Whether it’s updates about how your friends found and cared for a lost cow or even a request from your friends to help build up their warehouse for an upcoming attack from mobsters, you can be sure it’s from one of Zynga’s highly popular social games. Most of their success comes from their top title, FarmVille, with the help of their other games such as Mafia Wars, FishVille, Café World, and Zynga Poker. These simple games are changing the face of video games by allowing people to play and help their friends on social networking sites such as Facebook. So what exactly is it that draws in millions of players to these games and inevitably leads to an endless barrage of needless updates to your Facebook news feed?

Perhaps the main appeal, and possibly the purpose of creation, is the fact that they are simple games that people like but can also be put aside easily. Another reason for their popularity is that they provide enjoyment for people of all ages, male or female. According to a chart on CNN.com, Zynga’s most popular title, FarmVille, is made up of 60% of female players, with most being outside the average player age of 18 to 34 that other games seem to fall into.

Let’s talk about Zynga’s crown jewel, FarmVille. With 27 million active players daily, it accounts for most of their revenue and success. An average of 27 million people a day log in to plant virtual crops that can be harvested in hours or even days. During this process, they invite their friends to become farming neighbors and help each other with farming or even send gifts. And those at Zynga were oh-so-clever as to make it so that when you forget to harvest your crops, they wilt and you lose a substantial amount of in-game money, a great way to keep people interested and include a game in their daily routine. There really is no way to “win” in this game, but people seem to get satisfaction in building large, extravagant virtual farms that they can show off to their friends.

Another one of Zynga’s games, Mafia Wars, has created a new basis: simple, single-player action that is more interesting with teamwork from other players. Mafia Wars also has a large player base with 7.3 million active daily. CJ Blades, a two year Mafia Wars veteran at Ross High School, finds that the most enjoyment from this game comes from the “simplicity and ability to play it whenever you like.” It is interesting to see that, according to CNN, every 24 hours there are more than one million players helping their friends do jobs in this game. I think this leads into the main appeal of this game, which is the fact that you can team up with your buddies to knock out other gangs while gaining rewards for your own.

While Zynga might seem like the perfect company that did it all right, it’s not. Another company that created the game Mob Wars beforehand filed a lawsuit saying that Zynga had copied their game. This lawsuit was settled, however soon after, more complaints came in about the rewards that people received for signing up for things such as credit cards or other memberships. People complained that some offers led to scams leading them to sign up for memberships that charged them without their knowledge. However, these offers are now being monitored more closely to insure those scams don’t occur. This all comes along with the frequent status updates from these games that get annoying after the 25^th time you’ve read that your friend has just farmed some wheat or needs help with a mafia job.

Like it or not, Zynga’s games have become a major player in social media. People around the world tending to their fields and coordinating with their gang to plan their next move, along with daily practices from Zynga’s other games, have become a common habit for many people. The developers have created a new market for millions of new players, and it’s here to stay.