Utilization of social media in mobile game on iOS and Andriod

Ever downloaded a game on your iOS or Andriod device only to be hit with a login screen asking f

or your Facebook or Twitter credentials? More and more games on mobile platforms like android and iOS are asking its users to link their game profiles with their Social Networking accounts. Some games need an established network of friends who you can play with and thus, these links to your profile are deemed necessary. They are essential for the game to function well, such is the case of titles like “Words with Friends” and “Draw something”. Although they can function independently, the inherent ties to people that you know in real life are at the core part of its game-play. In the former, you are asked to guess a word based on a few sketches by your peer. In this case, the social element is integral to the game. The game cannot function well without another player at hand.

                In other games, “friends” are utilized to gain access to certain levels or provide “aid” to your journey or game. They are not essential for you to complete or play the game but it is optimal if you have them. In this case, Social linkages are seen as a means to “make life easier” and provide you with an extra boost than what is normally allotted. To put it simply, your Facebook friends are merely there as additional tools or resources that you can use.

                How does this benefit the Game publishers? When these game publishers ask for your credentials, they gain a little bit of information of who its users are. They can leverage this to tailor products that would cater its user-base and thus drive profit. Furthermore, whenever you “post an achievement” on your wall, that is effectively free advertising. They didn't even have to pay you to spread the word regarding their game.

                Facebook has already tightened its rules on “auto posting” on your behalf; it was possible for videogame publishers to write posts on your wall the minute you agree to their terms of service by clicking on accept, now it requires you only to share the minutest data and prompts you every time it attempts to post to your timeline. It is hard to see the mobile gaming platform moving away from that practice any time soon. People are valuable assets, and your friend’s list is a treasure-trove waiting to be exploited.

Source:

https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/06/26/growing-mobile-games-and-apps-with-facebook/

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/games/mobile/bestpractice

====================

Brendon Martin Borgonia

The effect of online gaming on future generations.

The kids that are playing all these online games today are going to grow up tomorrow and become the next generation that overtakes us. And we can say that they will be highly affected by the kind of games they will play. According to raisesmartkid the following positive behavior's are seen in the kids playing online games, they are as follows ability to follow instructions, problem solving logic, hand-eye coordination, planning and resource management,  multi tasking, quick thinking, accuracy, strategy and anticipation, situational awareness, developing reading and math skills, perseverance, pattern recognition, estimating skills, inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing. mapping, memory, concentration, improved ability to rapidly and accurately recognize visual information, reasoned judgments, taking risk (which is both good and bad), management, simulation and real world skills.

Now we will discuss the negative affects caused on the children, according to raisesmartkid again the following affects can be seen, Children playing violent games are seen to show violent behavior, playing too much online games makes a child socially isolated, Some video games teach kids wrong values (such as violent behavior, aggression are rewarded, Women are portrayed as weaker characters and etc ), many games confuse reality and fantasy,  when interacting with other players online a child can pick up bad behavior or language from them (other players).

As we can say after going through the content stated in the previous paragraphs that children today are highly affected by the games they play. These games kind of define the kind of person they will become tomorrow. We shouldn't forget that the kids in front of us will grow up and eventually become the next generation. What do we want for a better tomorrow? A person who has proper values or a person who is completely white washed in a negative way by the games he/she plays. It has been scientifically proven that children learn very quickly from their surroundings and hence parents should always check the kind of games their child is playing. A parent should encourage their child to play nice informative games instead of letting them play violent and blood thirsty games. Moreover Government should also enforce more strict rules that bans games for being too violent (which is done only in few countries such as united states which banned grand theft auto san andreas  for violence and sexual content in 2005). Proper measures should be taken by everyone to make sure that a child gets whats best for his growth and future after all we are talking about our future generation.















