Farmville Message Board older than one year ago

Zynga stock finally roared out of the gate and on to the trading floor yesterday at $10 a share, but investors weren't hugely impressed with the social gaming company. The stock started up a dollar at $11, and then dropped back down two, and then thirty, and then fifty cents during the day, leveling off at $9.50, which Forbes says was thanks mostly to "a stabilizing bid by Zynga's underwriters," which means Zynga's investors stepped in and bought up enough stock to keep the price up.

So what happened? Shortly put, Zynga's stock wasn't really worth what it was priced out at. An initial public offering is designed to be priced a little low, in order to drum up demand for a company's stock from the public (not to mention raise some money). But Zynga went high and, as a result, didn't quite get the graph it wanted today.

They didn't sell the FarmVille, so to speak -- ZNGA will likely be trading fine on Monday (and $9.50 is fine for the highly competitive gaming industry; THQ is sitting down at 75 cents right now). But Zynga's hype phase appears to be over. Now the company needs to prove it can sell more than just cow clickers.

#farmville The company most responsible for making Facebook a gaming destination will start to have their stock traded on Wall Street today, with shares going for $10 each. The initial public offering will likely make Zynga the second most valuable video game company after Activision but ahead of Electronic Arts. More »

Step right up, step right up! Waiting for that next patch of corn to grow in Farmville? Just hanging around for your friend to make his next move in Mafia Wars? Then you need to make the most of your time, my friend, with the most splendiferous stock offering this year: ZYNGA!

Or, "ZNGA," as it will be known today on the Nasdaq Stock Market, trading for the low-low (but on the higher end of expected) price of $10. Yes, $10! And because Zynga is feeling so generous about its stock price, you won't even have to wait 10 minutes or pay any extra credits to purchasing more than one at a time.

Forget all those negative feelings you may have heard about the company. Ignore the claims of a "sketchy" business model. Today's the day to get in on the ground floor and ride that bubble into the sun!

#farmville Farmville creator and king of casual games Zynga is in the midst of preparing employees for a Friday IPO, a source close to the company tells Kotaku. More »

Zynga is doing extremely well, especially for a company that started by piggybacking on a social-networking site, Facebook, and making games about farming. Zynga is in the process of launching its IPO, and while it won't be worth as much as initially expected this summer -- dropping from an expected high of $20 billion to a current possible low of about $10 billion -- Zynga is positioned to be worth more than EA, currently valued at $7.7 billion, and to compete with Activision Blizzard, which is valued at $14 billion.

Zynga plans to raise roughly $1 billion for its IPO and has begun a nine-day pitch process to convince investors that the company is truly worth it, with plans to sell shares for $8.50 to $10 each under the Nasdaq label, "ZNGA." Zynga's offerings would mark the largest for a U.S. Internet company since Google in 2004, but with Facebook expected to eclipse it in 2012.

If you're an interested investor, surveyor or slideshow-lover, you can view Zynga's complete IPO presentation right here.

Printing money is a lot easier than you might think. The conventional method of using a giant steampunk-tentacle robot to steal printing plates from a maximum-security bank vault is no longer necessary; these days all you need is access to Facebook APIs and the suffix "ville." Zynga, having no reason to halt their eternally forward march into a dollar-filled future, may be looking to add another printing press to its already well-stocked stable of money making franchises.

The domain detectives at Fusible have unearthed several recently registered URLs, all related to the presently unannounced IP Forestville. Registered through MarkMonitor, an intermediary used by A-list companies to register and hold domain names, the addresses run the gamut from forestvillegame.com to forestvillewithfriends.com and forestvillezynga.com.

Forestville.com is not among the registered domains, however, as it already belongs to the Forestville Central School District. Nothing else is known about the project as of yet, but we'd put good money on this being a micro-social Forest Whitaker simulator.

Printing money is a lot easier than you might think. The conventional method of using a giant steampunk-tentacle robot to steal printing plates from a maximum-security bank vault is no longer necessary; these days all you need is access to Facebook APIs and the suffix "ville." Zynga, having no reason to halt their eternally forward march into a dollar-filled future, may be looking to add another printing press to its already well-stocked stable of money making franchises.

The domain detectives at Fusible have unearthed several recently registered URLs, all related to the presently unannounced IP Forestville. Registered through MarkMonitor, an intermediary used by A-list companies to register and hold domain names, the addresses run the gamut from forestvillegame.com to forestvillewithfriends.com and forestvillezynga.com.

Forestville.com is not among the registered domains, however, as it already belongs to the Forestville Central School District. Nothing else is known about the project as of yet, but we'd put good money on this being a micro-social Forest Whitaker simulator.

