(Lil) Green Patch

Last updated

(Lil) Green Patch was a Facebook application developed by Ashish Dixit and David King [1] that simulated a small garden on a Facebook user's profile. By tending their and their friends' gardens, the Facebook users were able to raise money for The Nature Conservancy to save the rainforest. In September 2008, it was rated as the number one application on Facebook, ahead of Texas HoldEm Poker. [2] In April 2009, it had slid to a sixth-place ranking. [3]

Contents

(Lil) Green Patch became unavailable to users on June 10, 2010, following a decision by new owners Playdom to discontinue the application. [4]

Popularity and area of rainforest saved

In the first quarter of 2008, (Lil) Green Patch users raised over $15,000 in donations, which was enough to save more than 13,600,000 square feet (1.26 km2) of rainforest. [5] The application was then among the 15 most popular Facebook applications, with 350,000 active users. [1] In June 2008, it was one of the top ten most installed applications, with more than 5,217,180 installations and 521,718 active users a day. [6] By October 2008, the app had raised $91,000 for The Nature Conservancy. [7] By December 2008, the number of users was reported at 6.3 million, and the application was ranked as one of the five most popular Facebook applications. The area of Costa Rican rainforest that had been saved at that time was up to 70 million square feet. [8]

In its final accounting, Causes.com, the independent charity clearinghouse for Facebook apps that processed its donations, reported that (Lil) Green Patch had generated $210,261 [9] in contributions for The Nature Conservancy. As of December 2010, it remained the all-time top recruiter for this charity, with nearly 1,200 users, [10] more than double the next largest contributor.

Controversy

Playdom acquired the independent Green Patch team in November 2009. [11] While Green Patch benefited from the huge increase in Facebook members going on concurrently, many of these new Facebook users were unfamiliar with independent organizations such as Causes.com used to provide accountability for charitable contributions, but hyper aware of similar scams common elsewhere on the web. As a result, the accuracy of Green Patch's charity donation were widely questioned in blog comments. [12]

Another source of controversy swirled about the amount of the donations relative to the size of the user population. Despite an average donation per contribution ratio exceeding $175 per contributor, some detractors disparaged the game by claiming total donations amounted to just pennies per user. [13]

Dissolution

Rumors, speculation and controversy also surround the surprise cancellation of the still popular (Lil) Green Patch just 6 months after Playdom acquired the Green Patch team and the month immediately prior to the announcement of Playdom's acquisition by Disney. [14] Playdom also announced they were canceling all other games from the GreenPatch except (Lil) Farm Life.

Also during the time between the rapid rise of (Lil) Green Patch and its subsequent acquisition and eventual cancellation, competitor Zynga initiated trade secrets lawsuits against Green Patch, Playdom and 22 other rivals. [15] These lawsuits were settled subsequent to Disney's acquisition of Playdom. [16]

Inspiration for a new genre

(Lil) Green Patch has been described as the "granddaddy of green Facebook apps" and its game play and art style have inspired many other similar applications. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

PlayFirst, Inc. is a Delaware based American publisher of casual games founded in 2004 by industry veterans. PlayFirst produced the Diner Dash series, which won the 2008 Annual Casual Game Awards. and has seen over 550 million downloads. The popularity of Diner Dash series prompted spin-off series like Wedding Dash and Cooking Dash. The company’s game portfolio also includes the retro-style strategy-based Chocolatier series, and the adventure/hidden object-mixing Dream Chronicles series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tagged (website)</span> Social discovery website

Tagged is a social discovery website based in San Francisco, California, founded in 2004. It allows members to browse the profiles of any other members, and share tags and virtual gifts. Tagged claims it has 300 million members as of 2014. As of September 2011, Quantcast estimates Tagged monthly unique users at 5.9 million in the United States, and 18.6 million globally. Michael Arrington wrote in April 2011 that Tagged is most notable for the ability to grow profitably during the era of Facebook.

The Facebook Platform is the set of services, tools, and products provided by the social networking service Facebook for third-party developers to create their own applications and services that access data in Facebook.

Zong was a mobile payment company that allowed users to make micropayments on the Internet if they have a postpaid mobile phone. The payments were charged to their mobile phone bills by the mobile operator. The company was acquired by eBay in 2011 and disappeared in 2015.

<i>Mob Wars</i> 2008 social media video game

Mob Wars is a multiplayer role-playing game hosted on the social networking site Facebook. It allows players to engage in Mafia-style wars with one another and has become one of the most lucrative Facebook applications and the first to net US$1M per month in revenue. However, this number has never been confirmed by the developer or any third parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zynga</span> American social game developer

Zynga Inc. is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its mission as "connecting the world through games".

<i>Mafia Wars</i> Video game

Mafia Wars is a defunct freemium multiplayer social network game created by Zynga. Players assume the roles of gangsters while building their own Mafia-type organization. The players fight and "rob" other players online - completing jobs, missions, and operations to gain rewards and strength in an endless game.

<i>FarmVille</i> 2009 video game

FarmVille is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm and Farm Town. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plowing land, planting, growing, and harvesting crops, harvesting trees and raising livestock. The sequels FarmVille 2 and FarmVille 3 were released in September 2012 and November 2021, respectively.

<i>FishVille</i> Video game

FishVille is a defunct real-time aquarium simulation game developed by Zynga, it was available as an application on the social-networking website Facebook. The game allowed members of Facebook to manage virtual aquariums by rearing fish. As of October 2011, FishVille had 1.6 million monthly active users. The game was discontinued on December 5, 2012.

RockYou was a company that developed widgets for MySpace and implemented applications for various social networks and Facebook. Since 2014, it has engaged primarily in the purchases of rights to classic video games; it incorporates in-game ads and re-distributes the games.