References
-http://nanobitwallpaper.com/future-video-game-consoles/
-http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_San_Andreas

Streaming for a Living

Streaming of tournaments as has been previously discussed in another blogpost is a growing trend among competitive games like Starcraft, League of Legends, Defense of the Ancients to name a few. As an extension of this, Professional Gamers have started to stream their casual non-tournament games for public viewing to their legions of fans. Picture this, Lebron James playing a few hoops with friends being broadcasted live, or Tiger Woods playing at a local golf course, all for the private enjoyment of their fans. Now imagine the fans having a direct interaction with the athlete and can even send messages for a special request. That has all been made possible for Professional E-sports gamers courtesy of Twitch.tv.

                Twitch is a streaming service tailored specifically for the purpose of broadcasting games live to a myriad of spectators. A number of E-sports tournament organizations utilize the company’s technology to do just that as has been discussed in another blog post. Remarkably though, a lot of Professional Gamers and even some non-professional ones, are utilizing the exact same service to reach out to their respective fan base. It provides an avenue for interaction, the pros can give out tips and tricks or just showcase their mechanical game prowess.

                So how do streamers earn money? Advertising. Similar to how google places ads all over its products. Twitch allows streamers to air ads. Then payment is calculated based on the number of unique active viewers and the revenue is split between the hosting site i.e Twitch.tv and the streamer. These are targeted advertisements and the type of ads shown depends on geolocation and targeted demographic. In League of Legends, one of the popular Pro-players from Team Dignitas earned $8,000 in streaming alone. Team SoloMid’s Dyrus is estimated to earn $100,000/year majority of which comes from streaming; the same goes for TSM TheOddOne who rakes in an estimate of $80,000 annually.

                There is much speculation on the actual calculations on the earnings and the topic is extensively discussed on the Reddit Thread :

http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1pglbf/how_much_money_do_you_actually_make_by_streaming/

                It does however take a lot of effort especially for players who are not professional gamers to gain a loyal following that will watch them stream. It takes a lot of time and effort and a lot of creativity to differentiate yourself from thousands upon thousands of other streamers who are just like you. The unpredictability and volatile nature of earning from streaming games can be a deterrent to some and it remains to be seen if this is a sustainable career path that many can live off of.  

Sources:
http://seanspage.hubpages.com/hub/Be-Aware-Can-professional-gaming-be-a-legitimate-career-path
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/play-video-games-for-a-living-twitchtv-is-making-it-happen/
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1pglbf/how_much_money_do_you_actually_make_by_streaming/
http://seanspage.hubpages.com/hub/Be-Aware-Can-professional-gaming-be-a-legitimate-career-path


====================
Brendon Martin Borgonia

The interaction between game developers and players

For the future, no one can predict, especially in this era of rapidly changing. "The people who knows consumer most is customer” I remember someone said this. The reference to the game can change by “The people who knows game most is the player. Players think highly of many details, such as picture quality, level design,controls and so on. And game developers focus on audiences, design difficulty, hardware requirements. So, there are gaps between players and developers. This is caused by the identity of both sides.

Currently, players do not design games. They are either not able to design or do not have the time to design games. Most of game developers are too busy to play games, especially other developers’ games. Because he has spent a lot of time spent on the design his own game. Therefore, this kind of contradiction makes players cannot find their perfect games or perfect game experience. Meanwhile, developers are hard to create a suitable game for a group of people or a certain player. Now, like the role definition games, we set our own color of skin, hair and height in a game. This is a big change for games and social media. From the age that developers dominate everything to players redefine the rules of the game.

I personally think by 2020, there will be no special difference between developers and players. Players design games, game developers play the game which created by players. Players came up with an idea and tell developers, then developers for a player, or a group of players to create a framework of the game. Then players improve this game in order to make this game become their private game. Like Lego bricks, blocks are the same, but how to create depends on yourself. The premise is that need to be a simple operation mode, lets everybody can learn quickly. This will be a new problem or challenge for developers, how to create a flexible and changeable game and give a game its own personality.

--Hanyu Wu



References:

http://www.gamesforchange.org/2013/07/from-interaction-to-impact-3-games-that-engage-players-in-3-different-ways/

http://www.sploder.com/

http://kotaku.com/5979539/a-beginners-guide-to-making-your-first-video-game

Do online games whitewash people?

"People who play video games are less able to control impulsive aggressive behavior, reveals a new study " (The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10221432/People-who-play-video-games-are-less-able-to-control-impulsive-aggressive-behaviour-reveals-a-new-study..html). People are changing there is an evident change in people who play aggressive online games. "Teenagers who play violent video games over a number of years become more aggressive towards other people as a result, according to a new long-term study. Researchers said the study was the first to show a clear link between a sustained period of playing violent games and subsequent increases in hostile behaviour.
Girls who play violent computer games during their school years were found to be affected just as much as boys." (dailymail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214346/Violent-video-games-make-teens-aggressive-girls-affected-boys.html). It has been scientifically proven that playing outdoor games helps a person to be calm and peaceful and also physically fit. We all agree that playing online games all the time make a person secluded and that person ends up have no friends or someone close to him/her and this ends up making that person socially awkward who later find's out that he has trouble socializing.
As we can see today that a person's behavior is highly manipulated by the kind of games he play. We can assume a person playing highly violent games end up having violent and aggressive and violent behavior. ""Early last year, seventy French university students sat down in a room. A group of scientists told the students they would be participating in a study to measure the effects of video game brightness on visual perception, and that they would each be paid 10 euros a day for their efforts.
The students split up into two groups of 35, and each group was randomly assigned to play a violent or non-violent game 20 minutes a day for three days. The violent games: Condemned 2, Call of Duty 4, and The Club. The non-violent games: S3K Superbike, Dirt 2, and Pure.
After each gaming session, the students were asked to write an ending to one of a few randomized stories. In one of the stories, for example, a driver crashes into the main character's car, causing a bunch of damage, and then the main character gets out of his car and approaches the other driver. Students had to fill in what would happen next.
After each gaming session, the students were asked to write an ending to one of a few randomized stories.
Then, each student was told that they would compete in a computer game in which they had to respond to a visual cue faster than an opponent of the same gender. The loser, the students were told, would receive a heinous noise blast that sounded like a combination of fingernails scratching a chalkboard, dentist drills, and ambulance sirens. Each student could determine the intensity and duration of the noise that their opponent would have to suffer through.
The results of this experiment—conducted by Ohio State University professor Brad Bushman not to measure brightness, as they had told the students, but to examine the connection between violent video games and aggressive behavior—were conclusive, the researchers said. The people who played violent video games were more likely to write more aggressive stories and dish out higher, more unpleasant noise. Violent video games, Bushman and his colleagues concluded, have a direct causal effect on aggression.
In other words, playing Call of Duty makes you want to fight."" (http://kotaku.com/5976733/do-video-games-make-you-violent-an-in-depth-look-at-everything-we-know-today)

The above study proves my point that today a person's behaviour is not his/her own but manipulated by kind of games he play. They are being whitewashed by the games they are playing. They do what they do in the online games they play. many teenagers who play violent games like GTA (Grand Theft Auto) believe that if they rob or kill someone they might just get away it like they do in the games they play. According to me if we need to solve this problem then we need to put more emphasis on the outdoor activities as they create a peaceful state of mind and also parents should watch the kind of games a child is playing because it will be really better if this problem is checked at a young age.



Reference
-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10221432/People-who-play-video-games-are-less-able-to-control-impulsive-aggressive-behaviour-reveals-a-new-study..html
-https://townipproject09.wikispaces.com/Video+Games+Affect+on+Americans
-http://kotaku.com/5976733/do-video-games-make-you-violent-an-in-depth-look-at-everything-we-know-today
-http://www.goodgamebro.com/category/shooters/battlefield/

Games promote the development of Social media

Have no idea since when, the game gradually became barriers for people to improve their social skills. In fact, I think this point of view is not quite correct. When we are talking about games we have to mention a group of typical people. Geeks, what people think of above all is an image of no social life with scruffy hair. But indeed, they are not. Geeks are not nerds. The biggest differences between them are communication skills and social skills. Geeks now are more likely to use games to meet new friends, as not only using the traditional, face to face method. Facebook is a good place to meet new people as well, research has shown that one in eight of American couples met together through social networks. What's more, there are many small games on Facebook  Now please let me explain why games promote the development of social media.

