Draw Something, ANYTHING: Why OMGPOP's Hit App Popped

The web often gets blamed for destroying our ability to focus on things like paper books and conversation. But we haven't always got the attention span for the internet, either -- even when it makes buzzes, finds our friends, and gives us prizes.

Witness the rapid rise and (what looks to be) fall of Draw Something, the social app from gamemaker OMGPOP, which Zynga bought for $200 million at the peak of Draw Something's popularity. Six weeks ago, Draw Something, a Pictionary-like mobile game, was the "uproarious, ingenious" "new sensation" envied by game makers everywhere. Since early April, however, it has shed nearly 4 million daily active users, according to AppData and the Atlantic Wire, which first highlighted the decline. AppData's stats show only Draw Something users who signed in via Facebook, which is optional, but the steep slide suggests the downward trend likely holds true for the "good chunk" of Draw Something gamers who log in without Facebook.

So what happened?

I was one of the millions who adored Draw Something and pestered my friends to sign up for the service. I took great pride in my drawings, delighted in others' sketches (you wouldn't believe the gem my friend Chris drew for "odor"), and even played with strangers when my buddies took too long between turns.

Which is exactly why the Draw Something app has since been relegated to a cobwebbed folder on the third screen of my iPhone: Too often, there was nothing to do.

As McDonald's or Big Tobacco know so well, addiction begins with instant gratification, and Draw Something didn't reliably deliver an endorphin hit.

There were times it made me beam, but more often I was just made to wait. Even with numerous concurrent games, I'd check back in while waiting at the elevator or tapping my foot in the Starbucks line only to see I was still on hold waiting for Jason G. or Daphne J. to appreciate my artwork and share their own. And then I'd open Jumbline, a word game for one that always has something to do, or maybe Pulse, which gets refreshed regularly with the latest news.

Draw Something was supposed to be Zynga's mobile-savvy savior. But the app failed to consistently satisfy the short-duration, high-impact engagements we crave on our phones. A hit app needs to deliver a hit that makes us feel connected, entertained, or amused, quickly and every time.

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Comments

[Terris-Linenbach]

12:01 AM on 05/04/2012

Many of the recent IPOs like Zynga and LinkedIn will be mentioned in the same sentence as Webvan. If Facebook doesn't do something else, they will be remembered as the biggest cash bonfire in history.

[AODJCS]

01:25 PM on 05/03/2012

I liked duudle more than drawsomething

[Harold Saxon]

12:52 PM on 05/03/2012

I lost interest in Draw Something once I found Drawception. It's a web-based picture game that works like the old "telephone" game. You get a description, draw a picture to match it, then someone else sees your picture and describes it, and another user draws from that description. It can get pretty hilarious by the end.

[Amadahy]

09:25 AM on 05/03/2012

Yep, that about sums it up. I grew tired of waiting, people waiting for me, and the only time it really seemed fun was when it was new or I was around someone I could show the drawing to. Also, when I tried playing with strangers, I got tired of people just writing the word instead of actually making a drawing.

[jsgaetano]

01:43 AM on 05/03/2012

Zynga is like the EA of mobile and web based platforms.

[Kisha Chapman]

09:52 PM on 05/02/2012

Playing now....

[Captain Yesterday]

08:00 PM on 05/02/2012

It was just another flavor-of-the-month app whose time came and gone.

[Chris Fuller]

06:38 PM on 05/02/2012

It's simple. if you didn't pay for it you got the same 20 words to guess and draw every time. If you do pay for it, you get new words to draw but you get to guess the same 20 words every time from your friends who didn't pay for it. So when you purchase the darn thing you really are only paying for an incomplete experience. Should have done the "pay to remove ads" only route and not limited your experience to drawing "tugboat" 42 times a day. I deleted the thing a couple days ago as well.

[cmacattack]

02:40 PM on 05/03/2012

That is exactly why i got bored with it, they needed a larger library of words for either the paid or free app. I got bored with drawing and guessing the same words over and over.

[Christine Renfro]

06:15 PM on 05/02/2012

Charadium is a better drawing game.

[javajava]

05:32 PM on 05/02/2012

yep..

[ReinholdMcGillicutti]

05:14 PM on 05/02/2012

i stopped playing because it....became...so....boring

[Loaks]

05:33 PM on 05/02/2012

That pretty much sums it up.

[Lechiffre]

06:44 PM on 05/02/2012

This is so infantile !

[julwilson83]

04:59 PM on 05/02/2012

I like that it had no competition, it was more fun, less pressure. Zynga games keep scores and i still quit words with friends (however, scramble with friends is the best game ever and everyone should play)

I stopped playing Draw Something because it logged me out of facebook one day and it takes forever (20 seconds or more) to connect with facebook.

[saramathison77]

06:07 PM on 05/02/2012

It has competition, Depict has been out forever.

[trying this again]

04:41 PM on 05/02/2012

Zynga taking over the game is reason enough for me not to play it anymore. The final straw was when they replicated Tiny Tower. Like other posters have said, there's no competition in Draw Something and it's not fun to play with people who just want to write the words out to get a few coins.

[IDIOTA]

04:39 PM on 05/02/2012

This is yet another tale of cash in search of a bubble.

[Prousa]

04:27 PM on 05/02/2012

Not enough words.
No reward for drawing and guessing quickly
Non competitive

[IDIOTA]

04:40 PM on 05/02/2012

Your complaints seem like things that could easily be solved by the developers.

[Loaks]

05:09 PM on 05/02/2012

Actually the competitive problem is not that easy to solve. Pictionary works because you have teams with a vested interest in drawing fast and accurately for each other. How do you do that with two people? Do you reward the person who guesses the other picture faster or do you reward the person who drew such a good picture, they were able to guess it fast?

[Stephan Hartig]

05:46 PM on 05/02/2012

I've been playing the online version for a while now (long before the mobile version) and I can tell you two things: 1. There is competition with up to six people drawing at once, and 2. There are a lot more words and rewards.
Also the online version has other games.