How Zynga entices you to buy virtual currency

This is pretty standard and typically is called "reactivation". You have a previously active user who you've lost for one reason or another, so you try to reactivate them with special offers. This doesn't just happen online, it happens everywhere.

The saying goes that it is far more expensive to gain a new customer then retain and old one, and offering 30% on virtual goods is a pittance compared to the real ad dollars they have to spend to get one new player, so it makes total sense.

The different price points are no mistake either. You anchor one high and one low and guide people to the middle. Our favorite sites do this to us all the time. Any subscription site worth it's salt has this type of guidance. Look at 37 Signals pricing as just one example.

It's not sneaky. Is it aggressive? Sure. But it's also smart marketing based on learning from a ton of customer data.

This isn't any different than dozens of other "special offers" a typical consumer encounters every day. I get calls all the time telling me I've won a free trip somewhere, for example.

>There is a close button to dismiss the offer, but it’s quite small and not that obvious. So while you can get rid of the offer pop-up, you’ll spend a few seconds trying to find out how to do it.

It's a red X in the upper right corner. That's a pretty standard and obvious close button, and probably the first thing that people look for when they want to close a window.

I have never played this game so please help me out on the model works - once I buy the virtual currency, can I "cash out" (back to physical dollars)? Are there different exchange rates for buying & selling the virtual currency for real money?

I don't really love Zynga, but I can't see what is wrong or unethical in this. Its not nice, but they don't owe it to you to be nice or 'not evil'.

It's the same principle Groupon uses. 50% off sounds like a great deal so it forces you to buy things you never would've bought in the first place.