OMG!
Virtual currency battles INFLATION as money managers introduce liquidity corrections. Players now need to invest more TIME to earn more currency. Isn’t that what inflation is? What would be the analogy for conversational currency – Spend more Conversational currency to make less Conversational Currency? What effect will Internet Neutrality have? How real is virtual reality, really?
YoVille, one of the largest virtual worlds on Facebook, recently experienced a relatively large protest against a major monetary policy change which modified the way users can earn virtual currency. Previously, users entered a widget factory from where they could earn coins. While users can still earn coins, there is a new process in which users must spend money to make money (Just like the real world – it takes money to make money).
A number of users are furious. Their complaint was that less money was being generated per user per hour. Most likely the developers (Zynga) implemented this new place as a way to stave off inflation but sudden changes that are intended to impact the money supply can result in user backlash. Whatever the rationale behind the protests is, it appears that they are most likely much to do about nothing.
Zynga claims that “If you manage your bakery well then every day you will earn just as many, or even MORE, coins than you did at the old factory”. So are these new protesters just lazy? Possibly the users are simply against change…change you can count on?
Meanwhile, across the railroad tracks, Mafia Wars is implementing it’s own monetary policy. Robbing is no longer allowed…bummer. Instead, a new stat known as influence was added and players received 6 stat points per level to compensate. More important than the transient nature of acquiring virtual currency is the fact that robbing is really the only real action you can take to punish another player.
How’s that for a vetting mechanism? Sounds like the Gangstas gotta pay taxes…Ooops, THAT sounds like Inflation too.
Content Credit: Mafia Wars Facebook Guide and Nick O’Neill
The bakery does get monotonous; I seldom bother with farming games as it got to be too much of a pain to harvest my crops. At least the Sweets Factory is only 16 overs, but still I think the idea was half-baked.
The robbery removal in Mafia Wars is the more troublesome to me, as I excelled at robbing. Now I’m in a rush to get to a certain threshold of robberies before they go bye-bye, and who knows if I’ll get to the magic limit.
Dann,
As a YoVille enthusiast, I can assure you that the current revolt against Zynga and it’s recent changes to the game are both necessary and justified. The former system, caled the widget factory was indeed boring, but supplied us with just enough monetary gain to keep purchasing items and decorating our virtual homes. The new system does require that we spend money to make money, however, after giving the Sweet Shop a fair chance, it has become evident that YoVille users, for the most part, are making less money and having to jump through more hoops to get it. In the Widget Factory, if you did not send your character to work, you simply missed your opportunity to make your money, which was available every 6 hours. Now, if you don’t return to the workplace in time, you are greeted by 16 burning, smoking ovens, and the money you invested into the process has gone up in smoke. YoVille is a game, enjoyed by many adults and children alike, we do not play it for a life lesson on recession, inflation, workplace responsibilty or anything else, it’s just supposed to be FUN. I am not “lazy” because I do not like the new system, I am en experienced game player, and , like many other protesters, I see the issues brought about by this change and feel that it is minimizing the fun.
I also am a Mafia Wars player, with a current family size of almost 800 members, and approximately level 140. I don’t care if we can no longer rob each other in the game, and inflation and taxes have nothing to do with any of the changes going on in any of the Zynga games, I assure you. Stick to what you know and leave the protests and acceptable changes to the real game players. Thanks
I totally agree with Sue Maples on the YoVille issue. I would like to add that the purpose of changes within yoville is to control their players present longer and more often in the game. As many have learned their bottom line moto to sucess is keep your players strapped to the game as long as possible, hence the change from one click in the widget factory to 3x 16 clickers. I know for alot of folks this is not pure laziness on their part as to rebuke this new Sweet Factory. Its a point of how it was slammed on the players (in spite in my opinion), even with protest from testers who were handed this SF without consect and mainly without direction. The lack of consideration from Zynga towards its players(customers)over their opinions on the game and their response to the players. Another issue was YoVille a virtual chat world, with the added addition of buying to decorate to express ones creativity, has been and is being replaced with excessive clicking to make coin on and off the game, alot with annoying pop ups to express every movement one makes. There is now so much time making coin for one self and helping others make it, that the whole theme of the game is lost, theres just no time for most players to interact or decorate unless they have tons of time to sit at their computer all day. For most the Fun is gone! Please try in the future before you make a comment about a game you really know whats going on from the customers point of view, seemly I don’t think you know what it means to assume. Anyways have a good day
Thanks for the comments.
My point in both YoVille and Mafia Wars is that anything causing someone to receive less benefit from the same amount of work – or – to have to produce more work to receive the same benefit, is in fact, inflationary.
It would seem that we all agree on that point.
I have been playing YoVille for 6 months and I’m getting very frustrated as I become more experienced with it. I would like to achieve certain things that YoVille is limiting me from doing, due to recent changes in Yoville. I have 3 problems that YoVille has failed to resolve even after numerous complaints from myself and other players. In fact, YoVille has admitted that they are very aware of the problem; however they continue to ignore it.
1. I cannot connect on the same server with my buddies? I can’t play with my family members because I cannot see them online, even though we are sitting in the same room together, playing on different computers, but on the same internet server. I would like to trade with a family buddy instead of someone of the internet that I don’t know or trust.
2. I cannot see the same events as my buddies can see. WHY? Is this because we are not on the same server again as in question #1? We would like to go to the same parties, trades and auctions, jobs, discussions, etc. but cannot because we have different events displaying. Again, we are sitting in the same room, at the same house, in the same location, accessing the same internet server, but using different computers. We have also tried it on the same computer using two different browsers to open two different user ID’s. WHY can’t Zynga repair this problem?
3. I would also like to send gifts from my inventory; however, Zynga has changed it to where you can only send gifts from the YoVille Free Gift menu, which is not fair. I can only send from my inventory gift when the popup menu tells me that one of my buddies needs a gift and then it will let me select from my inventory, but I have no control when that will be—again very unfair after we have had the pleasure of exchanging gifts prior to Zynga’s changes. Please change it back or add this feature to gift from inventory.
Thank you for your comments. Gaming companies sometimes fail to realize that the players are investing their important assets of time for a product called recreation. Recreation means literally re-creation which is a necessary way for people to regenerate and remain productive in their real lives of family, friends, work, and education, etc. For yoville to squander your experience is an action against their most valuable customers. Thank you for your detailed post – I will retweet and repost in an effort to show them that people like you and your buddies are the ones that make them successful.
Like any real life situation the game changes to keep up with what is going on. Like many of the games on facebook, they continue to update to keep it fresh and challenging.
If you don’t want to see the game stuff on your home page all you have to do is click hide these posts about that particular game….It doesn’t hide that friend, just the stuff about that particular game….Why make life worse by whining and moaning….Instead choose to be happy…Its healthier