1.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Michele Willson & Tama Leaver
FarmVillains? Games, Data Mining and
the Social Media Contradiction.
04.07.2013

2.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Part of a larger ..
ARC Linkage (LP11200026 ): The New Entrepreneurial
Communities: an applied ethnographic study into social
gaming on the Internet
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

3.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Outline
 Value of Data
 Zynga and its Social Games
 The Contract
 Questionable Practices: Zynga’s relationship to (personal)
data
 Social Media Contradiction
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

4.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Every mouse click aggregates onto a wider
body of data that is stored indefinitely, to be
queried and analyzed to ends that are
boundless at most, and vague at the very
least.
(Chow-White, P., Chee, F., & Smith, R. 2011, p.18)
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

5.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/

6.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
We’ve become more valuable to the Internet
and its scanbots as aggregate data inputs
than we ever were as consumers of banner
ads.
(McKelvey, Tiessen & Simcoe, 2013)
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

7.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Social Game defined:
The term ‘social game’ is contested; the two
main uses being either a game involving
multiple players interacting socially or, more
recently, games specifically played
within online social networking
platforms
(emphasis added, Jacobs & Sihvonen, 2011)
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

8.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

9.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

10.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

11.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Microtransaction revenue
Advertising revenue
Data gathered about player
mechanics, frustrations, desires etc
Access to FB users and their social networks
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

12.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Mark Pincus (CEO)
on Zynga.com
We think we’ve built the best hosting for
social games and deep analytics. You can
make your network available to companies
through APIs, and we are in the early stages
of doing that.
(http://allthingsd.com/20120530/mark-pincus-at-d10/)
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

13.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

14.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
The contract
You own your User Content. You hereby grant Zynga and its Affiliates a
perpetual and irrevocable (other than as provided below), worldwide, fully
paid-up and royalty free, non-exclusive, unlimited license, … [to use] in any
way now known or in the future discovered, your User Content ..[you]waive
any moral rights you may have in any User Content. The license …ends when
you delete your User Content or you close your Account unless your User
Content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
However, you understand and accept that removed content may persist in
back-up copies for a reasonable period of time.
(http://company.zynga.com/legal/terms-of-service)
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

15.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Accessing Farmville on Facebook …
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.
New users are neither required to read (or click something to say they have read)
either Zynga’s Terms of Service or Privacy Policy in order to access the game.

16.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Questionable practices
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

17.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Late 2009, Arrington (TechCrunch) article
series
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

18.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Oct 2010 – class-action lawsuit
Zynga is sued over a Facebook privacy scandal.
Allegation:
Zynga collected and shared the data of 218 million
Facebook user IDs with advertisers and data
brokers.
…violated federal law and its contract with
Facebook by sharing user data with third parties.
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

19.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Facebook user backlash
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

20.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

21.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.
FarmVille had a 26 %
drop,
from about 83 million
in March 2010
to 61 million monthly
users, July 2010

22.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Social media contradiction
The front-facing experience of Zynga’s games
encourages players to focus on the social side: the
play, the competition, and social interaction.
Yet, for Zynga these elements are secondary to the
data collection, aggregation, analytics and
monetization of player activity.
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

23.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Dec 2011 – Zynga goes public, with
very disappointing results.
Oct 2012 –drastic cost-cutting:
mass firings, game closures
Nov 2012 – Facebook announces
Zynga will no longer enjoy a privileged
position as of March 31st 2013
March 2013 – CityVille 2 closed-lack of
players
June 2013 – cuts 18% jobs, closes offices
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.

24.
Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J
Premature?
04.07.2013ANZCA 2013, Fremantle, Western Australia.
Image Source: http://www.stayawake.tv/ViewBlog/How-Zynga-has-killed-Facebook-games-75