Back in September, Zynga made a controversial decision to replace YoVille users’ primary source of virtual income, the Widget Factory, with a new Sweets Factory. The result was that thousands of users protested the application and while the impact was not seen immediately, monthly active users over the past month are down around 10 percent. The result is that protestors got what they wanted and now Zynga is bringing back the Widget Factory to YoVille.
Read the rest of this entry »

Over the weekend I wrote about the “massive protests” taking place in Zynga’s virtual world YoVille. I kind of poked at the protesters in the article because they are the vocal minority. When you’re in the midst of a protest it appears as if everybody is protesting. The new changes were controversial for those users who had spent time and money on the game over the past year or two. The main issue was that users are now forced to return to the game on a timed basis in order to earn revenue. I’m still not convinced it’s an unfair adjustment.
Read the rest of this entry »

YoVille, one of the largest virtual worlds on Facebook, recently experienced a relatively large protest against a major change yesterday which modified the way users can earn virtual currency. Previously, users entered a widget factory from where they could earn coins. While users can still earn coins there is a new process in which users must spend money to make money (as is typical in the real world). A number of users are furious and in the past few hours I’ve received numerous users frustrated with the change.
Read the rest of this entry »

YoVille, the popular Facebook virtual world, has partnered with MTV to help promote this weekend’s Video Music Awards. The campaign involves a number of integration points including custom MTV gear and items, a party at the virtual lounge “Sky Nightclub”, and an MTV VMA Room Contest. The promotion is one of the most integrated campaigns that we’ve seen on a Facebook virtual world and it’s a trend that we’d expect to continue.
Read the rest of this entry »