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No Bull! I did not know about Cash Cow, a new game from Big Fish, before writing the previous post. Talk about irony! How can I resist a one-hour review?

But first, a MOO of thanks to the casual game industry for allowing me a full sixty minutes of free trial. After all, I’m no different than most female casual gamers, and most female consumers in general — I love getting something for nothing and, when it comes to parting with my hard-earned twenty bucks, I’m a savvy shopper.

Fresh Milk or Udder Bull?
Let’s start with first impressions from the marketing materials. Cute name, cute theme. Production values are high, as I’ve come to expect from Big Fish (one of my favorite publishers/developers). The copy says:

Cash Cow is a brand new experience that you won’t want to put down!

• Totally original puzzle experience!
• Gorgeous landscapes & dazzling special effects!
• Watch your farm come to life!
• Two unique ways to play!

All those exclamation marks might get me excited if the screen shots and videos didn’t tell a different story. Cash Cow looks suspiciously like a new twist on the same old “match adjacent sets” game. So let’s boot up the ‘ole PC and find out what makes this a brand new experience.

A MOOving Story
Like many casual games, Cash Cow uses a story theme to provide context, emotional connection, and motivation for play. In this case, it’s the classic conflict-resolution equation:

Meet character X. X has problem Y. Resolve Y by doing Z.

X = Buck the Cash Cow (a male cow, ironically).
Y = Too much debt, the bank is threatening to foreclose.
Z = Match coins to achieve a goal in each level. Complete all levels, problem solved.

Nothing brand new here, but let’s look…

Inside the Bucket
Indeed, Cash Cow has a few game play twists that tie in nicely with the theme. Here’s the poop.

You will spark some different synapses as you try to group sets that are not merely visual matches. Cash Cow requires you collect five specified groupings of adjacent coins (as shown in the image to the left) to create nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars. Remove a grouping of coins to create a glowing coin. Earn power-ups like:

• Piggy Bank - Remove a group with two glowing coins to earn a piggy bank. Click the bank to remove all adjacent coins.
• Gold Nuggets - Remove coins adjacent to the gold nuggets and earn bonus cash.
• Coin Roll - Remove all coins of a particular denomination from the board.

Cash Cow’s “two unique ways to play” are:

• Classic (aka “story mode” in many casual games) - Progress through levels, advancing the storyline by earning items at successful completion of each level.
• Timed - Continuously remove coins to prevent a timer from running out.

And now the free trial has run out. Time to…

Fork Out the MOOla
Bottom line, Cash Cow is a fun, well-executed game that may bring twenty dollars worth of happiness to many casual gamers.

But me? I’m quite blissful with one hour of something for nothing. My twenty bucks will stay in the bank until a game comes along that treats me like a Sacred Cow and delivers a *truly* brand new experience.

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Your Momma’s an Oxymoron and a Cow
The phrase “hard-core casual gamer” is an oxymoron, but it’s also a good term to describe a population of women ages 40+ who are the heart of a market expected to surpass $2 billion in the U.S. alone by 2008, according to the IGDA’s Casual Games White Paper.

Although casual games appeal to a range of demographic segments, successful online gaming portals such as BigFish, Pogo, MSN Games, and PopCap recognize over-forty women as the Cash Cow demographic. According to Wikipedia:

…The expression [cash cow] is a metaphor for a dairy cow, which after being acquired can be milked on an ongoing basis with little expense.

Risks of a cash cow include complacency, with management ignoring the need for change as market forces erode value…

While a valid description, the cash cow metaphor is not particularly flattering, nor does it give enough credit to this esteemed group of women. So in the B-Lab, we’ve adopted a new metaphor — Sacred Cow. Quoting Wikipedia again:

In Hinduism, the cow is considered sacred and its protection is a recurrent theme in which she is symbolic of abundance, of the sanctity of all life and of the earth that gives much while asking nothing in return. Most Hindus respect the cow as a matriarchal figure for her gentle qualities and providing nurturing milk and its products for a largely vegetarian diet. Hindus do not worship the cow, yet it holds an honoured place in society…

Where’s the Beef?
As the casual game industry matures, many in the biz are pondering how to care for their blessed bovines and expand the market.

photo by chrisada

Most are taking the no-brainer approach to their Sacred Cows by extending successful games into successful franchises, taking a good game mechanic and giving it a new face and a slightly new twist, maximizing all revenue models, and expanding distribution. A perfectly reasonable strategy, but what happens as market forces erode value?

photo by popofatticus

Some, like Kongregate, are focused on acquiring new cash cows, more specifically, cash bulls. Jim Greer, co-founder of Kongregate, sees their target as “mostly young (14-34) and mostly male (that’s who makes games, mostly).” If executed properly, this strategy could help expand the market, the theory being if you encourage young male developers to create games they like to play (as opposed to games for their mom) you will attract other young males.

Happy Cows
There are a lot of smart people in the casual games industry, and many of them have heard us B-Labbing about this for a while — core casual gamers are a captive online audience and their purchase/play patterns have been decoded over and over again. Offer them some of the obvious non-game applications:

• Edu-tainment - Sacred Cows, being women who give much while asking nothing in return, will often spend money on their kids/grandkids before themselves.
• Productivity - Women see loads of value in products that will save precious time, as opposed to killing time.
• Lifestyle Products - Why no products aligned with evergreen or trend-driven lifestyle interests?

These apps exist all over the web, but have yet to be aggregated, merchandised, and monetized in a way that’s meaningful to Sacred Cows.

Think outside the bucket!

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