RewardVille: Where are Zynga's newest games?
Back in March, Zynga officially launched their player reward program RewardVille, and at the time, it offered free items for the then-current catalog of the company's games on Facebook. Now into the fall season, we've seen two of Zynga's games launch - Mafia Wars 2 and CastleVille - and neither has been given any representation within the rewards program, other than ads to play the games along the left side of the screen. The question is - why?
Earlier this month, some Zynga players started receiving invites into the Z.I.P. important players program; could this be the reason why we've seen the RewardVille platform seemingly abandoned? The last game to see new rewards was Adventure World, and it doesn't appear that either of these newer games are going to receive the love. So, what happened to the whole mantra of "we want to return the love." or "Play more. Get More. Earn Stuff?" Do these ideas now only apply to Zynga's "whales," or users that spend a considerable amount of money on every game they play?
As we've already learned from Z.I.P. invitations, some early invitees were given early access to CastleVille, Zynga's brand new kingdom-building game that just launched a few days ago. Sure, there's no way that early access to a new game could be a prize we'd even expect from RewardVille, but those "exclusive Zynga goodies" the program offers certainly are.
Has Zynga given up on RewardVille altogether, in favor of this new Z.I.P. program that limits access to free, exclusive items? I know I would personally be disappointed if that turned out to be the case, but we'll keep an eye on RewardVille either way. If new items do happen to appear, we'll make sure to let you know.
Have you noticed a decline in the advertising for RewardVille by Zynga? Did you get invited to the Z.I.P. program, or are you still stuck looking at the same free items in RewardVille instead? What sorts of items do you hope Zynga eventually gives away in its newest games? Sound off in the comments.
