Money games

I have to say that I don’t get Zynga—they’re the instigators of those God-awful –ville games that infest Facebook. FarmVille, FishVille, MafiaVille—whatever. Until FB enabled blocking the damned “I need a sack of manure for my farm” and “I iced t’ree hoods” status updates my only recourse was to block the people who sent them out with unbelievable frequency.

(And does it seem odd that FB regularly allows crap to circulate, or crappy UX, only to make a big deal out of fixing it “because we value our members”?)

A while ago I read somewhere that the biggest players of Zynga games are women of a certain age, which I also find astounding. I expected better of them.

But now NPR reports that not only does the Zynga portfolio account for squillions of hours of wasted time online, it’s raking more than a billion of actual, real dollars. Because people who play those moronic games are buying virtual goods with real-world money. The company's obviously headed for a great IPO.

I just do not get it.