Zynga and Black Hat Gamification
My theories on Black Hat vs White Hat Gamification can often be utilized to explain or predict why certain companies are successful or fail at different stages.
One such example is the social gaming company Zynga247, which is known for games such as Farmville, Words with Friends, and Zynga Poker.
Zynga has mastered how to implement all sorts of Black Hat Game Techniques – of course, they don’t have a framework to think about the techniques as “Black Hat.” Instead, they consider it “Data-Driven Design248,” which on the outset seems to be extremely clever and legitimate. Because of the Black Hat designs, all their immediate metrics looked good: Monetization, Viral Coefficients, Daily Active Users, User Addiction, etc. However, because people don’t feel good playing Zynga games after awhile, when they can drop out of the system, they will.
This is especially true for the late Scaffolding stage as well...