{"id":3658,"date":"2011-08-22T12:35:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T17:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=3658"},"modified":"2011-08-30T09:58:53","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T14:58:53","slug":"zynga-faces-more-patent-litigation-game-industry-rejoices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/software\/zynga-faces-more-patent-litigation-game-industry-rejoices\/","title":{"rendered":"Zynga Faces More Patent Litigation, Game Industry Rejoices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/techcitement.comadmin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/zynga-logo.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3659\" title=\"zynga-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/techcitement.comadmin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/zynga-logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"341\" height=\"202\" \/><\/a>If you listen closely, you can hear real game designers all around the world laughing in Zynga\u2019s face. Zynga, the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KoArTZNA5F8\"> Vanilla Ice<\/a> of the gaming industry, was hit by yet another patent suit last Wednesday. According to a press release by Agincourt Gaming, \u201cAgincourt, a recent entrant into the social gaming space, owns foundational patents that claim priority back to 1996 and cover processes for credits-based online gaming and a prize redemption system based on the outcome of game play.\u201d \u00a0This suit involves suspending 12 of Zynga\u2019s most popular social games and could seriously damage its standing in the market.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Since being founded in 2007, Zynga has amassed an estimated net worth of over $15 billion, but Agincourt harshly claims that \u201cZynga\u2019s remarkable growth has not been driven by its own ingenuity or innovations. Rather, it has been widely reported that Zynga&#8217;s business model is to copy creative ideas and game designs&#8230;and use its market power to bulldoze the games&#8217; originators.\u201d Them be fightin\u2019 words. In the past, Zynga has been harshly criticized for the design of several of its games, including <em>FarmVille,<\/em> which many say is a carbon copy of <a href=\"http:\/\/slashkey.com\/\">Slashkey\u2019s<\/a> <em>Farm Town<\/em>. Agincourt is not alone, though, and Zynga\u2019s involvement in <a href=\"http:\/\/dockets.justia.com\/search?query=zynga+game+network&amp;after=2010-08-17&amp;before=2011-08-17\">24 different lawsuits this year<\/a> is the clearest example of its self-warranted unpopularity. It\u2019s hard not to see karma at work here.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3660\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/techcitement.comadmin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Zynga_mafiawars.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3660\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3660\" title=\"Zynga_mafiawars\" src=\"https:\/\/techcitement.comadmin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Zynga_mafiawars.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Zynga_mafiawars.jpg 490w, https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Zynga_mafiawars-300x229.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3660\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Please visit my farm, I really need the money so I can pay off my Mafia Wars loans.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Zynga is no stranger to harsh game design criticism either. Many take issue with what they see as Zynga\u2019s money-first-game-last mentality. As a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/magazine\/2010\/09\/pl_games_zynga\/\">scathing article by WIRED<\/a> points out, instead of focusing on narrative or gameplay, Zynga designers build facades over purposely addictive, monetized systems. You can hardly disagree with WIRED\u2019s assessment when you see that these games purely revolve around, what game designer Daniel James describes as, \u201cclicking, watching a number go up, and being told to spam [your] friends.\u201d So, while these lawsuits may take their toll on this social gaming giant, many in the game industry will sit back and enjoy the due process of law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you listen closely, you can hear real game designers all around the world laughing in Zynga\u2019s face. Zynga, the Vanilla Ice of the gaming industry, was hit by yet another patent suit last Wednesday. According to a press release by Agincourt Gaming, \u201cAgincourt, a recent entrant into the social gaming space, owns foundational patents [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,38,40],"tags":[1158,1161,1160,1009,1159,1163,1048,1162,1157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3658"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3939,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions\/3939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}