Leaked Zynga Memo Justifies Copycat Strategy [Slashdot]

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bonch writes "After taking heat over allegations of copying hit indie game Tiny Tower, Zynga founder Mark Pincus wrote an internal memo justifying the company's strategy of cloning competing titles, citing the Google search engine and Apple iPod as successful products which weren't first in their markets. Pincus infamously told employees: 'I don't want f*cking innovation. You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers.'" http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png (http://twitter.com/home?status=Leaked+Zynga+Memo+Justifies+Copycat+St rategy%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FyCCVck) http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgames.slashdot.org%2Fsto ry%2F12%2F02%2F02%2F156248%2Fleaked-zynga-memo-justifies-copycat-strategy%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfa cebook) http://www.digitpress.com//a.fsdn.com/sd/googleplus_icon_large.png (https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/confirm?hl=en&url=http://slashdot.org)

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[Graham Mitchell]

Isn't this kinda old news? I remember hearing about something like this months ago.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.928581,-118.228118

[Oobgarm]

New memo, same shit.

[j_factor]

All of these casual game companies put out shameless ripoffs.

[TonyTheTiger]

Eh. I honestly don't see anything wrong with this. Following the leader has been a staple of the industry since its conception. Execution has always been more important than innovation. Either their games will be good (if not particularly original) and do well for them or they'll be ignored for other, superior products. "Me too" games can be immensely successful. Of course the downside is that they have to be damn good or they'll never be able to stand out from the crowd of competing products. It's a gamble just like anything else.

[Aussie2B]

In fairness to Google, when I started using the search engine back around 1999, I found it much better than the alternatives. It may have not been the first search engine, but I'd say it's the best. But I'd still rather play Harvest Moon over Farmville ANY day of the week. Sorry, Zynga, if you're going to rip off great ideas, at least, you know, try not to be worse than the product you're ripping off?

[j_factor]

In fairness to Google, when I started using the search engine back around 1999, I found it much better than the alternatives. It may have not been the first search engine, but I'd say it's the best.

Yeah. If Google hadn't distinguished itself, it never would've become popular. We'd all be using Hotbot or Ask Jeeves.

[Zing]

The problem isn't that they copy the general idea or theme of a game. They copy everything down to the exact details. Sometimes the UI is even virtually identical.