Playdom was an online social network game developer popular on Facebook, Google+ and Myspace. The company was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area by University of California, Berkeley graduates Ling Xiao and Chris Wang and Swarthmore College graduate Dan Yue. In 2009, the market for games played on social networking sites was valued at $300 million, consisting mostly of online sales of virtual goods.

Café World is a defunct multiplayer restaurant simulation social network game created by Zynga and launched in September 2009. It quickly became the fastest growing social game ever, reaching 8 million users in seven days, and peaked at over 10 million daily active users, which made it Zynga's third-largest game after FarmVille and CityVille. Available on Facebook, players strive to become master chefs and build a food empire by completing catering orders.

<i>Friends for Sale</i> 2007 video game

Friends for Sale was a massively multiplayer online business simulation game originally developed by Serious Business, available as an application on the social networking website Facebook. The game allowed players to buy and sell virtual pets representing other players. Since its launching by November 2007, Friends for Sale soared into popularity by June 2008, becoming one of the top ten Facebook applications with around 700,000 daily users and activity peaked at around 6.5 million monthly users on 2 November 2009 until Zynga acquired Serious Business on 11 February 2010. Shortly after its acquisition by Zynga, Friends for Sale underwent another transition as it was subsequently sold to Lika Games Inc on September 27, 2010. Due to financial constraints and challenges, Lika Games has made the difficult decision to discontinue the operation of Friends For Sale. Despite dedicated efforts over the past eleven months to enhance game functionality and streamline the interface, the game struggled to attract sufficient new players. Given these circumstances and uncertainties about resolving these issues in the near future, the decision has been made to cease operation on September 3, 2011.

A social network game is a type of online game that is played through social networks or social media. They typically feature gamification systems with multiplayer gameplay mechanics. Social network games were originally implemented as browser games. As mobile gaming took off, the games moved to mobile as well. While they share many aspects of traditional video games, social network games often employ additional ones that make them distinct. Traditionally they are oriented to be social games and casual games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facebook Credits</span>

Facebook Credits was a virtual currency that enabled people to purchase items in games and non-gaming applications on the Facebook Platform. One U.S. dollar was the equivalent of 10 Facebook Credits. Facebook Credits were available in 15 currencies including U.S. dollars, pound sterling, euros, and Danish kroner. Facebook was hoping eventually to expand Credits into a micropayment system open to any Facebook application, whether a game or a media company application. Facebook deprecated Credits in favour of users' local currencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mentez</span>

Mentez is a Latin American-focused social network game publisher based in Miami.

YoWorld is a browser-based virtual world game which was released on May 8, 2008. It is developed by Big Viking Games. The game operates on the freemium model, and is supported through microtransactions, as well as a voluntary in-game ad program. The game itself is free-to-play, however, players can purchase in-game currencies or enroll in special programs and offers to improve their game-play experience or help them progress faster, using real money.

<i>Cow Clicker</i> Incremental video game

Cow Clicker is an incremental social network game on Facebook developed by video game researcher Ian Bogost. The game serves as a deconstructive satire of social games. The goal of the game is to earn "clicks" by clicking on a sprite of a cow every six hours. The addition of friends' cows to the player's pasture allows the user to also receive "clicks" whenever the player's cow is clicked. A premium currency known as "Mooney" allows the user to purchase different cow designs and skip the six-hour interval between clicks.

Storm8 Inc. is a mobile social game developer founded in 2009 by former Zynga designer, Garrett J. Remes, as well as former Facebook engineers, including Perry Tam, William Siu, Chak Ming Li, and Laura Yip in Redwood Shores, California. Notable games include the Restaurant Story franchise, Dragon Story, Bubble Mania, Fantasy Forest Story, Castle Story and iMobsters.

References

  1. 1 2 Hamilton, Anita (April 16, 2008). "Suffering From Facebook Fatigue?". Time . Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  2. ↑ Smith, Justin (September 24, 2008). "Top 25 Facebook Games for September 24, 2008". Inside Social Games. Archived from the original on March 9, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  3. ↑ Mack, Christopher (April 1, 2009). "The Top 25 Facebook Games for April, 2009". Inside Social Games. Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  4. ↑ "Playdom Community Forum". Archived from the original on May 6, 2010. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  5. ↑ Todorova, Aleksandra (April 21, 2008)."Money for Nothing". The Wall Street Journal .
  6. ↑ Kanter, Beth (June 10, 2008). "The (Lil) Green Patch Facebook app has now donated $33,600 to TNC's Facebook Cause".
  7. ↑ Hiskes, Jonathan (October 31, 2008). "Facebook, Twitter, MySpace become latest way for organizations to connect with potential donors and raise awareness". Puget Sound Business Journal. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
  8. ↑ Chaudhuri, Saabira (December 15, 2008). "Innovative Giving: The Nature Conservancy and (Lil) Green Patch". Fast Company . Archived from the original on April 14, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  9. ↑ "(Lil) Green Patch". Archived from the original on December 31, 2011. Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  10. ↑ "The Nature Conservancy". Archived from the original on April 6, 2012. Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Playdom Announces Acquisitions Green Patch Trippert Labs" . Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  12. ↑ "(Lil) Green Patch Combines Environmentalism and Gaming" . Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  13. ↑ Foung, Cristina (August 15, 2008). "Green My Vino: Revolutionizing Social Networking And Environmental Responsibility". Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
  14. ↑ "Six Months After Acquiring It Playdom is Killing Off Lil Green Patch" . Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  15. ↑ "Zynga Goes To The Mattresses 22 Lawsuits Filed This Year And Counting" . Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  16. ↑ "Zynga is Extremely Pleased With Playdom Disney Litigation Settlement" . Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  17. ↑ Judkis, Maura (August 13, 2008). "8 Ecofriendly Facebook Applications". U.S. News & World Report .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.