Its all in the numbers…

Zynga, now at over 200million, is said to possibly double its users as Facebook grows and gets more aggressive with its credits program.

Since the average user spends about $1-2 per month, you can do the math and see how suddenly social gaming is a huge opportunity for those who can pull it off. Zynga happens to be the leader in the industry and has proven that its not always about the best looking or most strategic games. Its about how to extract money from users day after day, month after month.

The facebook gamer is not the typical gamer and the approach must be different. Those involved in hardcore gaming try, yet they rarely succeed to completely move over to the “social side”. So many great games have not made it commercially because of the lack of market understanding. Yet Zynga seems to have taken a very sensible approach to the beta stages of various games (usually hidden) and game concept to begin with. I suspect their IPO will do well and will propel them to yet even higher ground.

With our game Greenspace revamp, the graphics are amazing, it does function well, its an interesting topic, yet I wonder if we’ll get the traction without real world associations of substance and more than just “green your world” drivers (which are non-drivers for those marketing people that can relate to how hard behavioral changes are to effect, even if its just a game).

At this moment, we have about 500 monthly users (according to Facebook). With recent website enhancements, and a press release, I do hope that the numbers will grow and stick and that experienced gaming marketing resources will be brought either into the company or as associated partners. Satisfying the target market in a manner which leads them to come back day after day, month after month, is the only thing that will ensure the long term survival of a great team of developers and artists.