While doing good and giving back are nothing new to the gaming industry, as there are a number of small-ish projects that have taken on the challenge over the years, Zynga’s new campaign is the first microtransaction based charitable cause donation program we’ve seen. According to VentureBeat, social games developer and publisher Zynga has struck upon an idea that they believe will allow them to do a great amount of good in a relatively short amount of time.
Centered around their wildly popular farming game, FarmVille, Zynga’s 56 million users of this app have donated $487,500 over the past three weeks to the company’s campaign to help children in Haiti. Titled the “Sweet Seeds for Haiti” initiative, this program is the opening phase of a larger plan to promote what Zynga calls “social goods.” These goods function just like any other microtransaction purchasable item within the virtual world. I.e. instead of purchasing a tractor to up their farming, players can purchase Sweet Seeds, those that are directly connected to the charitable donation. Likewise, Zynga has run a similar promotion in the virtual world YoVille, whereby the games 140 million inhabitants could purchase virtual bulldogs and tabby cats from a virtual animal shelter. These purchases helped raise money for the San Francisco SPCA.
Zynga reports that approximately 50 percent of these purchases are contributed directly to one of two Haitian charities, FATEM.org and/or FONKOZE.org. Jacky Poteau, FATEM president, stated that just from Zynga’s donations alone, the NPO has made possible the reality of a quality education to more than 500 Haitian children.
“The sheer scope and reach of social gaming to affect people’s lives in a positive way wasn’t even a reality a few years ago,” said Mark Pincus, founder and chief executive of Zynga. “Today, with ‘social goods,’ we are enabling players to unlock their power to change the world and impact the lives of children. ‘Sweet Seeds for Haiti’ is an early step for Zynga with more to come.
Obviously, a great plan of action, for a great cause. And again, as stated above, there are a number of games or games relation projects that do give something back to a community and/or make donations to communities that need it most, but most require a concerted effort to find. The Zynga initiative is front and center, cleverly integrated into the hugely popular social gaming format. As I talked about at the beginning of this month, with competition heating up in the social gaming space, developers and publishers are, and will continue to need to separate themselves from the pack. While I’m not certain a charitable donation program is going to do this for Zynga, it’s certainly a noble and worthy project, and obviously, a great PR move.
Tags: charitable donation, charity, farmville, Mark Pincus, social games, social gaming, virtual world, yoville, Zynga
