I shouldn't be surprised by recent headlines concerning Zynga's mounting problems. Between layoffs, a lawsuit, and unsatisfied customers, the online games provider seems to facing an increasingly steeper hill by the day.
As a Zynga customer myself, I've about had it with them and am seriously contemplating taking my services elsewhere, at least until (if) things get straightened out there.
There are only two Zynga games I play anymore - Words With Friends (Scrabble) and Scramble With Friends (Boggle). When first playing these games, I would have graded them both with a perfect five out of five stars. However, the more I have played these games, the more flaws I have observed, particularly in Scramble With Friends.
Unlike in Words With Friends, in Scramble With Friends every player is provided 15 tokens. Each game costs 1 token. A person may use that token for one power-up, a second token for another power-up, and three more tokens for a third power-up (in each and every round). They can even spend actual money for a fourth power-up which provides them with an extra minute of playing time in a round. Granted, after every ten minutes, a player earns another token. However, if a person is playing several games simultaneously, he or she will either have to wait a while in order to play a round or will have to cough up some of their own money in order to purchase more tokens. With each and every new update or power-up, it seems, players are forced to cough up time and/or money in order to make use of them. After learning more about the tokens, the power-ups, and seeing the trends which appeared to be occurring with all the updates, this lowered my grade of the game from a perfect five stars to 3.5. While it was still fun for me to play, I didn't like the fact that both my opponent and I didn't have an identical number of power-ups and if an opponent was willing to spend some money, he or she would be provided with an extra minute of playing time for a round.
Then the game started crashing about once a week. Before long, I was unable to open the game, so I'd have to delete it and re-download it (thankfully, for free). About 3-4 weeks ago, I could no longer log into the game via Facebook, so Facebook friends of mine were forced to provide me with their usernames in order for me to play them from my Google account. Over the past few days, games of mine started disappearing. After deleting the game this morning and re-downloading it, the games suddenly appeared again, but we'll see how long that lasts. With all these problems I've been having with the game, I believe I'd now give it two stars out of a possible five, down from the five I would have given it initially. Unless Zynga improves matters, I'll likely start playing Ruzzle instead.
Words With Friends is now no longer working via Facebook either. Like with Scramble With Friends, I've had to set up a second account - via Google - to play again. Unfortunately, since I don't have access to most of my Facebook friends' usernames, I've been left playing random opponents I don't know over my phone, while still playing Facebook friends over the computer. Like with Scramble With Friends, I may wind up trying to find another Scrabble game for my phone.
Sadly, it appears as if I'm not alone in these before-mentioned problems. As I was looking through other Zynga customers' reviews of Words and Scramble With Friends - especially very recent ones - it appears as if a number of people are having issues with the games crashing, disappearing, and/or not working via Facebook.
For frustrated players of Zynga's games, I'd recommend sending complaints and if they don't sort the situation out soon, to take your service elsewhere.
As a Zynga customer myself, I've about had it with them and am seriously contemplating taking my services elsewhere, at least until (if) things get straightened out there.
There are only two Zynga games I play anymore - Words With Friends (Scrabble) and Scramble With Friends (Boggle). When first playing these games, I would have graded them both with a perfect five out of five stars. However, the more I have played these games, the more flaws I have observed, particularly in Scramble With Friends.
Unlike in Words With Friends, in Scramble With Friends every player is provided 15 tokens. Each game costs 1 token. A person may use that token for one power-up, a second token for another power-up, and three more tokens for a third power-up (in each and every round). They can even spend actual money for a fourth power-up which provides them with an extra minute of playing time in a round. Granted, after every ten minutes, a player earns another token. However, if a person is playing several games simultaneously, he or she will either have to wait a while in order to play a round or will have to cough up some of their own money in order to purchase more tokens. With each and every new update or power-up, it seems, players are forced to cough up time and/or money in order to make use of them. After learning more about the tokens, the power-ups, and seeing the trends which appeared to be occurring with all the updates, this lowered my grade of the game from a perfect five stars to 3.5. While it was still fun for me to play, I didn't like the fact that both my opponent and I didn't have an identical number of power-ups and if an opponent was willing to spend some money, he or she would be provided with an extra minute of playing time for a round.
Then the game started crashing about once a week. Before long, I was unable to open the game, so I'd have to delete it and re-download it (thankfully, for free). About 3-4 weeks ago, I could no longer log into the game via Facebook, so Facebook friends of mine were forced to provide me with their usernames in order for me to play them from my Google account. Over the past few days, games of mine started disappearing. After deleting the game this morning and re-downloading it, the games suddenly appeared again, but we'll see how long that lasts. With all these problems I've been having with the game, I believe I'd now give it two stars out of a possible five, down from the five I would have given it initially. Unless Zynga improves matters, I'll likely start playing Ruzzle instead.
Words With Friends is now no longer working via Facebook either. Like with Scramble With Friends, I've had to set up a second account - via Google - to play again. Unfortunately, since I don't have access to most of my Facebook friends' usernames, I've been left playing random opponents I don't know over my phone, while still playing Facebook friends over the computer. Like with Scramble With Friends, I may wind up trying to find another Scrabble game for my phone.
Sadly, it appears as if I'm not alone in these before-mentioned problems. As I was looking through other Zynga customers' reviews of Words and Scramble With Friends - especially very recent ones - it appears as if a number of people are having issues with the games crashing, disappearing, and/or not working via Facebook.
For frustrated players of Zynga's games, I'd recommend sending complaints and if they don't sort the situation out soon, to take your service elsewhere.
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