the player who admitted to having mixed feelings about the possibility of MW shutting down. I'm too addicted to give it up on my own but sure would get more done and exercise more if the game disappeared!

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  8. I used to love Pioneer Trail. But it requires way too much posting and begging, far more than MW and it requires a lot of refreshing. For every task we would have to post as well as ask friends for a part. Plus in the same way as MW, they throw way too much at players to accomplish and even more so when you need other people to help you do it all which was not possible and led to frustration. The only thing I liked was that I had played so long I had an unlimited quantity of energy.

    So looking at the list of possible closures, remember the cross over promotions we did for many of those games? How long since the last cross promo? That alone should indicate they have issues.

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    1. I used to love Farmville and Pioneer Trail as well. I quit both of them for exactly the reason you give: each of them simply became too much. In both cases they took a fun game and ruined it.

      But that's their business model. They hook you in, and then try and frustrate you into paying money. What's doubly frustrating is that I'm not against paying money, but the prices they charge for in game stuff is unbelievable.

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    2. I totally agree. Pioneer was actually the first game I played on FB and I loved it. It was a fun game. Until they decided quests needed to be brought out on a never ending loop. Its a task on task system to complete any mission. Collecting items by begging, friends, growing crops. Do all that then do another part, go build a building but wait, it will take you 2 years to get all parts.

      Where if you went on vacation you'd come back and have page after page of missions you are now behind on. When I had surgery I could not play and when I came back I had 5 pages waiting. And with posting issues on FB, not enough people who would play it or help click your posts. No game should be completely reliant on FB friends for help to do anything and everything. I never minded spending money on it either. But I reached a point I was too frustrated to play. I like to complete things and always needing to go ask for 1 more thing to do any task or build any item, got so old. And they have the same issues MW does, if there is an event they like they will bring it out over and over. Bottom line way too much frustration and not possible to play with the current way they run it.It was a barely playable game in general when it doesn't load.

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  9. I will be absolutely amazed if Mafia Wars isn't one of the games being shut down. Are they really going to move it to the new API? I'll believe it when I see it.

    I guess we'll know soon enough....

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    1. I doubt it MW had it's copyright updated. Copyrighting something costs money. Can't see them sunsetting it yet with a 2015 copyright attached to it. Maybe next years lot of game closures?

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    2. According to copyright.gov, the fee to update copyright registration is $100.

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  10. It does not say they ARE closing down the other 9 games, it says they COULD be next.

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  11. actually Chief Financial Officer David Lee of Zynga said the company has decided to shut down 10 of its Facebook games

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  12. from an article online> . .

    "In 2015, we will focus on three priorities: driving mobile growth, launching more products in more evergreen categories and building on our social legacy. We will deliver a 100 percent mobile-first new product slate featuring new games, with a goal of ending 2015 with more than 75 percent of our fourth quarter bookings coming from mobile. I am excited by the boldness of our 2015 product aspirations - this year we expect to launch between 6 to 10 new games in important categories like Match 3 and Action Strategy. We are building a high performing culture which takes time and while we would like to go faster, we are being methodical and purposeful about our decisions. We have a healthy balance sheet with $1.1 billion in cash and marketable securities which gives us staying power and the ability to invest in our future growth."

    The talented folks at NaturalMotion are pushing Zynga into the action strategy category with Dawn of Titans, which will use NaturalMotion's proprietary mobile technology and engine "to create unprecedented mobile visuals, animation and depth-of-gameplay that supersedes anything found today on mobile." In addition, Zynga is preparing the mobile launch of a modern military strategy game, Empires & Allies, which should be out worldwide in the coming months. Beyond the strategy genre, Zynga also announced a new entry in its core FarmVille brand with a Match 3 category title called FarmVille: Harvest Swap. The game is expected to launch worldwide as a cross-platform mobile and web game this year.

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  13. MAFIAWARS Colluseum.. a place to challenge similar players in events in which we can bet against each other to fuel our ids growth........Bring the Game Back Alive.

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