YoVille – Got Cash?
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Yo Yo, why go to the gym in reality when you get all the exercise you want with your virtual avatar. This approach perfectly suits a massive couch potato such as myself. YoVille is the Sims meet Facebook. A virtual world on Facebook where you can do pretty much anything, go to the virtual casino, visit a virtual bank and even see a virtual florist. 
YoVille is one of the most popular applications on Facebook made by Zynga Games. The game itself is extremely well developed with a highly responsive virtual environment which makes the virtual world of YoVille very easy to navigate and to play the game. Overall the application is very advanced in terms of visual interface compared to other games on Facebook. Most games are textual and only a few utilize flash graphics and elements to the extent that YoVille does. You can stroll around YoVille at will and chat to other players in the game. You can invite them to participate in various activities and even throw snowballs at people.
However, not all is well in YoVille, the game has been under heavy criticism lately with some members even starting a petition against the use of the application. The cause for this member backlash is the way Zynga has monetized the game. Essentially there is 2 types of currencies: YoCoins and YoCash. The catch is that some ‘premium’ items such as pets, gadgets and others can only be bought with YoCash which can only be obtained by paying Zynga with real money using your credit card or paypal. Although YoCoins can also be paid for you can earn them by playing the application. YoCoins can be baught at 5,000 YoCoins for $10 and YoCash can be baught at 25 YoCash for $5.00. Many members who saved up many coins by inviting others and participating in the gameplay since the application was launched were left out in the cold when Zynga introduced the new monetization procedures. As a result many players have left the application and now feel betrayed. There have been several groups who even called for a general YoVille blackout day on January 16th. Although I can understand Zynga’s point of view (it takes a lot of resources and investment to develop an application like YoVille) they simply wanted to monetize the application. But if anywhere is there a case for how to totally botch the monetization process look no further than YoVille. Zynga has taught many application developers an important lesson in how to NOT monetize your application properly and in the process alienate a large portion of your users. In the monetization process Zynga has overlooked a key aspect of user retention and essentially certain aspects of the game are now pay only with no other recourse for non-paying users. Regardless of the new monetization process the application has been steadily growing and according to appdata.com it currently holds 3.2 million active monthly users. Although the game itself is simply fantastic I feel that the monetization of the application takes it down a notch.
JULY 30/2010 – UPDATE
It has come to my attention that not only is the game plagued with all these problems, apparently there is a way to CHEAT! not sure if Zynga is aware of this but some players have an unfair advantage by using this!
Glad to see that the review for Facebook sat up and took notice of our issue, even when Zynga found our cause irrelevant to the continued development of the program. Awesome article.
Thank you.
This is an infomative review but they missed a couple of key points.
First the fact that Zynga is under heavy censorship. No I don't mean bad language. There is plenty of that in the game. I refer to the fact that you are not alloud to speak your opinion about Zynga or Yoville if it is less than favorable. You will be banned or your comments deleted.
Secondly the fact that the game is rampant with scammers and hackers and there is little to no staff involved in moderating the game. In truth I have heard that there is one moderator but in the months that I lived in Yoville I never saw any. A lot of people have had their accounts hacked into with little or no help from Zynga. Also there are numerous glitches. To name a couple; items disapear and/or you can't use the items you've payed hard cash to buy. I've heard several people complain that the wonderful new pets just quit moving and interacting.
continued in next comment…
Third and perhaps the most important, the child preditors are out in force. If you have children PLEASE watch them in this application. Citisens are able to create events and you will frequently see events saying things like, "Looking for 12 yr old girl to be my girlfriend! Will pay 500 coins!" Not to mention the children who offer to cyber to gain coins.
I invested a lot of time and love in Yoville but the game has gone too far down hill for me. I can not afford to have my computer destroyed nor do I wish to spend my leisure time looking over my sholder for big brother. With great sorrow I Emptied my Yoville 2 story home and locked the doors for the last time. But all is not lost! I found a great new neighborhood that has all the bugs of Yoville worked out and I'm starting over! Check it out it's http://www.smallworlds.com. And feel free to look me up and say "Hi!".
Glad to see this posted. I'd also like to add that if this had been brought to our attention way before the fact, we would have adjusted to the dramatic change in the game. But the way they sprung it and then shut down any means of communication by censoring, banning, muting, and deleting of posts, was absolutely appalling.
Second, no one in their right mind would pay real money for a game like this. People's actual real life bank accounts were jepordized when hackers stole her information and drained her account to ZERO. Authorities were alerted, bank notified, her money was returned but a game is supposed to be fun. We all shouldn't be looking over our shoulders scared to do anything because of all the hackers.
Third, who can even afford to buy fake items? Yes it may not be THAT much money, but at the rate YoVille MAKES money, why are they charging us more? They were donated $29 Million. They make money from advertisements. They make money from the sale of the coins. They make money when someone logs on. Why do we now have to be charged for something else? When i say people can't afford these things, it's because of the economy and every single dollar is better of accumulating interest in the bank. Not being spent on fake items that do nothing for anyone in real life. Do they pay our bills? No. Do they put food on the table? No. Do they clothe our children? No. Do they pay the medical bills? No. Do they put gas in the car? No.
