Mafia Wars CEO Brags About Scamming Users From Day One
From the beginning, the profitability and viability of popular Facebook social networking games Mafia Wars and Farmville were predicated on the backs of scams, boasts Zynga CEO Mark Pincus in this video. "I did every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues," he crows in the clip to a gathered bunch of fellow scumbag app developers.
In games like Mafia Wars, Farmville, YoVille and Vampires Live, you know, some of the major sources of all those garbage announcements cluttering up your Facebook, players compete to complete missions and level up. By leveling up, you can complete more difficult missions and fight off weaker opponents. You can wait for your various energies to regenerate naturally over time, or you can purchase with real money in-game boosts. Or, you can complete various lead generation offers, many of which are of the "answer page after page of questions and opt in and out of receiving various kinds of spam" variety. Some of them install malware and adware that is impossible to remove. And some of them secretly subscribe you to monthly recurring $9.99 credit card charges.
Couple this reckless profiteering with in-game incentives for recruiting more players into your network and a constant blast (if you let it) of promotional messages to your friends, and it's like Amway discovered Facebook and threw a gangster-themed house party.
Here's Mark's spiel:Here's the pertinent transcript of the talk the CEO gave to some other developers at a mixer:
I knew that i wanted to control my destiny, so I knew I needed revenues, right, fucking, now. Like I needed revenues now. So I funded the company myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this zwinky toolbar which was like, I dont know, I downloaded it once and couldn't get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business�So control your destiny. So that was a big lesson, controlling your business. So by the time we raised money we were profitable.
I'm sorry, but if you need to scam people to keep your company going, you have a flawed business plan.
After getting reamed in an excellent multi-part TechCrunch investigation by Michael Arrington, Mark Pincus pledged to more aggressively remove scammy offers.
That's great, but c'mon. Now that they're funded and raking in the cash, they can act all contrite and go "oh! you caught us! you're right, we're bad, we'll fix that. Lah dee dah." How convenient that now you can afford morals.
By the way, nice work, TechCrunch! Now, if only we could get Arrington to apply the same level of discipline to re-evaluating his gushing praise for Cash4Gold.
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: "I Did Every Horrible Thing In The Book Just To Get Revenues" [TechCrunch]
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Comments:
@Smashville_now with Monster Energy: Best-ever Facebook feature: when the stuff your friends do shows up, you can go over on the right to "Remove" or "Hide" or whatever it is, and choose to block all updates from that application, period. So you don't have to take your friend off the viewing list, but you can hide Mafia Wars and Yoville forever.
And this is why I don't have facebook... that and the last thing I need to do is explain to my family why I'm in a relationship with my left hand...
@Smashville_now with Monster Energy: you can choose to block Mafia Wars from posting those on your wall. Just move your mouse to the dropdown menu to the right of the Mafia Wars post on your wall and choose "BLOCK". I just found this out the other day and am really happy about it.
What does the quote mean?
I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this zwinky toolbar which was like, I dont know, I downloaded it once and couldn't get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business…
What does this mean? How is downloading a toolbar and being unable to get rid of it generating revenue? Very confused. IF I got a toolbar I couldn't get rid of, i'd never go back to that company. This quote makes no sense.
I must confess I have absolutely NO idea what this article is about, or who these scumbags are, or what their (dis)service was.
I am obviously not the poorer for it either...
@amberlink: It means Zwinky paid them $1 (or whatever) each time it was downloaded. It is a poor user experience if the toolbar is impossible to remove, or if it scans the hard drive for sensitive information and steals it, etc. People will download it for an edge up in the game, and Mafia wars will profit from it.
@amberlink: 1. The toolbar is malware.
2. Zwinky pays Zynga every time someone downloads the toolbar through their service.
@jpdanzig: You are in a good place then. My advice for your future is to avoid any social network game created by Zynga.
@Smashville_now with Monster Energy: Someone needs to invent a thing that hides only status updates based on keywords.
My list: Glee, Project Runway, Top Chef.
Sleazy. But at least in character for a game called Mafiawars.
When PrancyUnicorns Parade™ crashed my PC because of a Trojan Horse, something precious deep inside me died. Just a bit.
@phate: You can still use facebook, but opt out of the Facebook API if you're concerned about applications stealing your soul (which I am, so I checked the "do not share any information" box).
Scumbags and fellow scumbags might be a little harsh. Not everyone can be fortunate enough to be bought by Consumer Reports
What else can you expect from a culture that celebrates "it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission"?
This is AWESOME. I now have a legitimate reason to hate MafiaWars and Farmville. Are these the same guys who do Yoville? Please tell me these are the same guys who do Yoville.