The game is a type of hobby. It can reduce the distance of each other. Having same hobbies is much more likely to become good friends. If people are good friends already, they will have more time to get along with. For instance, I call my friends come to my house to play PS3, then surely we will be more intimate. And through games, I have a chance to meet my friend's friends.

Secondly, online games are no limitations of distance, you can use a game to make friends cross cities or even the people of other countries. Games can let you no longer owe yourself to a narrow circle, through games,you can meet a lot of friends over a long distance.The game is for relaxing. The person may be the most authentic self when playing games. During the day, most of us are placed in a world of hypocrisy. But when sitting in front of computers, we see a screen instead of faces. We can go back to the true self, so the friends from games may be the most sincere.
Games offer a new and excellent way to make friends. In 2020, games will dominate social media. The stand or fall of it needs time to prove. However, now it seems that the game is an important flavoring for social media.

--Hanyu Wu

References:

http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-the-Difference-Between-Nerds-and-Geeks

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2442364/Are-geek-nerd-Scientist-creates-graph-explains-difference--tells-YOU-scale.html

Do future games restrain people's sociability

Do future games restrain people’s sociability? The answer is hard to say. Because in some situations the game is a way to improve our social skills. For some team games, for example, when I was a captain as the role of commander in chief., I need to be responsible for the whole team’s collaboration. When I was an ordinary soldier, I needed to know when to obey orders, when to make suggestions. In the game, people can gain experience that cannot get in the real world. And this part of the experience may be applied to actual life.

By contrast, there are more people being heroes sitting in front of screens, speaking out freely. Although they have the ability that most people do not have, when it comes to the real life, they are afraid to say anything. I think it should be caused by the lack of self-confidence. Because they have a crush on the virtual feeling. This is a huge problem. Because modern society is still dominated by the reality. We can through the network to know others, but finally they always return to the authentic life.

Nature Video

To see the video please click HERE

In 2020, with the advent of new game equipment. Lifelike degree of games will be neck and neck with the reality. At that time, we will be able to use the power that we have in games. Part of the training in the game, is equivalent to the actual training. If we can get good grades in the game, you can also do it in the actual life. In 2020, the game is the reality, the reality is the game. Because the game has already been involved in our brain. Games will cooperate with the brain. Just like a dream, in a dream, we don't know we are dreaming. But the game is different between the dream because dreams are always being less, but the game is able to synchronize with the real world. When virtual is not virtual, then there is no game will restrain the social media. This life style will let a person full of imaginations, but there are also many concerns, since fiction can bring us so much vivid experience, what the meaning for the realistic is? This will be a mystery, but the only certainty is that tomorrow of social media will be very different from today’s.

--Hanyu Wu


References:

http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/11/26/video-games-help-boost-social-memory-cognitive-skills/62537.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/computer-game-playing-shown-improve-multitasking-skills/

Social games

Playing Games, it is a human nature. Both children and adults love games. Sports, such as bowling, golf; educational classes, such as playing chess. There are countless types of games. No doubt, the game has become a part of our life.

Now more and more people are willing to spend time in electronic products. Most of them use a computer for playing games. Once upon a time, childhood should play football, basketball and sports outside. But now, with the rapid development of science and technology, entertainment project is rich and varied, our life style has also been changed. People do not have to go out, do not have to meet friends, even do not take part in the actual social activities. The primary cause of all is the fact that we can easily do social things in front of the computer. If I feel bored, all I need to do is going on the facebook and see if there is any friends online. Anytime, anywhere can be a dialogue or launch a party. All of these can be that simple. 


