Zynga Pulls The Plug

So...unless you've been living under a rock for the last few hours, Zynga recently announced that certain sheep/pig patterns and attributes, originally released by "hackers" (pause for dramatic effect and/or snickering), would be discontinued until Zynga decides to release those patterns and attributes in the normal course of gameplay.

The hue and cry from across the land has already taken place.  Fan sites and the usual FarmVille pundits have already taken their position on this decision by Zynga.  Causes have been created and are circulating more widely than ever before.



Of course, this was all expected.

• I expected Zynga to make this move sooner or later.
• I expected people to be upset.
• I expected the signs, the causes, the disappointment.

What I didn't expect was the overall tone of the reaction by most players, and my own disappointment.

I'm not disappointed by Zynga's actions. I'm disappointed that they were necessary.

This is just another result of the 'hacking' of the game that takes place on a daily basis. Very little of this is true hacking, mind you.  Most folks are just following published instructions which, somewhere down the line, were actually developed by the true hackers, although any manipulation of the game code or interaction with the game servers outside of the game could properly be considered hacking.  Given that, you've got the "hackers" to thank for:

• Not being able to place eggs or mystery boxes/gifts on your farm.  This was discontinued as a direct result of an attempt by Zynga to block certain hacks.
• The collection limits and (formerly) the throttle.  Yes, using a snag bar or any other automated collection device is considered 'hacking' in this context.
• The lag and slowness of your game in general.  There's an awful lot of 'anti-hacking' code, traps and everything else that has to travel down your pipeline, and it all contributes to slowing your game.

Ironically, Zynga can thank these enterprising folks for the sheer magnitude of popularity that both sheep and pig breeding have enjoyed: left to Zynga's timetable, we'd probably all still be making sheep and pigs that look like mud.

In addition to enforcing their own Terms of Service, Zynga undoubtedly took this step to also protect their own Intellectual Property Rights.

I've seen some of the sheep and pigs that have surfaced as a result of these hacks, and the result has been many critters out there with graphic qualities that look as if they were created by a monkey with one of those big, fat preschool crayons.  It's well within Zynga's rights to have high quality graphic elements in the game of which they can be proud...and some of the 'created' critters I've seen don't qualify.

I'm disappointed that many are now acting like petulant children.

Despite Zynga's very clear wording to the contrary, it's amazing to see so many people who have gone on the defensive with the same ridiculous mantra, "But I've done nothing wrong!".  I often wonder about those whose initial reaction comes out like this when nobody accused them directly of doing anything wrong. Conscience?

So many are already threatening to quit (go ahead - there are millions of folks who will be on their farms tomorrow) and making ultimatums, literally acting like a 3 year old whose mommy has decided that they've had enough candy for the day.

The ones I see whining the loudest also generally seem to be the ones who create the most sheep and pigs - constantly asking for bottles and potions...and yet we all see very few lambs or piglets being shared.  It's the same people who hit the latest critters or trees and run with them full blast for an hour and then complain about how boring the game is.  We're ALL better off without this type of game pariah.

If you've ever read anything else on this blog, you know that I'm the first one to stand up for dissent and to disagree with Zynga's actions on many, many issues.  Stomping off like a little brat isn't the way to accomplish anything.

I'm disappointed that so many people seem to have lost their basic sense of right and wrong.

Maybe that's just a further expansion of the in-vogue sense of entitlement that's become so popular in the United States the last several years.  It's entirely possible.

If you go out to eat at a restaurant somewhere, and the waitress forgets to charge you for those awesome Jalapeño Poppers you had before dinner, do you really expect to get them for free again the next time you go? Seriousy?

When I was growing up, a kid in our neighborhood named Gordon had the absolute best kickball known to man.  We used to play for hours and hours, but we all recognized one basic fact:  It was Gordon's ball, so we played by Gordon's rules.


If you didn't like his rules, you didn't play.  It didn't matter whether you brought snacks for everyone, or made the bases, or even if we were playing in your yard.  It was Gordon's ball, and on several occasions when people felt like rebelling a little bit, Gordon would get ticked off and take his ball home, leaving the rest of us to stand around staring at each other and wondering what we'd get into next.


The few times that rebellion surfaced was because Gordon had a habit of changing the rules in the middle of the game, or simply making them up as he went along.  It wasn't fair and nobody liked it, but hey, it was Gordon's ball.  Gordon seldom explained the rules to us beforehand.

Zynga, on the other hand, has done exactly that.  It's located in a seldom-read document called their Terms of Service.  Written by lawyers (and not players, obviously), among the mumbo-jumbo which is the dark and sullied legacy of the legal profession, is a section which clearly says, in effect, "It's our ball.  Play by these rules or don't play".  One of those rules clearly states that you can't manipulate the game code to get what you want, and in the case of the flamboyant sheep and pigs, that's precisely what  was done.

The 'penalties' that were implemented were both just and fair:

• Those who played with the code now have a lovely set of boring sheep.
• Those who adopted 'cool' sheep still have them.  Zynga would have been perfectly justified in removing these, but they realized that most people just clicked to adopt something neat, and right now they still have it.
• The 'cool' sheep (and pigs) will no longer breed 'cool' ones, at least for now.  

Many of us were able to collect a few interesting, colorful critters while this exploit was active, and Zynga let us keep them despite it being perfectly appropriate for them to have turned them all stark white or removed them.

For better or for worse, Zynga will release them again as they see fit and on their own terms...because it's their kickball, just as it should be.