Why does this surprise anyone? Did anyone really think a company built on virtual farming, and cloning any new games that popped up without regard to employee morale was a great long-term bet?

Actually can we change this to:

Why does this surprise anyone? Did anyone really think a company built on selling illegal scams[1], and using the psychology of addiction to inform game design with a leader who stole stock from employees and treated them horribly was a great long-term bet?

I bet on companies that are honest, admirable and treat their employees well.

[1] "More than $200 was illegally charged to Swift's credit card over several months, the lawsuit alleges. It seeks compensation from Facebook and Zynga for Swift and thousands of others, says attorney John Parker, who represents the plaintiff." - http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2009-12-07-games07_ST_N....

Well, building a business on an addiction might be terrible morally, but it usually makes for good business ventures (gambling, porn, alcohol, etc).

Given their resources, they could try creating non-shit games. Why not try and create an awesome console/PC title? I just don't get why they insist on making the same uninspired games over and over again. They had a good run, it's not working anymore. Time to move on.

Thats like asking "Given {insert name of rich scam artist here}'s resources why doesn't he actually sell real paintings. Dishonest people [1] like to run dishonest companies, would be my guess.

[1] http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2009-12-07-games07_ST_N....

That's true, it's not in their DNA. On the other hand they could just buy a promising indie developer, throw money at them and get out of the way.

It surely sounds terrible from the author's point of view. Would love to hear the proponent side of the story.