[lotharbot]

1. Many games have identifiable influences from other games, but what Zynga does is far beyond "borrowing heavily". Read the legal doc I linked to above. They are completely unique in terms of how far they take copying.

2. We call this fallacy "Tu quoque". Yes, other games also have feedback loops. People have been criticizing Everquest and WoW for ages. Zynga has all of the same negatives, but in higher proportion to the total game (ie, there's very little "game" and very much "addictive loop".)

3. Yes, plenty of other games have addictive qualities. But those are typically minor components that go along with excellent gameplay. When notch (and now jeb) make changes to Minecraft, they're not about trying to strengthen addictive feedback loops; they're about trying to put in new cool stuff.

Yes, this is a subjective take. No, this doesn't make it any less valid.