So one evening, I get a call at work. “Bob, the health depart is going to close down my café if I don’t clean the place up.” Now Gentle-Reader, I’m not sure how seriously you take your fantasy, but let’s assume that you don’t take yours quite that seriously. (Me neither.) I cocked an eyebrow, “Beloved, what are you talking about?” She answered, “Café World now makes you clean your restaurant, like those silly aquarium games. You can ask for help, or go clean your friend’s cafés.” She was speaking to herself at that point as I had in a panic pulled up my Facebook account and checked my café. Sure as heck-fire, there were stains in my beautiful café!

I cleaned them, cursing Zynga all the while. Then a wonderful thing happened; my buzz rating jumped to an amazing 110! I saw more customers coming in. I was so jazzed I ran to Christine’s café and made sure hers was cleaned, then Heidi’s, then my daughters and my niece’s. Debbie’s café needed help, and then I ran through my 400 neighbor’s places picking some out; especially the ones I knew cared about their buzz rating. I checked back at my café, and saw the food was moving! My best-est bud called to tell me that his buzz rating went up, he wasn’t sure how, but now they go past 105. I explained, and we chatted for a bit about how cool games like Café World and Castle Age were that they were constantly changing. Games like that keep you on your toes, and make it a pleasure to buy some of their coins every now and then.

I got up early the next morning so I could clean a few cafes before I had to go to work, but the option was gone. Nobody could ask for help, or clean each other’s cafes. I jumped to the forums to see if it was a glitch. There were pages of complaints about the change. One guy even said that he was so tired after a day of work that if he needed to make extra clicks to play Café World, he’d quit. (Oh and we’d miss him too, wouldn’t we?) I could scarcely believe my eyes.
So in the final analysis we have two things to learn from the night of Café World Cleaning.

  1. Zynga does listen to the complaints of their players.
  2. People will complain about stuff before ever really giving it a try. For myself, I really miss the buzz rating boost, and the excuse to travel to distant cafes in search of those that may have been missed to gain a few extra coins and CP’s.

Kudos Zynga, I think it was a really good idea. Good community building, which is something you guys do well

Bob – Crossroads Cafe

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