Your first question is probably going to be: What is Zwinky? That’s a fair question; the ads didn’t do a very good job of explaining it. Zwinky is a light online game, not unlike Neopets or RuneScape. But here’s the rub: to play Zwinky, you need to install a browser plugin called MyWebSearch. And that’s when the bad things start happening. The MyWebSearch plugin gets into everything: Internet Explorer, Outlook, Firefox, AOL Instant Messenger, and a whole host of other browsing, maill, and chatting programs.
Zwinky was designed primarily as delivery platform for advertisements and the MyWebSearch browser, which has been classified by some as malware (meaning it is detrimental software that you shouldn’t ever choose to install) and spyware (meaning it violates your privacy by reporting your surfing habits back to the company). It hijacks bad DNS requests (if you type in a domain name that doesn’t exist, it’ll take you to an ad-laden portal instead of the usual site not found message). It also gives you lots of ads. It’s not something you’d ever want, but if you want to play Zwinky, you have to install it.
So, is Zwinky worth it? All of the gameplay in Zwinky takes place in a persistent online world called “Zwinktopia”. That means that everything you do and collect in it stays the same across different play sessions (unlike, say, Tetris). The player has Zwinky avatars (also known as characters) that inhabit the virtual world. The player can play arcade games to earn “Zbucks”, which the player can then use to buy new clothing and upgrades for their character’s dorm room. If this kind of stuff appeals to you, you might enjoy playing Zwinky — which the huge caveat of the MyWebSearch toolbar it installs.
And Zwinky does seem to appeal to lots of people. According to recent statistics, Zwinky has more unique monthy visitors than its two nearest competitors, Gaia Online and Habbo hotel, combined. So even though it’s relatively new on the scene, it’s a huge success. Lots of young teens are playing it.
One more thing to consider about Zwinky: it is owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, a company you might better know as the owners of Ask.com and Excite.com. So there is some serious muscle behind Zwinky. It’s not just the product of a one-hit wonder game company. So they are in a good position to leverage Zwinky’s popularity through the use of their toolbar. And thus, no matter how much I advocate against installing Zwinky due to its bad toolbar, there are still going to be many, many young teens out there eagerly signing up, most likely because their friends are playing as well. Ahh, there’s nothing quite like marketing to kids.
Download
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WGC039EL
No comments:
Post a Comment