I don't have much to say about this anymore except that I am extremely disappointed in the direction this game is headed in. I am even more disappointed in the censoring issues, and the most disappointed in the fact that the company doesn't even seem to care that there is a recession, they are only out to make their millions.
There is an opportunity to fill out free offers to earn YoCash without paying real money. Too bad 3/4 of these offers do not work. I have an e-mail box full of spam, clearly they have my information, but I have yet to receive any compensation. It states a "15 minute delay." It's been two weeks. Easy to say, I won't be receiving ANYTHING.
I signed up for Yoville because of the opportunities for ownership over your character and decor. I was impressed with the variety. However, the community interaction was often not friendly or downright rude. There was sexual inuendo and other issues. So, I was going to focus on the creative opportunities till Yocash. I have left Yoville and deleted the application. I will go play on Pet Society.
There's an event growing about REMOVING the application it's gaining members rapidly i suggest joining it http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=50654392693
Yoville support is a inoperant too, much before the introduction of he yocash. Personally I had sent a couple of mails for support (still waiting for response), and I reported also a confessed scamer (provided screen shots), and nothing has be done.
For the case of the scammers and sexual predators, yoville admins looks to the other side of the road.
Yoville is the epitome of Bad Business. The recent changes that were instituted not only came as a surprise to the users, but the lack of customer support or comments from Zynga was/is simply…. Bad Business. Zynga blocked communication on their discussion board and during this black out they muted players who were protesting the pet store.
I was not happy with the YoCash decision. I foresaw that the new YoCash would begin to take over Yoville; costing 10 dollars or more a week for new items. Sadly, I was correct. Who has 40 plus dollars a week to play a game in these times?
The company saw a 50 Million dollar profit margin in 2008 and no doubt, with the recent changes, their profit will continue to grow in 2009.
I purchased 2 pets for $10 that are flawed. They do not work as intended and I have requested that either my virtual pets be replaced, repaired or refunded. I have not heard back from Zynga. I guess my 10 dollars is just not important to a company that stands to double their profits this year. Sadly this lack of CUSTOMER (remember i PAID!!!) support will be their ultimate downfall.
How can a company feel good about charging players for a game that is not fully operational? There are many issues with this game; glitches, connection, freezing, hackers, items that do not work (paid and free), Gothic house issues, whiteboard issues, broken locks, an economy that is whacked, among countless others,
If you want to charge for a game the game should be up and running at 100%!
Most of my friends have left…. my buddy list is never lighted anymore
Guess I will check out small world as well
can you tell me how can i play yoville and dowenload it ,please?
I would like to try it out.
YoVille is a horrible application.
Zynga has an F RATING with the well respected Better Business Bureau. A B isn't good, so an F is an abomination. Public's right to know. And, you *really* should know…
http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business...
I'll never spend a penny on this game. I think this is a horrible application and should be removed from Facebook.
I'm posting this just for your information.
It kept banning me for events when all i sed was check this out they sed in was inapropiate and people scam you all the time its a waste of time and i got addicted
They banned me for almost the same reason! Saying that I said something inappropriate. All I said was TTT at my place! I am going to send the address of the "event to remove the application' to all my friends on YoVille and tell them about Smallville. I was filling out the quizzes and other things on "Earn more Yocash" and received more emails in one week then I have in the 4 years I have had my E-mail! I did not receive most of the promised Yocash after filling out those things!! The game is just disappointing and frustrating. Almost on the verge of being immoral !!!!
Zynga is a fraud DO NOT buy cash or coins buy using paypal or your card. I did it one time only to be hacked into and had over 20 charges from TEXAS HOLD EM in one day almost 200 dollars worth of pending charges before I could even stop it. Zygna's reply?????? OH WELL any site can be hacked it happens all the time go to your bank and put in a fraud request. REALLY?? That is your reply to customers??? Well I have sense had to shut down my facebook, cancel my card, and delete everything off of my computer. I feel sick to my stomache and I'm very disappointed that people can ruin almost everything in life.
Thank you so much for this post. I finally talked my son out of buying YoVille cash, and offered SmallWorlds as an alternative. We both love it. We'll look you up! Mahalo!
i looked on facebook cuz i saw an ad of yoville 2 but now i cant find it as an app i wonder why…can somebody post the link of it for me? I'd greatly appreciate it!
i order about 5,000 yocash one time to buy a Mafia Mansion and a Policae station nad use very exspenesive themes for them and when i go to buy them my yocash isn't there i ask at Zynga services they say are u sure u pushed agree on the button and i am like yeah it shows on my credit card bill and still no yocash!!!!!!!!!!!
i personally LOVE yoville and have bought many game cards and havent had many problems. yes there r scammers and crepps, but thts on every website. and if u decide to talk to them and play their games thts ur own fault! ur not forced to do anything lol so yea i LOVE yoville
I cant leave yoville because im a multi millionaire on it, and that would be a simple waste of coins. I strongly support zynga and their games. For japan funding i offered to buy five thousand dollars worth of yocash. My recent husband died at the age of seventy five. He was a very wealthy bone seourgon who was very kind. He left all of his money to me. He had always wanted to work for zynga but he just became too sick. His bank account had a whopping 3.1 million dollars. I donated 1 million to the childerens hospital, and spent 700,000$ on yocoins and yocash. I personally think zynga is doing nothing wrong.
hate the game….
hi