#zynga Those trying to deduce just how much they can pay for a piece of FarmVille giant Zynga will only have a little while longer to wait. More »

Wednesday 30 November

185 lbs of Ba-Zynga bashing awesomeness.

Food consumed today: Nothing. I'm being fueled by music. Specifically, one song: "Eye of the Tiger." It's on repeat and nothing is gonna get in my way.

Afternoon. It's brisk in NYC and I'm bringing the heat to Zynga. If that bubble won't pop on its own, I might as well start passing around a bottle of wake-up juice!

Angry Birds developer Rovio allegedly rejected a $2.25 billion acquisition offer by Zynga over the summer. The report comes from a New York Times piece about how Zynga's tough corporate culture may gush talent as soon as unhappy employees with stock make bank on the IPO.

The piece also mentions how Zynga lost out on acquiring PopCap earlier this year for nearly a billion in cash to Electronic Arts, which offered a mere $750 million with performance bonuses.

Clearly, if Zynga offered more cash and lost to a company like EA (which had its own share of image issues in the past), it's not hard to contextualize that the Farmville publisher has a slight employee perception problem. At least Zynga execs can dry their tears with thousand dollar bills.

#zynga Farmville andCityville developers Zynga made their name on Facebook. But Facebook makes the rules on Facebook, and Facebook takes a cut of a company's profits on Facebook, so Zynga is now looking to sell more of its stuff to you directly. More »

Never before have our hearts received news with such confusion: In a recent interview with IGN, Toy Story writers Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen hinted at their next project: A movie adaptation of Zynga's Farmville franchise. "We're in conversations with Zynga to do something with one of their brands," they teased. "Can't really say too much on that front yet, but 'Old MacDonald' didn't have a factory, if you get our drift." We do not get your drift. Your drift makes us sad.

We trust the two to craft a compelling story, but we worry there's not enough rich source material for them to base it on. All we know is we're not looking forward to receiving a hundred daily invitations to go to the movie from our distant, distant cousins and fourth grade math teachers.

#farmville Just in time for everyone who has stopped playing FarmVille, Hollywood is working on a cinematic version of FarmVille. More »

You can tell a lot about a person based on their agricultural lot in Farmville: For instance, one look at our fertile lands, and you'll know we're firm supporters of firm arugula, well-fed livestock and laying out pumpkin patches in the shapes of genitalia. Also, if you check back in a few months, you'll be able to tell how much we love ex-New York gubernatorial candidate and Rent is Too Damn High Party founder Jimmy McMillan, because we'll have his campaign signs plastered all over our farmgrounds.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, political marketing consultant Michael Hendrix says Farmville will allow players to post candidate signage and do door-to-door campaigning later this year. Hendrix works for the Michelle Bachmann presidential campaign, and didn't specify whether users could campaign for any other candidates. We've contacted Zynga to find out the specifics.

Also, we should be more specific: We're talking about campaigning for real-life political positions. Not the mayor of Farmville, a position we'd still probably vote to fill with Jimmy McMillan. (Come on, that facial hair? How could we not?)

#farmville I recently travelled to the Cappadocia region of Turkey to get away from work and to enjoy the area's amazing, exotic geography. Hundreds of rock formations called "fairy chimneys" fill the terrain. In the early morning, dozens of hot air balloons take to the sky. More »

Sean Ryan, Facebook's director of games partnerships, is bringing some big changes to the social network's games service, including individual game recommendations a la Netflix, improving relationships with developers and focusing on quality of games instead of quantity. Game growth has slowed since Facebook got rid of game-notification spamming last year, Ryan said, stagnating at 200 million users, but it remains a focus for the company.

Facebook's announcement of coming innovation coincides suspiciously with Google Plus' rollout of its own games service, which is only taking 5 percent commission on its games (compared to Facebook's 30 percent) and has a separate tab for games updates, meaning no wall spam. It should be interesting to see which aspects of each other's services Facebook and Google Plus steal. What won't be interesting is how similar their games sections will be in the end.

#melville Herman Melville was born well ahead of his time, wasting his writings on paper when the great Moby-Dick deserved a more impressive platform: Facebook. More »

Zynga is the biggest success story in gaming for years. But the whole social gaming project could be facing its greatest challenge this week as nervous investors try to figure out if the sector if just one big bubble...

This can't be good for gaming, right? A leading player in the social gaming milieu is saying that success in Facebook gaming is now the private province of fat-cat publishers like Zynga and EA. Start-ups and smaller development houses face a bleak future on the sidelines, as the big companies rack up ever-larger audiences...