Speaking of Facebook, now social games on social networking sites become more and more popular. Facebook has a game called FarmVille 2, let users can leave their game results on their pages. Using the mind of rivalry to attract users to constantly refresh high marks. Once someone creates a new score, and instantly shares online, as a cycle. Obviously, social games is a kind of new attempt for business and a method of increasing user dependence on sites. I have to say that Facebook was founded only around ten years and it has redefined the communication channels. Now there are games based on social networking sites.

In 2020, I think that the popularity of social games will be more widespread. Although, this kind of game with entertaining, play ability and picture quality may not be able to compare with big companies’ work as Blizzard Entertainment, I personally believe, social network games cannot be compared. Because this is a brand new category. There is no comparable. Since the starting point for design of social games is to let people compare with each other, these games are amazingly accessible. There is no hardware limits for users, not like the big game. By contrast, taking World Of Warcraft for example, it has an extraordinary request for hardware. So social games are easier to be accepted. Moreover, this kind of game of simple operation, does not have to spend hours or even days to know the whole game. For girls and young children, the attraction is considerable.

--Hanyu Wu


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft

http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2013/05/01/the-top-25-facebook-games-of-may-2013/

The effect on the economy because of social media and online gaming.

Social media has a huge impact on economy. According to (http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2013/03/18/social-networks-by-revenue-and-employees-facebook-stands-above-all/) Facebook made $5,089,000,000 in 2012 alone. twitter made $350,000,000 and LinkedIn made $972,309,000. There are many jobs that were created because of social media. according to (http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/5-jobs-created-social-media) Blogger, App Developer, Web Designer, Security specialist and Digital Marketer are the jobs that were created because of social media. according to Time "a research firm Deloitte suggested that Facebook had an economic impact on Europe of $20.2 billion supporting 232,000 jobs."(http://business.time.com/2012/01/31/facebook-is-responsible-for-creating-450000-jobs-really/). The statement alone supports the fact that social media is an important part of the economy. The above numbers are just for Facebook not for social media in general which is much higher that the number you see in the above statement. The number of people employed by this industry is huge and the amount injected by Facebook alone to the US economy is somewhere close to $15.71 billion(http://business.time.com/2012/01/31/facebook-is-responsible-for-creating-450000-jobs-really/). 

Social media also act as a platform to make trade and distribution hence helping other companies to work too in a better way. Almost every business is trying to boost up their revenue by doing advertising and marketing on social media. Hence we can say that social media helps to the economy not by just producing jobs and revenue but also by helping other industries by doing proper advertising and marketing. Today almost every business has a Facebook page, a handle on twitter and even a Instagram profile giving details about their business and services provided by them. Hence helping the business attain more revenue which builds up the economy of the country in general.
There has been a very steady growth in the companies  that are a part of the social media industry. For example Facebook didn't suffer in recession which was a part of the social media industry while other industries suffered a lot such as Chrysler which went bankrupt during recession (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_the_2008%E2%80%9310_automotive_industry_crisis_on_the_United_States). Moreover Social media had created the world's youngest billionaire Mark Zuckerberg whose net worth is $33.3 billion. Moreover we can that social media is a new industry which came into existence after 2000 and will definitely grow in future. Eduardo Saverin (Facebook), Sean Parker (Facebook), Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook), Peter Theil (PayPal),  Yuri Milner (Facebook, Groupon, Zynga), Mark Pincus (Zynga), Eric Lefkofsky (Groupon), Yoshikazu Tanaka (Gree), Rupert Murdich (Myspace) is a list of top ten billionaires which came into existence because of social media. In my own words Social Media is a gold mine which provides stable and lavish income to the the country's revenue and to their owner's as well. According to my own thinking today the world's economy would'nt have been safe if social media companies would'nt have been there.

