{sidebar id=1}This summer, 7-Eleven will offer exclusive virtual gift products for Zynga’s Farmville, Mafia Wars and YoVille social games on Facebook. During this promotion, consumers will be able to redeem exclusive virtual items with Zynga games during a campaign that runs through July 15 or while supplies last.

Zynga will have ads for their games on everything from Big Gulps to ice cream, and most importantly the famous 7-Eleven Slurpee. By purchasing these products, consumers will get items like virtual Slurpee and Farm cash for goods they need to purchase in-game.

According to Techcrunch, the 7-Eleven campaign is “a way for Zynga to bring its brand to the masses offline. And the company released a new statistic showing that 10% of the US is playing Farmville and 80% of its players are engaging every day with Farmville, Mafia Wars, and YoVille.”

This is just goes to show how Zynga is going to great lengths to be more of a household name.

Since Zynga and its most popular game Farmville is becoming such a household name people are becoming addicted, which is causing people to lose their jobs and affect family life. Social Gaming is based around the need for friends and cooperative play; these concepts are especially true in Farmville because you need friends to accomplish tasks like building a barn or tending crops.

According to businessinsider.com, “The secret to Farmville’s popularity is neither gameplay nor aesthetics. Farmville is popular because in entangles users in a web of social obligations. When users log into Facebook, they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with each others’ farms. In turn, they are obligated to return the courtesies.”

Also, in the words of French Sociologist Marcel Mauss, “gifts are never free: they bind the giver and receiver in a loop of reciprocity. It is rude to refuse a gift, and ruder still to not return the kindness”.

To put that in Farmville Speak, we must return the gifts and give even more gifts to keep our friends and our farms running. If not we will lose friends and our farm will fail. This in turn causes people to become addicted because they do not want to fail and lose friends.

But,  Farmville can cause people to lose their jobs as evident by a politician in Bulgaria was removed from a city council committee because of sinking excessive amounts of time into Farmville during meetings.

Although this is the first Farmville firing on record, it points to an even bigger issue, according to Mashable, a study found that 8% of all companies had fired employees due to their actions on a social networking sites.

Farmville is now in our daily lives and becoming borderline ridiculous that Zynga games will be on the wrappers of pizza, cake, and donuts but it’s a part of guerilla marketing tactic for our society.

Please use these games in moderation and most importantly have fun!

7-Eleven Promotions

FarmVille

·         Fun Slide – Slurpee cups

·         Big Splash – Big Gulp cups

·         Coffee Cart – Large iced coffee

·         Sandwich Cart – All fresh sandwiches

·         Chocolate Persimmon (Tree) – Cut fruit

·         Neapolitan Cow – 7-Select vanilla ice cream (pint size)

·         Water Tower – 7-Select bottle water

·         10 Fuel Tanks – Prepaid FarmVille game card

Mafia Wars

·         Showman (weapon) – Slurpee

·         Trio Diva (vehicle) – Big Gulp

·         Lone Wolf (weapon) – 20-ounce coffee

·         Sleek Bulletproof Vest (armor) – pizza, chicken wings, Big Bite products, chicken tenders and breakfast quesadillas

·         Pepper Shaker (weapon) –hash browns, taquitos, Burrito Rollers, potato wedges

·         Palermo Prowler (vehicle) – 7-Select chips

·         Combat Helmet (armor) – Prepaid Mafia Wars game card

YoVille

·         Wall Freezer – Slurpee

·         Hamburger Stand – Big Gulp

·         Coffee Machine – 7-Select packaged brownies

·         Donut Display – 7-Select packaged cake donuts, four-pack

·         Candy Stand – 7-Select candy

·         Soda Machine – 7-Select orange soda

·         Nacho Machine – Prepaid YoVille game card