GameZebo: iPhone Friday: Live Poker the Holy Grail of Online Games?
Posted by Zynga
on November 21st, 2008
by Joel Brodie: Click to view full article
Zynga Public Relations
Archive for November, 2008
The iPhone Poker team is proud to announce the release of Live Poker for the iPhone, the device’s first truly live social gaming experience!
Live Poker connects your iPhone to Zynga’s casino — over 3G, Edge, or WiFi — so you can play Poker online with over 1.4 million daily users from Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Hi5. We’re really excited about the iPhone as a social gaming platform; Phones are inherently social devices, and with Apple’s engineering and UI ingenuity we think the iPhone is positioned to be a leader in social gaming.
A few features you’ll see in the app:
- Playing with Poker Buddies has never been easier. Find friends online and join their games instantly. This is truly what mobile social gaming is all about!
- Facebook Connect support, so you can play with your Texas Hold’em Facebook account and chip stack, or optionally register with a new account. We’re happy to be the first iPhone app on the market featuring Facebook Connect.
- Redesigned user interface specifically for the iPhone. I think it looks beautiful and makes for a better new user experience. We simplified menus and made the gameplay much easier to follow.
- Support for fun social stuff like chat and drinks. After all, Poker’s always been about more than just the cards.
Sharyn Efimoff is the Director of Product Management at Zynga, and Producer on the Live Poker iPhone project.
First Live Game Turns iPhone into a Social Gaming Platform
San Francisco – Nov. 13, 2008 – Zynga, the largest social gaming network, announced today the launch of “Live Poker,” the first truly live game on the iPhone. This mobile version of Zynga’s popular Texas Hold’Em turns the iPhone into an always-on social gaming device.
“Live Poker”” allows iPhone users to compete with 1.4 million daily players in the web’s largest free poker game. The game makes it easy for users to play with their real friends from Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Hi5 as well as make new poker buddies. Players can easily see which of their friends are online, and join them with just one click. Since the casino is always open, users have people to play with at all levels.
“Live Poker” is available on any iPhone with 3G or Wi-Fi access, and will also work on the iPod Touch. “Live Poker” is free, and an upgraded version giving players a larger chip package is available for $9.99. Future releases of the game will include additional features such as access to tournaments. The application is now offered in the iTunes store at: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=295913419.
About Zynga
Zynga is the largest social gaming network with 5.5 million daily users and 28 million monthly users. Zynga’s games are available on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5 and Friendster and include Texas Hold’em Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Vampires, Street Racing, Scramble and Word Twist. The company is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, IVP, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group and Avalon Ventures. Zynga is headquartered at the Chip Factory in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.zynga.com.
Zynga Public Relations
At the recent Austin Game Developers Conference, area/code co-founder and lead designer Frank Lantz discussed the development of Parking Wars, an advergame on Facebook. Parking Wars was, admittedly, more successful than even area/code anticipated. Frank’s proposal for why was simple. According to Gamasutra:
The game, in which your park your cars on your friend’s ’street’ on Facebook, is specifically intended to take advantage of a “light but persistent” rhythm of interaction.
Lantz explained that, sure, there is a competitive aspect, but there’s also a sense in which it functions as a light social MMO. In fact, it’s “…designed specifically to be something that you would do twice a day for five minutes.”
Social networks benefit from bringing users back day after day — through tropes like inboxes, newsfeeds, notifications, invites, messages. What could be a more perfect game than one where players feel compelled to return day after day, week after week, month after month?
This is what I’m calling the “long tail” of game design (a cousin concept to Chris Anderson’s long tail of business strategy). Rather than building games that promote brief and intense play, why not build games that promote short spurts of play over a much longer timeline?
Zynga gets the best of both worlds by enabling both of these play styles, but ultimately is focused on the long-term. You can play Scramble against your friends in a turn-based capacity, or you can engage in one of our many live rooms, and play Scramble fans around the globe for hours every day. For the ultimate long-tailers, RPGs like Street Racing, Mafia Wars, and Fashion Wars are great games. I guess the only question is: what kind of player are you?
Scott Jon Siegel is an associate game designer at Zynga, with several years of experience designing both digital games, as well as card and dice games.
Seeking Alpha: The Future of Gaming: Why EA and Take Two Have It Wrong
Posted by Zynga
on November 4th, 2008
by Matthew Rafat: Click to view full article
Zynga Public Relations