Zynga is a special case. Most game developers leave each other alone and borrow inspiration from each-other's games. That's fine, it's GREAT actually. Zynga literally CLONES them as if they were counterfeit knock-offs. There's a difference between "inspired by" and "copied from" and I think Zynga will learn a hard lesson in this.For example: Words with Friends IS Scrabble, whereas UpWords is inspired by Scrabble, just as Scrabble was inspired by crosswords. There's a difference.However, I would hate to see innovation stifled in video games because of some sort of weird legal precedent set in this case.
I wrote a report and did a presentation about Zynga in my Business Strategy and Policy class. One student asked me why Zynga hadn't been sued yet. My response was that it was only a matter of time until they messed with the wrong company. I got an 'A' in that class. :)
@Tripwolf These are HIGHLY inefficient conversions. Gold and influence are best earned by playing the game, not converting them from gems. Even if people were to spend stupid amounts of money to convert gems to influence, it's pay to advance faster, not pay to win. There is nothing you can buy that will give you an advantage over me that I can't earn.
I'm really only interested in the subscriber numbers for Europe and the Americas. The Asian market uses net cafes and does not charge a subscription fee.My guess is there are no more than three million NA, SA and EU players in total.
As a fan of Max Payne 1 and 2, I found Max Payne 3 to be pretty damn amazing. I got it at half price from Amazon a couple weeks ago for PC, and I feel like I stole it. Try and play old MP, especially part 2 today -- your rose-tinted goggles will fall right off.I finished the original Max Payne on every difficulty level, including the secret hell level. It remains one of my favorite games of all-time. Max Payne 3 did not disappoint.
I never even played Wrath. So, no. Besides, there's a certain other MMO that comes out a month before Panda that I can't WAIT to get my hands on... again.
The answer to "What Blizzard should have done" in regards to the addictive nature of Diablo 3 is something they actually TRIED to do in the original World of Warcraft beta. In addition to "rest XP" they had "fatigue XP." After eight hours of consecutive play, XP gain was halved, and the affliction took some time to go away. The beta-testers and fans strongly protested this limitation. In D3, this would have translated to a reduction in loot and encourage people to put away the game for another day. Quite simply, this means no one is EXPLOITING the addictive nature of Diablo 3. People ENJOY it for what it is.Personally, D3 was incredibly boring to me, but I do enjoy other similarly addictive games i.e. Guild Wars 2.
@ollie_sr Phil is just proving to be stubborn and possibly lazy. The Xbox controller is available for PC and plenty of people have one. This reminds me of when Remedy claimed that "Alan Wake is a couch experience." .....that made its development cost back in its first hours on Steam. Fez isn't nearly as complicated as Alan Wake. Well, whatever Phil. Go ahead and sulk for now.
Erebus' comments