“Not just Zynga’s, but lots of social games use monetization strategies that, as a hardcore gamer, I find offensive, frankly,” Garriott admits. “I really don’t like games that constantly pester me to pay. I find it radically interferes with my suspension of disbelief. So, I’m devoted in the Ultimate RPG game to finding novel monetization strategies that don’t offend me like some of these do. Yet, it’s still really important to learn those lessons, and there’s no better place to learn them then by having Zynga as a partner.”
Richard Garriott de Cayeux, on his partnership with Zynga
I suppose we will see who ends up corrupting/influencing who in this partnership.
Lord British and his company, Portalarium, teaming up with the foundering “Ville” magnate made the news a while back. I hope he learns the right lessons for his Ultimate RPG.
I guess he must be pretty happy now that EA and Blizzard “let” Zynga have the casual market… such that it is.