Auquib Rasul














References
-http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2013/03/18/social-networks-by-revenue-and-employees-facebook-stands-above-all/
-http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/5-jobs-created-social-media
-http://www.creativeclass.com/_v3/creative_class/_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/SocialPros.jpg
-http://www.forbes.com/2011/03/08/billionaires-social-networking_slide_4.html
-http://www.forbes.com/2011/03/08/billionaires-social-networking_slide.html

Professional Games and Live Tournaments broadcasted on Social Media

 

Spectator sport is one that is characterized by the presence of witnesses or watchers at its matches. Almost all mainstream sports ranging from Basketball, Baseball, and American Football are all spectator sports. Numerous sports bars abound with fans cheering on for their favorite team or player. Just recently FIFA World Cup 2014 culminated in Brazil to a staggering 3.4 million total in attendance. It can also be said with certainty that the NFL Super Bowl is North America’s biggest TV event every year. Millions upon millions of people watch the Super Bowl live or through their TV screens and companies pay millions of dollars in advertising during this time-slot.

                Various reasons have been offered to explain this phenomenon why people like to watch professionals play. Some have suggested that it gives average players an insight on how the game/sport can be optimally played, but this does not cover sports that require pure skill to win. Nevertheless, this desire to “spectate” has carried over into the realm of  “Esports” or videogames. Videogame matches have been broadcasted for Tournament events like World Cybergames, IGN Pro League, Major League Gaming and Intel Extreme Masters to name a few. These cover a wide variety of games including Counter-Strike, Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends and Starcraft 2.

                Like its mainstream counterparts, businesses have been funneling sponsorship dollars into professional gamers as well as into the tournament prize pool. And there is only one reason for it, millions and millions of people are watching these matches. In October of 2013, 19.2 million viewers tuned in live to watch the Boston Red Sox claim the World Series title for baseball in a match against the St. Louis Cardinals. In that same month, 32 million viewers tuned in to watch South Korea’s SKT Telecom T1 win a decisive 3-0 victory against China’s Royal Club and win the League of Legends World Championship series, taking home the Summoner’s Cup.

               

            Not only is this unprecedented but the demand for streaming online tournaments is strong. The vibrant community of players interact and share video clips or highlights of the matches on their Social Media sites like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. Fans of teams can even comment and share their thoughts and ideas actively even while the match is being broadcasted on streaming sites like Twitch.tv and Youtube. This is likely a trend that will continue for professional Esports and thus big businesses have taken notice. Google’s Youtube has recently bought Twitch, the most popular streaming site for Esports Tournaments, for $1 billion dollars.

                As the older generation of “traditional” sports fans fade, a new generation of highly opinionated, deeply involved gamers and spectators will dominate the social media space offering in-depth game analysis, discussing strategies and creating their own content.

Source:

http://www.statista.com/statistics/264441/number-of-spectators-at-football-world-cups-since-1930/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWjTnukgSu8

http://qz.com/195098/last-year-71-million-people-watched-other-people-play-video-games/

http://gamertheory.com/story.aspx/82/eSports+The+Next+Great+Spectator+Sport/

http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/mlg/about

http://consumerist.com/2014/06/10/competitive-gaming-the-next-big-spectator-sport-that-you-probably-dont-know-about/

===========================

Brendon Martin Borgonia

Zynga: the rise and fall of Social Networking browser based games

Zynga is a company founded by Mark Pincus in April of 2007 named after his dog. Their first game released was Texas Hold’Em Poker otherwise known as Zynga Poker which simulated playing poker in a Social Gaming environment. Since it is attached to a Social networking site, which in this case was initially just on Facebook. It had elements that allowed for interaction among players; these included lobbies, leaderboards, and included ways wherein players can send and receive gifts from one another.

                At first it was developing games solely for Facebook but they eventually branched out to other Social networking sites then finally on to the mobile platform. Their initial success was succeeded by a string of popular titles that included the likes of Farm Ville, Mafia Wars, and City Ville. With Farmville being the most successful. Within two months of its official release in 2009, the game had more than one million daily active users and by the end of that same year, up to 20% of all Facebook users were playing FarmVille.

                The company went public in December of 2011 at $10 which was the biggest IPO since Google’s public offering way back in 2004. It acquired a series of companies to augment its intellectual property and invested heavily in trying to move away from Facebook. The company took a gamble moving away from the Social Networking giant and tried to shift its game offerings on mobile, this did not pay off too well.

