Fly Or Die: Draw Something

Draw Something has been a hot topic of late. About a month ago, OMGPOP, the company behind the hit game, was acquired by Zynga as the web gaming company attempts the migration over to mobile. The $180 million deal took Zynga’s daily user traffic up 25 percent, and even though Draw Something has been bleeding users, the motivation behind the acquisition circles back to Zynga’s transition to mobile. They bought talent, instead of trying to mimic it.

That, dear readers, is a Fly. But what about the game itself?

John and I sat down in the studio to discuss the merits of the game, if you can even call it a game. What is there to win? Sure, you and your friend could get to the 100-turn mark, and you may get enough currency to buy some colors or a bomb or two, but do you want to?

There’s no reward in Draw Something. As Josh Constine pointed out, people like to draw and people like to guess. That is the driver of success for games like Pictionary. But people who play games like to compete, as well, which is where Draw Something loses big time.

Not only am I not rewarded for what can end up being hours of game-play, but I find that most of my friends cheat. Maybe I have an abnormally unethical group of friends, but the temptation is there to simply write out words you can’t properly draw and cash in on all three coins, especially when there is no winner or loser.

As I said during Fly or Die, the game feels empty, which is why both John and I give it a die. Just wait and see — Zynga will use the OMGPOP talent to push out addictive game after addictive game, but Draw Something will be long forgotten.