Also, it seems like this underestimates what actually makes zynga games good. People on the thread act like copying a game mechanic or theme is bad. Considering almost every FPS is identical, I find this odd. No, what makes them compelling as a business is their strategies around premium content, re-engagement, social features, viral flows, etc.

Whether that is applied to a farm sim or a city sim, it doesn’t matter.

In August, Patmore left Zynga to join one of its rivals, Kixeye, as the vice president of product.

I guess maybe Zynga wasn’t racist or homophobic enough for him…

The allegation is that the now ex-employee, on his last day of employment, gathered 700+ internal Zynga documents and dumped them into his dropbox account, then tried to erase the evidence, including pretty detailed information on what worked to extract revenue in CityVille, new games in development by Zinga, all executive level email, etc…

If they have the forensics to back up the claim, its really an open-and-shut case, and their employee is a slimy scumweasle who should never work in the industry again.  Its crap like this that causes employers to try to insert noncompete clauses.

And cute comment, but there is a gag order on the PARTICIPANTS, but not on anyone not involved in the case.  So we can look at the app store all we want, to see what Zynga will rip off next.

Penny Arcade on the subject.