                At around the same time, a competitor arose in the form of King Digital Entertainment’s Candy Crush Saga which cannibalized a huge portion of Zynga’s user base. Candy Crush took a lot of the market share which up to that point was dominated by Zynga. In effect, Zynga’s stock price began to nosedive until it hit its rock bottom price of $2.09 in November of 2012.

                There are various speculations on how a company as influential as Zynga fell from grace. It can be attributed to a number of factors, first off is its rough relation with Facebook which had a huge portion of its user base, although the two companies eventually signed a partnership deal the initial damage has been done. Second is mismanagement and acquisition of companies instead of focusing to enhance its homegrown Intellectual Properties. Zynga went on a buying spree for companies it did not necessarily need. Finally, emerging competition from the likes of Candy Crush and the emerging mobile platform market and Zynga’s failed transition all contributed to its stock plummeting. Whether Zynga can rise to the same level of relevance in the Social Gaming market it had once dominated remains to be seen.

Sources:
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/09/how-zynga-went-from-social-gaming-powerhouse-to-has-been/
http://www.cnet.com/news/the-quick-rise-and-fall-of-zynga/
http://www.statista.com/chart/1308/the-rise-and-fall-of-zyngas-gaming-empire/
http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/05/zynga-inc-rise-and-fall-infographic/
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Brendon Martin Borgonia

Social Media, a Boon or a Curse

If you ask me, i would say that social media is a boon. I think so because social media brings people closer doesn't matter if they are friends, family, coworkers or someone you just met.  Nowadays even businesses use social media to boost up their business. The following are the stats of businesses using social media (The platform they use and for what they use it).(http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/facebook-student-depression-social-networking-pictures/1/222562.html). is a perfect example of how social media has brought people closer in the last decade.

One of the best thing about social media is that it brings people closer. "I reconnected with a friend after 23 years. We used to share our lunch together in school but completely lost touch when her family immigrated to Sydney. We chanced upon each other again through our School Feed profiles on Facebook. It was an amazing feeling to speak to each other again and remember our old school days after so many years," reflects Simi K. Fernandes, 44, a senior consultant at Wipro."According to this link one of the top 5 uses of social media is networking. yes people do use social media site to expand their businesses.  Social media can be a great tool to meet potential clients and
customers. Not only that according to (http://www.fastcompany.com/3021749/work-smart/10-surprising-social-media-statistics-that-will-make-you-rethink-your-social-stra) "93% OF MARKETERS USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS" social media is also used for many other things such as entertainment, marketing, studies, journalism and many more. But we cant deny the fact that social media is also harmful in some ways. such as many people use social media to stalk on others which is also very dangerous.
There have been numerous amount of suicides by teenagers who were bullied online. There have been incidents of identity thefts where personal information of a person was stolen from a social media website because in my own words "he shared too much" according to (http://www.pacific.edu/Campus-Life/Safety-and-Conduct/Online-Social-Networking-Dangers-and-Benefits-.html) "Do not post private information, including your cell phone number, home address, class schedule, social plans, etc. unless you are prepared for anyone to find you/track you down, any time of the day or night. Do not post anything that might be embarrassing to you in a potential employment situation. People have been denied work because of information found on social networking sites." 

In the end i would like to say that social media can be both (boon or curse). it depends on you what you want it to become. If you will do stupid stuff on social media i am pretty sure some point in life you will regret it but if you use it wisely and most of all if you think before doing something then it will be highly beneficial for you. 

References 
-http://difdesign.com/blog/news/advertising/2010/social-media-and-small-business
-http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/facebook-student-depression-social-networking-pictures/1/222562.html
-http://www.blogussion.com/general/uses-social-networking/
-http://www.fastcompany.com/3021749/work-smart/10-surprising-social-media-statistics-that-will-make-you-rethink-your-social-stra
-http://www.pacific.edu/Campus-Life/Safety-and-Conduct/Online-Social-Networking-Dangers-and-Benefits-.html