Emergence:

Story Killer or Story Maker?

or

How to get millions of people to send you money

for something that doesn’t actually exist!
Recall that…

Traditional GAMES have:

• DEFINED RULES

• DEFINED SPACE

• GIVEN SET OF COMPONENTS

• SET OF VICTORY CONDITIONS

Source: Dave Szulborksi, “TINAG”
Recall that…

New media (ARG) “GAMES” have:

• EMERGENT PROPERTIES

• IMMERSIVE “REAL WORLD” ELEMENTS

• COLLABORATIVE INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING

• SELF ORGANIZING STRUCTURE

(OF THE ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK)

Source: Dave Szulborksi, “TINAG”

Recall that…
“A quest is a journey
across a symbolic,
fantastic landscape in
which a protagonist or
player collects and
talks to characters in
order to overcome
challenges and achieve
a meaningful goal.”

Source: Jeff Howard “Quests”

Recall that…
…the QUEST is where
the following meet:

• GAME ----------- NARRATIVE

• GAMING ----------- LITERATURE
• TECHNOLOGY ------------ MYTHOLOGY
• MEANING -------------- ACTION

Source: Jeff Howard “Quests”

Recall that…

…the four (key) properties of emergence in games are:

• Discovery - The emergent properties of a system form

an explorable space. More complexity generally means
more space.
• Challenge - A game’s emergent properties form its
“strategic vocabulary.” New scenarios and obstacles can
emerge.
• Narrative - story emerges from game events
• Fantasy – emergent properties don’t necessarily support
the fantasy. Contradictions are common creating absurd
fantasies.

Source: personalhijinks.com
Recall that…
…Conway’s “Game of life” simulated life as
emergence through three rules.

• Oversimplification
• Not “really” a game
• A closed system

Source: personalhijinks.com
Enter…
 is…
• A casual game developer located in San
Francisco.
• A company that develops browser-based
games that work both stand-alone and as
application widgets on social networking
websites such as Facebook and MySpace.
• The #1 social gaming company on the
web.
 fun facts…
• Zynga was founded in July 2007 by Mark
Pincus (and his dog).
• They received USD $29 million in venture
finance from several firms in July 2008.
• At that time, they bought YoVille, a large
virtual world social network game.
• According to their website, as of
December 2009, they had 60 million
unique daily active users.
 fun facts…
Zynga was named after Zinga, “Chief Animal Officer (1995 - 2008),” Mark’s 13-year
old American Bulldog who sadly passed away in late 2008. Zinga’s name came
from Enzinga, the Swahili name for an African Warrior Princess

“Weighing in at 150 lbs, is Mark Pincus, frenetic visionary of Zynga. His DNA is one
strand entrepreneur and one strand competitive gamer. Mark founded Tribe.net
(www.tribe.net), one of the first social networks in 2003. Prior to Tribe, he was the
founder and CEO of SupportSoft (Nasdaq: SPRT), the world's leading provider of
support automation software. Prior to SupportSoft, Mark co-founded Freeloader, the
first consumer push information service.”
 Show me the $$
• Zynga is supported in two manners: Via
direct credit card payments and partner
businesses.
 Farm Cash Crash
• Through 2009 Zynga made money from lead generation advertising
schemes, whereby game participants would earn game points by signing up
for featured credit cards or video-rental services.

• These were criticized as being less cost-effective than simply buying game
points, and in some cases, being outright scams that would download
unwanted software or unwittingly sign up for a recurring subscription.

Pincus later said that he had been

too eager to increase company
revenues through advertising, and
that operating in reactive mode by
taking down ads only after
receiving complaints had not
worked. The company removed all
ads for a time, relying only on direct
purchase of game currency, then
began reintroducing third party ads
only after they had been screened.
 Copy-wrong?
Zynga has also been accused several times of
copying game concepts of popular games by
competing developers.

• The launch of Mafia Wars sparked a lawsuit from the makers of Mob
Wars, which was settled out of court for $7–9 million.
• Ars Technica noted that gameplay, design, graphics, avatars, and
even in-game items from Zynga's Cafe World and Playfish's
Restaurant City were "nearly identical.”
• Zynga's FarmVille is extemely similar to the earlier game Farm
Town.

Mark Pincus has dismissed the criticisms, saying that

“competing video game makers have always released similar
titles for each genre of game.”
 But the biggest problem is…
non-players who grow tired
of seeing updates about
their friends' social gaming
activity. Facebook groups
created to express
displeasure regarding
overexposure of Zynga's
games attracted millions of
members!
 GAMEPLAY
• Several Zynga games require an "Energy" characteristic to play.
Engaging in "Missions", a core feature of many games, consumes a
certain amount of energy.
• After expending energy, it slowly replenishes to the character's
maximum limit. This can take minutes or several hours (energy
replenishes whether or not players are logged into the game).
• After energy is replenished, players can engage in additional
missions. Waiting for energy to replenish is a significant limiting
factor in the games. Their support mechanisms take advantage of
this.
 GAMEPLAY
• Some games exploit a variant of this, allowing for
“planting” or “cooking” of anything ones resources allow,
then counting down to “harvest” or “serving” at which
time the cycle is repeated.
• The games usually have a “gifting” and/or “helping”
mechanic which encourages social interaction within the
game as well.
STORY (?)