News and Analysis

MUST READ: Facebook and Stock Prices

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Unless you’re an econogeek like me you probably aren’t interested in the intracacies of the stock market, and even then some arcana may make your eyes glaze over.  I reccomend checking out this nice summary of why Facebook’s stock price is problematic.  It’s a grand example of how the price plunge affects the company and the issues it faces – oh and that the price will probably remain low because many activities the company may do BECAUSE of it’s issues can end up driving it down/keeping it low.

At this point we’re probably going to see all sorts of hang-wringing by “experts” who by and large, proved to be idiots, but really when you read the article you can see how counting on a high stock price was bad, and you know that we here have been pretty cynical about it.  So, no none of this should be a surprise.

Personally I hope Facebook and Zynga get people to be a lot more cautious about stock, stock options, and IPOs.  Then again it seems there’s less starry-eyed goodwill than the hideous dot-bomb era, so there is that.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

50 Shades Of Shut The Hell Up

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So, yes, we all know the story.  Woman writes Twilight fanfic.  Twilight fanfic gets repurposed as erotica series known as “50 Shades Of Grey”.  Woman makes money.  People make fun of situation.

Really the only problem as a progeek for me is the latter one – the mockery.

From what I hear about “50 Shades of Grey” is, to put it mildly, is rather purple and the content is may disturb some.  It’s not Shakespeare or Pratchett, and there’s elements that sound rather squicky.  But really the only criticism that seems relevant to me may be some of these quality issues, and even then there’s only so much I can say because I actually watch films like “2 Headed Shark Attack.”*

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We’ll Be Hearing About Zynga Long After It’s Relevant – So Keep It Relevant

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Well, Zynga’s COO is stripped of game duties.  We can imagine those people who can cash out their stock aren’t happy.  We’ve all heard about the possible insider trading scandal.

So my rough take on Zynga is A) No don’t take any job offers there, and B) They’re in for some tough times and a probable buyout, massive downscale, or both.  But there’s more.

So anyway, as I expect a tough time at the big Z, here’s something I think we need to be prepared for: the impact on the gaming part of the geekonomy.  In this case, I want to focus on the cultural impacts.

Zynga is a company that people have alternately praised and hated over the last few years.  I think in the end everyone knew it was too good to be true, but the real question was what we could learn, make, and take from them.  There’s an odd sense of inevitability in their fall, as if so many of us were waiting.

However now that it’s happening, I’m pretty sure we’re going to hear about this for the next few years until we’re sick of it.  Zynga is on it’s way to become a bad example, and soon only a bad example as history grinds on.  Remember how people talk about dot-bomb companies?  Yeah, that’ll be Zynga.

Our media is used to cartoon villains and heroes in the tech sphere, so I’m sure we’ll get plenty of that.

The problem with this is then we miss the lessons.  For those of us working in tech, or gaming, and in media, it’s important we don’t forget.

The insider training, the questionable monetization, the dependence on Facebook, we need to extract lessons from Zynga.  This was big, this was important, this was formative, even if you now have a fear of any game with the word “-ville” in the title.  So before Zynga becomes a cardboard villain, make the effort to learn the lessons of their fall.

Because in a few more years, they’ll just be a shadow of their former failure.  Think how many good lessons of the dot-bomb are lost because it’s a buzzword . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/