In my continued study of Zynga, I have some work in draft on how the crossover promotions of each game keep players loyal to the brand, despite a proliferation of similar themed (sometimes better) games on Facebook... But before the serious stuff...
Zynga crossovers we hope we'll never see:
- You come back to your farm in the morning to find a few of your cows strewn about your red wheat field, drained of blood;
- Your cafe is robbed of cafe points! A note on the counter promises protection;
- You come to New York, ready to take on any made man, only to find your stamina withered overnight;
- You dig in Treasure Isle only to find a mysterious coffin -- what treasure lies within? *creeeeeeeeeeak*;
- When the guy across the poker table with the bling knuckles loses, he goes out to the lobby, gets his buddies, and comes back all with tommy guns;
- Jack shows up in your frontier town, unusually pale, muttering something about *brains* and carries off your kids. (We always knew he was a bit off... Something about the eyes...)
[nod to Albacore on Facebook for brainstorming help and sending me all that devil's hide -- you know who you are...]
Shava Nerad is CEO of an indy game studio in Boston, which for purposes of this post will remain anonymous...