#legal Zynga, the big-hitting developers of games like FarmVille and CityVille, has found itself in court accused of not just ripping off another company's idea, but literally stealing the code for it. More »

California-based web developer SocialApps has become the latest company to file suit against social-gaming powerhouse Zynga, seeking damages for alleged "copyright infringement, violation of trade secrets, breach of written contract, breach of implied-in-fact contract, and breach of confidence."

The argument is that SocialApps entered into an agreement with Zynga, wherein Zynga would receive access to the source code for SocialApps' Facebook game MyFarm in exchange for some form of compensation. According to the suit, Zynga was given the code, at which point they fled into the night, never to be seen or heard from again. SocialApps claims that MyFarm's source code provided the foundation for Farmville, as well as its many derivatives. They are seeking a permanent injunction, damages, attorney's fees, as well as any of Zynga's profits or gains which can be attributed to Farmville.

While theft from other developers has been implied in previous lawsuits, this is the first out-and-out accusation of theft lodged against the company. In related news, Zynga's legal department has constructed an olympic-sized swimming pool on the Moon, and filled it with real pirate treasure.

#whatnottoputinonebasket Hate Farmville, CityVille and all of its billions of pestering, needy fans? There's a simple way to get rid of the company that makes those games: Kill Facebook. More »

Zynga said today the company filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering of $1 billion. The number of shares and the price range for the offering have not been determined yet...

Zynga, the social gaming empire behind CityVille and FarmVille, is suing Brazilian social gaming studio Votsu over copying game features, branding, producing strategy, and, according to PocketGamer, mission statements and company benefits. [PocketGamer] More »

Zynga has kicked off its latest cross-promotion, teaming up with the eccentric Lady Gaga for the launch of her latest album, "Born This Way." They've created a Gaga-themed farm in the enormously popular social game, FarmVille. Rather than rearing funky livestock, though, players will have a chance to listen to a handful of tracks from the album before launch on May 23.

And if that tickles your fancy, you'll be glad to know that Gaga's farm is currently live on Facebook, anxiously awaiting your arrival. Beyond early access to her next album, the promotion extends to Zynga's game cards as well, with folks purchasing $25 cards via Best Buy stores (online and off) -- between now and June 11 -- receiving a free digital copy of "Born This Way."

#marrythelunchhour GagaVille itself is a bit of a let down. It's just a neighboring farm with a few silly things to click. But for FarmVille regulars, the update brings new items, crops, and decorations-and a chance to listen to tracks from Lady Gaga's upcoming album before anyone else. It's insidious, brilliant pablum. More »

So, this is news. Probably.

That sure is a sheep riding a motorcycle.

In a combination that can only be compared to infectiously bedazzled chocolate meeting peanut butter that only your weird Facebook friends eat, Zynga has announced that it has teamed up with Lady Gaga to help promote her new album, "Born This Way." How? By giving her her own damn in-game farm in the company's wildly successful casual game, FarmVille, appropriately titled "GagaVille."

Players who enter this burg of Gaga-ness are given specific tasks to complete, and as they do, they will be able to listen to singles from the new record.

Though the GagaVille farm will only exist in-game until May 26, players who decide to peruse the new area will discover such Gaga-related horrors as "magical unicorns" and "sheep on motorcycles."

This isn't the first time Zynga and Gaga have combined their powers of nonsensical naming to better mankind, as they have previously worked together to raise money for Japan's earthquake disaster relief. This is...perhaps a bit more self-serving, but hey, when you can use the biggest pop star working today to help peddle your productivity-swallowing Facebook games, why not go for it, right?

It's actually a perfect match when you really think about it. FarmVille is kind of a rip-off of rival farming game, Farm Town--itself a kind of casual spin on the leisurely, plant-heavy play styles of Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing--and Gaga herself is pretty much just a hyper-modernized update of Madonna, so they've both got that whole shameless cloning thing going on. So, good for them, I guess?

And with that, this hereby concludes the only story anyone around here will be writing about FarmVille and/or Lady Gaga for the foreseeable future. You may now go on about your business, as if this nonsense never happened.

Lady Gaga can now count Zynga among her Little Monsters. The pop starlet has teamed up with the social gaming giant to promote her new album, Born This Way, through FarmVille...

#greenfarm Gameloft, pioneers of exploiting hit games for thinly veiled clones for Apple's iPhone and iPad, have reached an important milestone. The company has finally released its take on Farmville for iOS. More »

#clickville Aimed at capitalising on the popularity of Facebook smash hit FarmVille, Britain's National Trust has established MyFarm, which is in many ways a game of FarmVille, only for real. More »