Never played Farmville, but I'm guessing part of the stickiness of the game was the slight but not insignificant emotional pressure of seeing "<your friend> wants you to plough him/her" or whatever the notifications Farmville sends out actually looks like. :p Without that slight pressure of seeing your friend asking you for help or collaboration or whatever, it's probably become much easier for people to not play that game.
When these articles say "losing millions of users" they mean losing millions of active users, which in the case of Facebook is the sum of all new and returning users over a given time period.
They're not talking about registered users.
Losing notifications hurts both your new user growthand your retention, so you see a reduction in active users. It remains to be seen whether these apps are just settling to a new plateu of activity or if they're actually dying.
... and I hoped it was peoples common sense kicking in, but apparently it's just the fact that now with the notifications gone, people forget about their game. That too speaks volumes about the majority of the players.
It's not a huge surprise. Farmville and it's ilk were always terribly dull games. People weren't staying for the gameplay, they were staying thanks to the social pressure of all their friends playing it too (and having to log in to help them advance).
6 comments
[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 28.1 ms ] threadThey're not talking about registered users.
Losing notifications hurts both your new user growthand your retention, so you see a reduction in active users. It remains to be seen whether these apps are just settling to a new plateu of activity or if they're actually dying.
With just regular players quitting and less options available for hooking new ones, the net total is that they are losing out.