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But Zynga has its skeptics. Ian Bogost, a game designer and Georgia Tech professor who studies video games, likened its games to fast food
-- mass-produced fare with little nutritional value. He even created a parody, "Cow Clicker," where the sole object is to click on virtual cows. Zynga's games, he said, are not as much about how well you can play or how much fun you have, but about how much effort or money you put in it. "I don't want to celebrate them just because they have a lot of users and make a lot of money," Bogost said. He added that the company has been "very, very brazen about their business process. It turns your relationships into these resources that form the backbone of their business." And Facebook users have often complained that Zynga's games are unimaginative and unwelcome intrusions into online banter and content sharing. Facebook last year changed the way it notifies users about games so that people who don't play a particular game won't continually get updates when friends send gifts of pigs or plum trees. Nonetheless, just as McDonald's has thrived by churning out tasty burgers and fries for decades, Zynga is quickly building a lucrative franchise with a menu of frivolous distractions. BTIG Research analyst Rich Greenfield believes media conglomerates such as Walt Disney Corp. and Time Warner Inc. should be worried because Zynga's lightning-fast ascent threatens to take people's attention away from TV sets, movies and other sources of entertainment. "Media has been fragmenting, and Zynga seems to be doing the exact opposite," he said. It "is growing at a staggering rate and reaching eyeballs that none of these companies are doing." Disney responded to the threat last year by buying Zynga rival Playdom for $563 million. The new program to reward loyalty is logical for Zynga, Greenfield said, because it probably will encourage people to spend even more time playing games. Zynga is already devouring a lot of leisure time -- and perhaps even diverting some players from their jobs or families. In this way, it's no different than TV or more traditional video games played on the Wii or the Xbox, or even knitting or crossword puzzles. FarmVille's manicured plots, quirky animals, fairy cottages and quaint duck ponds provide Kim Lindell of Hampton, Conn., with a way to escape from stress. As a social worker, her job involves working with people in tough circumstances, dealing with substance abuse and homelessness. "I can leave all that behind" for a couple hours a day, Lindell said. After getting up at 4 a.m., Lindell, 43, signs on to Facebook and, like 50 million other "FarmVille" players, dutifully tends her virtual farm. She said she spends about as much money on the game in a month as it would cost to go out to dinner at a restaurant a couple of times. Many players, including 60-year-old Lucille Skibinski, don't pay anything at all. Skibinski, who is on disability and spends much of her time at home, said avoiding the temptation to buy something is part of the challenge. "I like taking nothing and making something out of it," said Skibinski, who recently reached the highest possible level, 100, on "FarmVille." "Anybody can buy levels if they've got money. I, on the other hand, got mine with no money but with a lot of skill and work." Despite its successes, Zynga isn't in a rush to go public, partly because it already is sitting on a stockpile of cash. It doesn't need more investors
-- or their scrutiny -- as long as it can keep churning out new games on its own terms and count on its next "Ville" to be just as addictive.
[Associated
Press;
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