不论是在现实社会还是社交游戏虚拟世界之中，会员总是可以享有某些特权。最近，热门社交游戏FarmVille，Mafia Wars的开发公司Zynga宣布用户将可以使用美国运通American Express信用卡的积分奖励购买游戏虚拟商品。

Zynga

这是社交游戏公司与主流信用卡奖励项目的首次合作。一直以来，美国运通会员奖励项目会以积分方式向持卡人进行奖励。而现在，Zynga游戏玩家可以使用美国运通积分购买游戏虚拟商品，最低消费200积分就可以获得价值2美元的虚拟商品礼品卡，譬如玩家在FarmVille中购买一头紫牛则需消费540美国运通积分。

通过此次合作，美国运通有利于Zynga实现其一大长远目标——令游戏用户相信游戏虚拟商品物有所值。现在，很大一部分人认为在社交游戏中购买虚拟商品的行为十分愚蠢，因为这是用钱购买了一些并不存在的事物。飞行里程卡和信用卡积分也是一样。不论以何种方式，客户付出的价格其实都超越了商品的本身价值。对于积分持有者而言，FarmVille的这一服务刚好为其积分消费提供了渠道。当然，Zynga希望未来可以令这些用户付出真实货币。

此前，Zynga公司的首席执行官Mark Pincus曾将虚拟商品对比电影。他认为，很多人都愿意花钱看场电影。然而当走出电影院时，人们往往除了票根没有带回其他东西。

近来，社交网站Facebook与Target商店就销售Facebook Credits礼品卡一事取得了合作。与此同时，Zynga也与7-11便利连锁商店合作销售可用于Zynga旗下5款游戏的礼品卡等商品。

但此次Zynga与美国运通的合作也堪称为获取主流用户的最大规模尝试。这同时昭示了Zynga游戏的受欢迎程度，每月Zynga游戏拥有近2亿2500万游戏用户。尽管Zynga成立至今仅有四年，但该公司已经和许多知名品牌取得合作，从众多小型社交游戏开发商中脱颖而出。

通过此次活动，美国运通信用卡用户将可以使用信用卡奖积分励立刻购买限量版Zynga道具，且无需长久等待。

关于本次合作，Zynga公司业务开发总经理Jonathan Flesher在采访中提到，美国运通之所以和Zynga取得合作是出自于两者用户结构的考虑。社交游戏开发公司Zynga的主要游戏玩家是中年妇女。而聘请脱口秀主持人Ellen Degeneres作为代言人的美国运通公司客户也是以女性为主。另外，运通公司信用卡也是人们购买虚拟商品常用的信用卡之一。

此后，zynga和美国运通公司都将向用户营销这一合作项目，但Flesher表示并不确定此次合作能有效提升Zynga用户数量。但可以肯定的是目前现有的Zynga玩家将可以从活动中收益，从而提高他们的游戏满足感。

虽然目前合作仅是单向的，如FarmVille用户无法获得运通会员奖励积分，但与Zynga的合作无疑可以教导美国运通公司如何将奖励项目设计得更有趣。

此前，美国运通的奖励项目中就包含了一些游戏元素，避免部分用户无上限累计积分奖励，但Zynga可以将游戏应用转换成非游戏活动——即将“游戏化”推向更高的层度。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦。）

Membership has its privileges — even in the virtual worlds of social games. Zynga, the maker of FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and other social games, is announcing today that you can use your rewards from American Express credit cards to buy virtual goods in its offerings.

The strategic relationship is a first between a social game company and a major credit-card rewards program. The American Express Membership Rewards program gives rewards to cardholders in the form of points. Users who play Zynga can take their American Express points and spent them on virtual goods in increments that are as small as 200 points, which is enough to get you a $2 gift card that you can spend on items in the game. A purple cow in FarmVille, for instance, costs 540 American Express points.

For students of consumer behavior, the implications of the deal are mindblowing: It’s the ultimate union of two virtual currencies.

American Express helps Zynga achieve one of its longstanding goals: convincing mainstream consumers that the virtual goods in its games — which have no physical embodiment and are really just digital ones and zeroes — have value in the real world. Some people think it’s silly to buy virtual goods in a social game because customers are using real money to pay for something that doesn’t exist.

Frequent-flier miles and credit-card points are often seen in the same light. For whatever reason, consumers prize them more highly than their real value ought to imply. For cardholders with spare points lying around, the frivolous fun offered by FarmVille and other games might seem like a harmless way to use them up. And then, Zynga hopes, they might start forking out real cash.

As Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus has said, people are willing to go to the movies and pay money to see a show, even though they don’t walk out of the theater with anything but a ticket stub. In many ways, consumers have come around to that point of view.

Facebook struck a deal with Target stores to sell Facebook Credits gift cards, which can be used to pay for virtual items in Facebook apps. And Zynga itself has a deal with the 7-Eleven convenience store chain that lets users buy gift cards and other goods that can be redeemed for virtual goods in five Zynga games.

But the American Express deal is perhaps the biggest attempt yet to win over mainstream consumers. It is also an indicator of how popular Zynga’s games have become, as more than 225 million users play the company’s games every month. While Zynga is only about four years old, it is now cutting deals with some of the biggest brands on the planet, and that should help it set itself apart from its smaller social game rivals.

The small redemption value means that credit card users will be able to spend their membership rewards quickly on limited-edition Zynga items, rather than have to wait a long time before they can redeem the rewards.

Jonathan Flesher, general manager of business development at San Francisco-based Zynga, said in an interview that American Express and Zynga are logical partners for demographic reasons. A lot of Zynga’s players are older women and mothers. Comedian/talk show host Ellen Degeneres is American Express’s leading spokeswoman in commercials, and Amex’s customers are also mostly women. AmEx cards are also a very common means for paying for virtual goods in Zynga games, Flesher said.

Both companies will market the other partners’ program to their users. But Flesher isn’t sure if the American Express deal will lead to more Zynga users. Rather, he thinks the main benefit will be that current Zynga users will be happier and more likely to stick around.

While the relationship doesn’t currently flow back the other way — allowing, say, FarmVille players to earn Membership Rewards points — it would be intriguing if it did. Zynga could probably teach American Express a thing or two about how to make a rewards program more fun.

There’s already an element of gaming in rewards programs, with avid points collectors scheming to maximize their rewards. But Zynga could take that application of game concepts to non-game activities — a movement known as “gamification” — to the next level, Flesher said.

“There is potential for that,” Flesher said. “But it is not something we have in the works. The potential for gamification of retail experiences is there. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the future, you could add a layer of gaming on top of the massive database of items and users that credit card companies have.”（Source：VentureBeat）