PAC Q&A by the FB & Zynga Podcast

Those of you who like to give a listen to community pod casts have probably heard of the Facebook & Zynga Podcast. This evening I was asked to be a guest on the show to answer a couple of questions about PAC by one of the co-hosts. Well, Tre didn't really give me much choice in the matter, but that's aight :D

This was actually the first time I've participated in a podcast, so admittedly I was a little nervous. Melissa asked some of the questions that she has heard/been asked and/or had herself, about the PAC. I'd like to thank the hosts of the Facebook and Zynga Podcast for having me.

To me directly, Melissa asked when the PAC was put together and what we do, and how much contact we have with Zynga.

As I answered on the show ~ the PAC, or Player Advisory Committee, was put together in February of this year.  It is a group of players that Zynga sometimes taps for feedback and testing, and I am a member. We communicate with Zynga on an as-needed basis. There aren't regular meetings; they reach out to us, and we reach out to them as a group, or in groups, or as individuals to different Zynga employees, as needed. Some of us use Getsatisfaction.com (in fact, we've been encouraged to promote Getsatisfaction). I "talk" to "Zynga" on Skype and by email. The method of contact and the frequency just depends on the urgency and what is going on.

Another question I was asked was how I specifically came to be on the PAC. I did know about the committee and that they would be considering players who applied, and I meant to apply. But being very engrossed in my 1st semester of college, I completely forgot about it. In late February, I got a message asking if I wanted to be on the PAC, and I said yes. Someone suggested me, for which I'm still grateful, and I really didn't have much time to deliberate -- my flight to San Francisco was booked that same hour.

I think what people want to know is that the PAC isn't a top secret organization that governs the game and gets special privileges.

I feel kind of bad for those members of PAC who were chosen because they were indeed regular players, regular players who expected none of this scrutiny.

We are players of the game. Only a few of us are bloggers. Only a few of us have fan pages. Only a few of us are scripters. Some of us don't even use scripts, or like scripts; some of us are decidedly anti-scripts. Those of us who do use scripts, have wildly-varying views on 'acceptable script use'. We're not all in clans; or families, or groups. Those of us who are in clans, aren't all clan leaders. Not all of us have huge mafias. We are different players with different levels and methods of involvement in the game. We do not always agree. We are not all hunky-dory with Zynga. We argue with Zynga. In fact, as predicted would be the case, we often resent that we aren't listened to more.

Our 'visibility' as a PAC member has been left to our personal discretion, which I feel is entirely appropriate.

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That's just me, on a couple of limited subjects though. Melissa had some other very good questions, some of which I've been asked myself. Questions such as why do some PAC members not want to be revealed? and how did PAC members get chosen? and what is the worst thing about being on PAC? and does Zynga listen to what PAC has to say?

-to name a few.

Load up an energy pack or a stamina pack and listen to the show yourself! You'll hear a bit of me - I'm the quiet one :0)