Soren Johnson joins Zynga to work on a secret project

The_J · May 16, 2012

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An article on GamesIndustry.biz reveals that Soren Johnson, lead designer of Civilization 3 and 4, has left Electronic Arts, where he worked on Spore and Dragon Age before, to join Zynga to work on a secret project.
Zynga is the company behind many Facebook games like Farmville, and while Soren Johnsons project seems to be a social game as well, it should, like he says himself, still be interesting for the civilization audience:

Soren Johnson said:
I expect Civ fans will absolutely be interested in my current project at Zynga; in fact, I anticipate them to be among the first wave of players to try out the game.

For the whole article please see this link, and for the related thread at CivFanatics please see here.
Thanks to Vael for bringing this topic to our attention

.

Image of Soren Johnson by boingboing.net. The image is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
The Zynga image is from broowaha.com, as well under the Creative Commons License.

CaptainKapow · May 16, 2012

Hmm, popular Civilization developer working with the taint of the game design world that is Zynga.

Is Zynga going to try to rip off CivWorld or something?

I am not sure how to feel about this.

Bechhold · May 16, 2012

So basically Zynga which constatly copies other games is now going to do the same with Civilization. This isn't so much news as it's a warning to warn people.

MadDjinn · May 16, 2012

CaptainKapow said:
Hmm, popular Civilization developer working with the taint of the game design world that is Zynga.

Is Zynga going to try to rip off CivWorld or something?

I am not sure how to feel about this.

The already did 'Empire and Allies' which is a mild rip on the genre. They could try expanding it, or they could try to steal the really bad CivWorld. It'd be better if the did the former, rather than the latter.

joncnunn · May 16, 2012

CaptainKapow said:
Hmm, popular Civilization developer working with the taint of the game design world that is Zynga.

Is Zynga going to try to rip off CivWorld or something?

I am not sure how to feel about this.

That's exactly what I was thinking given Zynga's history.

Still; there's actually a lot of improvement possible for CivWorld, so it may be less of a reverse engineer copy than their open games.

Maniacal · May 16, 2012

Originally Posted by Soren Johnson
I expect Civ fans will absolutely be interested in my current project at Zynga; in fact, I anticipate them to be among the first wave of players to try out the game.

HA HA HA HA :rotfl:

The only thing Zynga does is steal/copy other people's work, rebrands it with microtransactions and sells the information it collects from its users. This isn't newsworthy.

Pouakai · May 16, 2012

I smell CivVille....

sav · May 17, 2012

Best minds of our generation destroyed by Zynga...

Callonia · May 17, 2012

Boy, he's at alot of companies and I still cant find a job.

Luckystrike77 · May 17, 2012

Damn, he is wasting his talent on facebook games.... What a pitty.

Selous · May 17, 2012

Originally Posted by Soren Johnson
I expect Civ fans will absolutely be interested in my current project at Zynga; in fact, I anticipate them to be among the first wave of players to try out the game.

im going to bet not

MqsTout · May 17, 2012

So terribly disappointing to hear this

We want *games*, not "social games". And with the artistic freedom (=zero) Zynga's given their developers in the past...

dojoboy · May 17, 2012

Originally Posted by Soren Johnson
I expect Civ fans will absolutely be interested in my current project at Zynga; in fact, I anticipate them to be among the first wave of players to try out the game.

Because it's going to be a Civ rip-off like 99% of Zynga's games. I'm not interested in anything Zynga does now, for just that reason. Too bad for Soren, hope he makes it back. However, you know what "they" say about the Dark Side.

CivCube · May 17, 2012

Did you guys even read the article? It sounds like Soren wants to make an actual game with no black-box gambling.

vorlon_mi · May 17, 2012

CivCube said:
Did you guys even read the article? It sounds like Soren wants to make an actual game with no black-box gambling.

I agree ... I learned a lot from Soren's comments in the article. He is thinking a lot about the differences in technologies among consoles, PCs, and online games; he's also thinking about the business models which support those games.

Le Sage · May 18, 2012

That's what Sid Meier said about CivWorld too. "It's going to be a real game and it's going to interest civvers too". Sure. If Soren Johnson wanted to create real games, he'd join Paradox and create Europa Universalis IV. LOL

Am I going to laugh or cry!? Zynga for God's sake!? First Sid Meier himself doing moneycows for old ladies and lonely housewives on Facebook, and now this talent as well!?

We're lucky we still have Paradox to create professional strategy games for us, and that the genre is not dead, so I choose to laugh at Soren Johnson and wish him luck with milking money out of misguided people who think they are playing games when they play Zynga's disguised slotmachines on Facebook. :rotfl:

Maniacal · May 18, 2012

CivCube said:
Did you guys even read the article? It sounds like Soren wants to make an actual game with no black-box gambling.

Yes, and the majority of it was vague PR BS and numerous out-right lies. Zynga does not make fun and innovative games, they make addicting time wasters that milk people with addictive personalities or zero common sense for their money. They care about one thing and one thing only, money. The people who play their "games" but either spend very little or no money are worthless to them.

As Le Sage said, if Soren wanted to make an actual game he would join a real game developer.

dojoboy · May 18, 2012

Le Sage said:
That's what Sid Meier said about CivWorld too. "It's going to be a real game and it's going to interest civvers too". Sure. If Soren Johnson wanted to create real games, he'd join Paradox and create Europa Universalis IV. LOL

Am I going to laugh or cry!? Zynga for God's sake!? First Sid Meier himself doing moneycows for old ladies and lonely housewives on Facebook, and now this talent as well!?

We're lucky we still have Paradox to create professional strategy games for us, and that the genre is not dead, so I choose to laugh at Soren Johnson and wish him luck with milking money out of misguided people who think they are playing games when they play Zynga's disguised slotmachines on Facebook.

Well said.

Voyhkah · May 18, 2012

Le Sage said:
That's what Sid Meier said about CivWorld too. "It's going to be a real game and it's going to interest civvers too". Sure. If Soren Johnson wanted to create real games, he'd join Paradox and create Europa Universalis IV. LOL

Am I going to laugh or cry!? Zynga for God's sake!? First Sid Meier himself doing moneycows for old ladies and lonely housewives on Facebook, and now this talent as well!?

We're lucky we still have Paradox to create professional strategy games for us, and that the genre is not dead, so I choose to laugh at Soren Johnson and wish him luck with milking money out of misguided people who think they are playing games when they play Zynga's disguised slotmachines on Facebook.

NAILED IT!!
I still hold out hope, the same way I hope that GaK will fix some of the problems in CiV, making it, you know, enjoyable. I think it's unlikely, but it might happen. I for one am really surprized that Soren Johnson is working with Zynga. I expect the flying pigs sometime next week. A few months later, Mitt Romney will stop flip-flopping.

pedropavani · May 18, 2012

Oh I can imagine it! It will be like civ but more realistic.
I mean,if you think in all the micro-transaction and knowing Zynga, to build Versailles in game, you will almost have to spend the money that you would need to build it in real life.

Soren Johnson joins Zynga to work on a secret project

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