Can someone please explain why this douchebag isn't in prison -- or, even better, pursued down an alley and beaten to a twitching bloody pulp by four or five guys with baseball bats and tire irons?
You know, this sort of thing never happens in FARM TOWN.
Oooh, I'm gonna go post a link to this article in my Facebook status!
This is intriguing considering this company is coming to my school on Wednesday to promote themselves as a great place to work. I guess I have a good reason to avoid going now.
@Hate_Brian_Club_I'mNotOnlyThePresidentI'mAClient: I'm replying to point out that this comment is totally unworthy of a reply. In other words, your stupidity has caused a quantum paradox. Nice job, dicktwit.
@Trai_Dep:
With all the education available, it always saddens me to see people earning the hard way about letting unicorns prance without protection. Although given some of the folklore, I really have to wonder if that Trojan Horse had consent from the unicorn....
@floraposte: @ergasiophobiac: these douchey fuck heads probably do foo pets too...scammy god dam game, I get a trojan everytime I do an offer.
I'm glad this video surfaced. I stopped playing Mafia Wars months ago, but I just removed the app from my settings (so Zynga no longer has access to my profile or friends list) and warned all my Mafia Wars friends to do the same.
@phate:Eh, I FB and manage to avoid all this crap. FB is quite customizable, and you can opt out of, and block pretty much everything.
This article and the links to earlier articles are so timely for me. A good friend of mine fell for their Amway style pyramid scheme where he supposedly gets points for every new member he brings in and they supposedly get points for every new member each of them brings in, etc.
One of the first people that fell for his spiel was my daughter, who does her playing on one of the computers in my home network. Needless to say her "membership" was canceled immediately but I suppose they still had time to get whatever they wanted out of her.
I have a feeling he might be a little ticked off at me right now because I posted links to all of these articles on my wall but dammit he's old enough to recognize an Amway scam when he sees it.
@ergasiophobiac: Zynga appears to be the biggest perp but there are some others providing the same type of content also, Slashkey being one that comes to mind.
@lukesdad: Been there, done that. Everybody with a Facebook account should do so, especially if they have kids.
From what I've heard, app development for Facebook is highly competitive. It really doesn't surprise me that some people will resort to scammy tactics to get your clicks.
@MinorAnnoyance: There's no such thing as too old for Amway. I once had a very respected attorney (DA no less) ask me to his house for dinner. Surprise! Amway presentation. He's probably level 195 in Mafia Wars now.
I play Mafia Wars and Farmville. If you JUST play the game and don't actually PAY them (Seriously?) and don't bother with the "free" ways to get more points (Naive much?), nothing happens to you. I'm not psycho about the games like some, but I simply cannot get with the mindset of people who would pay for this crap!
@lukesdad: You DO realize that if someone JUST plays Farmville and doesn't try to do anything to gain points outside of the ways people gain points naturally, within the game...that none of these scams apply? People freaking out and deleting their games are morons.
@Smashville_now with Monster Energy: Ugh, there's always one person on every friend list, isn't there? And mine updates her frigging Facebook constantly- I could swear she does it in her sleep. Obnoxious.
@amberlink: The FB games allow people to get access to special in-game items or a bonus only if they pay cash or if they do something above and beyond. For instance, you fill out a survey and get "YoCash" or special poker chips, or you download a utility and install it.
Zynga gets more money from advertisers and users get a leg up in the games compared to people who just play them without any external or paid bonuses.
Casual players of these games don't have anything to fear or to lose. It's the people who get so invested in it that they'll pay real money or put themselves at risk who may have issues. That being said, I don't see how paying real money to play FB games is so different from paying a monthly fee for MMORPGs. It's not unprecedented for people to spend real money on virtual entertainment. All we're judging here is the types of games.
To me, the FB games are very much not worth real money, but that's an entirely subjective conclusion. I'm not going to judge what other people want to put money into. People flush their money down the crapper for pleasure everyday on pleasures that are of no lasting value - on beer, pizza, junk food, movies, cable television. Any pecking order we place on what is a "worthy" or "unworthy" use of money for entertainment is meaningless except to elevate our values above someone else's in an attempt to feel superior.
@Gstein: The Evony ad that appears immediately below the headline on the Facebook Purity page... that has to be some kind of meta-humor, right?
Perhaps the facebook security team should have their asses sued off for allowing this.
@Digigage: Why not post this article as a flier around their school before the visit? lol
Maybe even circulate the flier in the room while the jackhole is talking? ha ha
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: Facebook is already revising their ad and privacy matters according to what tech crunch has been writing [www.techcrunch.com]
#1 Facebook Pet Peeve: Mafia Wars shoutouts or broadcasts or whatever they call them. I don't play...so I don't give a shit. Stop sending that shit to me.