Note: I'm aware that this analogy is metaphorically and intellectually broken.
If I had time / inclination, we'd re-work the OP's example into Facebook and Steam etc being protozoa, Zynga would be some bacteria living inside Facebook with our users as the host and introduce all kinds of biology comparisons. Zynga-as-Virus as an analogy wouldn't be too useful as it's not a case of simple self-replication in attacks / predation on the host; it's also camouflaging itself as other fauna to fool the hosts' current anti-body set, as EA, a much larger protozoa, is trying to eat it for as competition. There's also the fact Zynga would have to live inside Facebook in a mutalistic relationship, while they both feed off each others' intakes from the host.
Would be fun, modelling it all.
Now I urn for the Spore-that-never-was, damn, but we wouldn't want to scare the hosts when they realised the real lions, tigers & bears out there, I suppose.
If I had time / inclination, we'd re-work the OP's example into Facebook and Steam etc being protozoa, Zynga would be some bacteria living inside Facebook with our users as the host and introduce all kinds of biology comparisons. Zynga-as-Virus as an analogy wouldn't be too useful as it's not a case of simple self-replication in attacks / predation on the host; it's also camouflaging itself as other fauna to fool the hosts' current anti-body set, as EA, a much larger protozoa, is trying to eat it for as competition. There's also the fact Zynga would have to live inside Facebook in a mutalistic relationship, while they both feed off each others' intakes from the host.
Would be fun, modelling it all.
Now I urn for the Spore-that-never-was, damn, but we wouldn't want to scare the hosts when they realised the real lions, tigers & bears out there, I suppose.