I agree in general terms that this whole X-ville (Farmville, Yoville, Fishville…etc) Facebook gaming movement is setting gaming back quite a bit. I mean, really EA? $300-$400 million for Playfish?

What bugs me has nothing to do with the graphics and everything to do with the “pay to advance” microtransaction model. I’ll still take a look at City of Eternals to see if there’s enough ‘meat’ there to keep my occupied on my lunch hour, without me have to, y’know, fill out surveys or sign up for netflix in order to restore my health.

Do people actually want to play this daft drivel? I can’t believe that people are seriously promoting that the “next big thing” is going to be these games. Sure, you can get money from suckers for a little while but “persistent revenue stream” won’t be the case here.

I predict that in 4 years, these will be just as popular as myspace is now. Oh wait…

Seriously, I hate to see development resources going in this direction. I get that there is money in these things. To me, it really is the de-evolution of gaming. I guess to get the breadth of audience they want this is what they have to do.

HL Mencken was right when is said; “No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”