Gagaville

WARNING: NOT IN FRONT OF THE KIDS

"Let’s have some fun, this beat is sick
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick
Don’t think too much just bust that stick
I wanna take a ride on your disco stick"

— Lady Gaga

Hey, doesn't that make you hot? Put some lustful thoughts into your mind? Is it fun? Is it cute when your kids sing it?

Here, try some more:

• And baby when it’s love if it’s not rough it isn’t fun fun
• I want your ugly, I want your disease
• The only place you wanna be is underneath my Christmas tree, light me up with me on top lets falalalalalalala...my Christmas tree is delicious

By the way, there seems to be some occult imagery in her material as well. 

"Come on, Cowboy Bob! There are worse things out there!"

No kidding? I had no idea. Guess what? There are far better things out there, too.

Listen, I don't really care what people choose to put into their minds. If you want lust, nonsense, occult or whatever else to influence your thinking, that's your business. But...

Enter Zynga, the social network game company. "Zynga is committed to transforming the world through virtual social goods. Zynga players have made real change by raising millions for several international nonprofits since Zynga.org launched in October 2009." Ummm...OK.

Zynga is also committed to making money, let's be honest here. They are constantly striking deals with big businesses to promote their materials. I have a Frito-Lay truck and an American Express windmill in Farmville.  And you can bet that Zynga is not doing the promotions to about 65 million players of their games just to be pals.

Now they're teaming up with Lady Gaga to promote her new "Born This Way" album. The new product? Gagaville. I received the e-mail a little while ago.

Frankly, this strikes me as a bit hypocritical. If you are one of the six percent of the Farmville players under age 21 (I think that's the percentage, anyway), your winery will not produce wine, but will produce coolers and juice products instead. Protecting the kiddies? And yet they'll actively promote the material of a pro-perversion, sex-obsessed performer. Hey, maybe they'll restrict play to people who are over 21. Nah, who am I kidding?

Listen, Zynga. I've tolerated unresolved flaws in game play, "quests" when I wanted to play in other ways, having my items electronically "stolen" (they disappear), neighbors not receiving items I have sent to them, overall "bugginess" and other irritations. But this bugs me quite a bit.

I find it very off-putting. Maybe it's time to stop playing Zynga games and use my time more productively.