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Facebook games; Zynga's bad practices

(9 posts) (5 voices)

Started 11 years ago by Dana
Latest reply from mikiem2

Dana
Member

Hi all,

I know I'm not around very often, but I have a question I'm sure someone here can answer.

I play a game called Cafe World on Facebook. It's by the company Zynga. I keep hearing that it has a tainted history of dishonesty and what seems to be me to underhanded business practices.

Lately in my game, they've been rolling out multiple timed quests with overlapping timers at that, had a slew of loading problems, and set tasks that are impossible to do.

For example, we built a Hotdog cart that cooks 1 silly recipe at a time, and the task required 70 of those @4 hrs cook time each, plus 2 other things to fulfill. The timer was at 5 days. This was part 1 of a 10-part goal.

This morning, they set back our in game progress by 24 hrs to all active goals, and proudly put the Extension of one goal by 8 hrs in the game's banner.

All this while, there are constant splash screens with so-called discounted deals on buying in game cash with your real currency.

So you see, this company is really behaving disgracefully. I write in their forums and to Customer Support, but that's not enough it seems.

Is there no one I can complain to get this company to act honestly? Is there any way to get in contact with Facebook management to take a good look at what Zynga is doing? From what I hear from other players, this isn't the only game they pulled these tactics in. Maybe some of you know how bitter many Farmville players became.

(Disclaimer: This is an off-topic forum, but if this post is still inappropriate to Giveawayoftheday, please let me know and I'm sorry.)

Posted 11 years ago #
graylox
Moderator

Hi, Dana,
your post is welcome, I just put it into the Games forums.

I'm afraid, I can't help you with your problem, I gave up on Zynga games about 2 years ago, because it was hard to continue with the games without paying with real money.

Let's hear what others have to say.

graylox

30.06.12

Posted 11 years ago #
Dana
Member

Thanks graylox, :)

Posted 11 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

Better Business Bureau processed 436 Zynga complaints in 36 months, study says

http://blog.games.com/2011/06/22/better-business-bureau-436-zynga-complaints/

That year old post also has some interesting comments FWIW. It would also suggest that complaints through more formal channels have as little effect as posting in their forums.

Don't know if it works, but one writeup suggests:

What will actually work however when you need to file a customer complaint with Zynga games is calling. They keep their phone numbers well hidden, but there is one number that actually does get answered by a real live human at some point in the process - 1-800-762-2530.

http://www.helium.com/items/1991668-how-to-file-a-complaint-with-zynga-games

Posted 11 years ago #
Dana
Member

Yes, mikiem2. I did see that post just today.

As for that phone number, is it toll free? I'm not too familiar with these things. I live in Barbados and not sure how this works overseas. :)

Thanks much for the input. ^^

Posted 11 years ago #
PlainVanilla
Member

My sister is addicted to the *ville games by Zynga and always has problems like this. Sometimes sending a claims ticket to support gets her missions finished for her or just random crap but she got totally mad when they did a recent time warp after she had finished some gazebo or whatever but refused to give her back the building because "it would unbalance her gameplay"--never mind the fact that she had finished it honestly before their warp. She also can't buy it again on the game market.

I stuck with Frontierville for about 5 months before I got fed up with having to spam my friends, my wall and random strangers dozens of times each day just to finish stuff that never technically fit the frontier time frame (Christmas lights, neon signs, trees/bushes that grew impossible things, etc.)

Sadly enough, it's not just Zynga that uses these policies but almost all developers with multiple Facebook titles. EA Games bought Playfish (Restaurant City, My Empire, Pirates Ahoy, et. al) and ruined every one of those games, then they got rid of half of them when they released Sims Social.

In response to the last question, I found this info here: Barbados (Digicel) SIM Instructions

Important: Most US toll free numbers are not accessable from overseas. Be sure to get valid international numbers prior to your departure.
It might be best to just call your phone provider and ask them directly just to make sure.

Posted 11 years ago #
Dana
Member

You know, I think I'd better check my phone company. Those guys here have a monopoly - one phone company in the island for land lines currently and they do all manner of crap. I wouldn't want any surprise charges.

I notice that Restaurant City is on the way out, but I didn't know about the other games. I don't know if it's just Zynga or if Facebook just lets these companies do whatever they like.

The latest thing is that Zynga sent me an email with a survey to find out if I would pay to play for a "VIP service". Another friend told me they plan to charge $19.95.

Honestly, they can't run a free game and think I'd believe they would run an honest/fair "VIP Service". No way. I'd pay less than that to subscribe for Wizard101 - a pretty game that actually works.

Posted 11 years ago #
RosnSC
Member

I regularly play a couple of Zynga games; Pioneer Trail (nee Frontierville), and Bubble Safari (Jigsaw World, too, but don't recall who distributes it). I have been playing PT for close to 2 years now (did the Peanut and Canning missions), and never spent a penny on it. I used only the coins and horse shoes naturally obtained in game play. Having said that, I will say that Pioneer Trail is harder, and less pleasurable to play nowadays than it was a year ago. I can't say Zynga has given us any kind of missions such as you described, Dana, though it has certainly had its share of glitches/problems over time.

Posted 11 years ago #
mikiem2
Moderator

Sadly enough, it's not just Zynga that uses these policies but almost all developers with multiple Facebook titles. EA Games bought Playfish (Restaurant City, My Empire, Pirates Ahoy, et. al) and ruined every one of those games, then they got rid of half of them when they released Sims Social.

Games I think have always been a bit different that other types of software, from the history of abusing the coders that work for whatever game company to extreme DRM to basing entire games, or game companies on the question of how do we get the most $ possible out of customers. Zynga & some game sites/companies have the sole aim I think to get customers/users hooked, or if that's too strong a word, here in the U.S. companies sometimes give away samples, hoping that you'll want to pay for more. They do offer varying degrees of free stuff, with technically no obligation to pay for anything, but everything is geared towards making you want to open your purse or wallet. Unfortunately nowadays it's so easy to track stuff that the more often you pay the more often you're asked to pay. And they can easily tell what is & isn't making money, along with what has the most potential for making money, expanding or killing off whatever very quickly. Attracting investors can also play a part -- to help convince someone(s) a company is going to make more money in the future execs like to point to changes they're making as concrete evidence... it might in fact be a really stupid change, but many investors don't dig that deep to find or figure that out.

Posted 11 years ago #

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