Lots of Zynga employees ended up there due to acquisitions. It's not their fault if their employer got bought and their equity (if any) at the old company became Zynga equity...

That's not entirely true. Employees still have a choice. Specifically, I remember reading this article: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/167244/Turning_down_Zynga... and thinking to myself, "at least someone isn't just in it for a quick buck."

While I have never worked there, I think the assumption pre-IPO was that yes you might get abused but it will all be worth it in the end because of the equity - remember Zynga according to tech blogs was the hottest thing coming out of the oven a couple years ago.

This also isn't all that unusual of an attitude in a hyped startup - management will abuse you (ahem, I mean expose you to a dynamic exciting work environment) and you will take it because your going to be rich in a few years... or not.

Life is short. Putting up with abuse in the pursuit of a potential windfall is part of what's wrong with our lottery culture these days.

As a gamer friend always reminds me, "The cake is a lie."

I find that quote interesting. Your gamer friend might not have given you the context of the game, but it's interesting:

You pretty much know there is no cake. GLaDOS, the malevolent and controlling AI telling you there is cake, lies to you consistently. You catch on quickly that she's lying.

The warning "The cake is a lie" is scrawled in blood inside a hidden antechamber, inside one of the levels.

Somehow I feel like there are parallels here that you stumbled on more or less accidentally. Or maybe I'm being far too literary.

I'd say: "expose you to a dynamically exciting work environment". The direction of the dynamics is another story, right.

Winningest quote ever from DotCom 1.0: "It has a ballistic trajectory".

Technically I think orbit can be achieved ballistically, or even planetary/solar escape but the overwhelming majority of projectiles do land. And some of them very hard, others barely get off the ground. All of which makes it quite a good metaphor really although not the originally intended one.

Ballisticality has a lot less to do with sustaining the trajectory than attaining a minimal orbital velocity, or escape velocity.

NB: Ballisticality isn't a word. Pity.

That's really special. And appropriate here.

While I agree with this statement somewhat, I can't imagine the talented devs at Zynga didn't have common sense. Seems harsh to write those people off with essentially 'you only have yourselves to blame'. That attitude also removes some of the responsibility from the folks at the top.

> I can't imagine the talented devs at Zynga didn't have common sense.

There are a lot of very smart people who are easily blinded to the truth when confronted with the possibility of vast riches. Making the right decision here was less about talent/intelligence and more about wisdom.

Or it is about risk tolerance. I can see joining an overhyped overvalued yet detested company with eyes wide open, realizing that the risk is huuuge.

Yes, that's certainly possible. However, I don't think the math worked out in Zynga's favor in this case. And the reason why people joined anyway was because it's emotionally difficult to do that math correctly when your eyes are blinded by dollar signs.

Going to the mat to double your options and attempting to deal with them with your eyes open, only to have shenanigans on the back end is nothing that can be protected against. Hey, they're a public company, the shenanigans are out of the bosses hands...or are they?

This reminds me of the riddle Varys poses Tyrion in "Game of Thrones": Three great men sit in a room, a king, a priest and the rich man. Between them stands a common sellsword. Each great man bids the sellsword kill the other two. Who lives? Who dies?

Replace sellsword with employee. All these employees got screwed, yet like the sellsword they should have had the power to get a better deal.