ZYNGA DOG IS NOT THE NEW GROUPON CAT?

How many 'Words With Friends' points is 'jackpot' worth?The world's most famous Social Gaming Network Thing you'll never quite be able to wrap your head around the universe's fascination with, Zynga, has priced their IPO at $10, making them, according to the Wall Street Journal, the "biggest U.S. Internet debut since Google Inc."

The symbol is ZYNG, and we're gonna see that bad boy go live tomorrow. Analysts who have called out overhyped internet IPOs correctly before think Zynga is The Real McCoy, and have said that $ZYNG might be worth the cash you spend on it (50 percent more, in fact).

Remember, the last super-hyped 'net IPO, Groupon, peaked on their first day on the markets after pricing at $20 when they hit $31.14, and it's been pretty much downhill since then. But the optimism surrounding Zynga has less to do with their products—stupid copycat versions of Scrabble and that Farmville nonsense, whatever the hell that is—and more to do with its dealings with Facebook, and the way their product's viral elements play into a culture whose obsession with social networks continues to metastasize. In other words, Zynga will make board games obsolete by turning us all into drones perpetually engaged in board games on our phones. This is sad. But at least it made a bunch of people rich!

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek