可以说是Facebook成就了《FarmVille》、《CityVille》等热门社交游戏的繁荣发展，而Zynga也由此成为今天身价达100亿美元的公司。曾有一段时间有传言称Zynga意欲脱离Facebook，推出自己的门户网站，但据游戏邦所知，该公司最终还是与Facebook签订了Facebook Credits的长期项目合作协议。针对Zynga若与Facebook分道扬镳，或者Facebook有朝一日不复存在时，Zynga将何去何从这个问题，该公司首席游戏设计师布莱恩·雷诺兹（Brian Reynolds）在日前的媒体采访中作出了回应：

cityville-screenshot

“我们应该还会有其他的社交平台可供选择，Zynga不会将自己局限于特定的平台，但我们对具有社交性的平台比较感兴趣。Zynga不会突然变身为仅开发单人模式手机或掌机游戏之类的公司，我们就是喜欢让人们和好友聚集到一块，让大家一起玩游戏，而这一点也正是Zynga的神奇之处……如果这个世界没有了Facebook，我想还会有其他的社交网站可以取而代之，甚至有可能更适合我们运营游戏。”

他还补充表示，“我们与Facebook签订了协议，只要他们还存在一天，我们就会是他们的合作伙伴。我相信经过早期的磨合阶段，他们已经意识到我们是共生共存的关系，因为用户喜欢在社交网站上玩游戏，而我们的游戏也恰好是让用户保持社交联系的轻松方式。假如我遇到了一个高中的朋友，我们交换了e-mail地址后的典型对话就是——‘哦，你和我一样也是Facebook用户。不错，你现在做什么呢？我是内华达的一个农民；我是巴尔的摩的电子游戏人。’然后彼此就陷入无话可谈的境地，毕竟我们的生活已经没有太多交集，但对方还是我在乎的一个朋友。所以不妨以这种对话开始交流，‘嗨，最近怎么样？这是我送给你的《Mafia Wars》道具。’这就好像在Facebook上点击‘喜欢’（Like）功能一样，它几乎毫无障碍，毫不费劲，但这种小小的举动却可以表达我仍然关心你，而且这种信息看起来也更为贴心。或许我们的游戏还可以为你提供更多乐子，让你发布并评论相关内容‘她在对绵羊做什么？’虽然听起来有点傻气，但这确实是更为轻松的社交接触。这也正是我们的使命，而且我认为Facebook已经认识到，这些游戏确实具有社交网站用户所追求的价值，因此我并不认为这种趋势会衰退。”

由此看来，Zynga仍是Facebook目前最大的合作伙伴，但人们也许不会忘记，曾有传言称Zynga将自立门户，推出自己的“Zynga Live”网站以摆脱对Facebook的依赖。雷诺兹虽然否认了这种说法，但也承认这种途径未尝不值得一试。

“‘Zynga Live’是子虚乌有的事情，但将来也许会推出一些与之略为相似的项目，人们可能会依此认定我们就是在开发Zynga Live。假如我们的项目涉及Xbox Live，可能所有人又会说，‘Zynga打算向Xbox Live平台进军了。’我们当然有可能涉猎其他领域，但无论推出什么项目，我们还会是Facebook的合作伙伴。至于那些关于‘Zynga要单飞，Zynga和Facebook要分手……’之类的传言，我们的回答就是：没有这回事。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Facebook Dependence Doesn’t Worry Zynga

Facebook has helped propel Zynga into the stratosphere. Popular games like FarmVille andCityVille have led to the social games maker having an estimated value of $10 billion today. For a while there was much speculation about Zynga diversifying away from Facebook and possibly even launching its own portal, but then the firm eventually cozied up to the social behemoth and signed a long-term deal to use Facebook Credits as well. IndustryGamers asked Zynga what the company would do if the Facebook relationship fell apart or if Facebook suddenly vanished.

“Presumably there would be some other way to do social networking. We’re agnostic to platform but we’re interested in platforms where they’re social. We’re not going to suddenly become an app maker who just makes single player games on phones or consoles or something like that. We’re interested in ways people can play together with their friends and that’s what we feel like is the magic of Zynga… If somehow there wasn’t a Facebook, I would assume there would be some new social networking that had miraculously beaten them and would be an even better place for us to run games,” offered Brian Reynolds, Chief Games Designer at Zynga.

He continued, “We have a deal with Facebook, so as long as they’re around, we’re a partner with them. After the early adjustment period, I think they’ve come to realize that it really is symbiotic, that people want to play games on social networks and that what we offer is really light ways to keep in touch with people. So if I had a friend from high school and we’ve had the little e-mail exchange – ‘Oh, you’re on Facebook. I’m on Facebook. Cool. What do you do? I’m a farmer in Nevada and I’m a video game guy in Baltimore.” At some point it’s kind of like well what else do you say? We don’t have a lot in our lives in common anymore but it’s still a person I care about so it’s like, ‘Oh, hi, how are you doing? Here’s something for your mafia.’ Just like on Facebook you click ‘like’ and it’s very low friction, low effort, but I still care about you and that was a neat thing you just said. And then maybe at a higher level we even kind of help you write your jokes. We give you funny little things you can post and then comment ”What is she doing to the sheep?’ kind of silliness, so it’s a light way of doing social touches.

“So it’s our mission and I think Facebook realizes that’s one of the things that people want and need on a social network to be able to keep the thing healthy and going, and so I don’t see any of that going away.”

So Zynga’s naturally a big partner for Facebook now, but you may remember that about a year ago, speculation was that Zynga was about to launch its own ‘Zynga Live’ website to help diversify itself away from Facebook. Reynolds, however, denies this, but he does acknowledge the value in such an approach.

“There isn’t a project called Zynga Live, but there will probably be things that we do that are like some of the things that people would think that would be like if we did something called Zynga Live. There’s Xbox Live, so everyone’s saying, ‘Oh, they’re going to do one of those.’ We will probably do something at some point that has some of that stuff, but whatever we do we’re going to be partnered with Facebook and we’re going to do it with Facebook. The rumors you hear about ‘There’s going to be some kind of end run and they’re going to try to…’ We’re not doing any of that,” Reynolds insisted.（source:businessinsider）