It’s not yet “Facebook official”, but it looks like game maker Zynga and the social media website Facebook have talked about changing their relationship with each other. The two have been together for years, and I never expected them to consider revising their partnership. However, it seems that they have had “a talk”.

The two companies have reached a new agreement that amends the one they created together in 2010. They aren’t going to do a complete and total “we are never, ever, getting back together” breakup. It’s more like they have each become interested in a more open relationship than what they previously had with each other. Each appears to want have less inter-dependence with the other.

It seems that at least some of the changes will become effective on March 31, 2013. Facebook is going to stop giving what has been seen as a “privileged status” or as “preferential treatment” to Zynga. The 2010 agreement provided Zynga with guaranteed promotions of certain Zynga games on Facebook. Instead, Zynga will be governed by the same rules and policies as the rest of the game companies that are on Facebook.

Facebook will be allowed to develop its own games. Word has it that the company feels it “was not in the business of building games” and doesn’t have plans to start creating them.

Zynga is going to have more freedom to operate its own, standalone, gaming website. They can choose not to display Faecbook’s ads on Zynga.com. They can also choose to not to collect revenue for games on Zynga.com in favor of using Facebook’s payment system. If it goes that route, Facebook will take a 30% cut of that revenue.

Those of you who are playing Zynga games on Facebook need not worry. Games like “Farmville” and “Mafia Wars” are staying put. The difference is that the games will stop featuring cross-promotions that direct you to Zynga.com. At the same time, you won’t be able to play at Zynga.com and tap into your friends who are connected to the games through Facebook.

Personally, I think this is good news. The changes could, potentially, make it possible for people like me, who play games but do not want a Facebook account, to be able to check out some of Zynga’s games.

Image: Stock Photo Broken Heart by BigStock

I used to have a Facebook account. Earlier this year, Facebook stopped being fun (to make a long story short). I have since deactivated my Facebook account, for good, and have no intention of returning. The problem, though, is I have started to miss playing some of the little “time waster” games that I used to log into Facebook to play.

Zynga might be best known for their Farmville game, but they also have several others to choose from. Some of their games are accessible through Zynga.com. Hidden Chronicles is one of those “find the hidden object” type of games that I started playing when I was still on Facebook. Farmville isn’t part of Zynga.com, but they do have something new called Farmville 2. It sounded interesting.

This is when I encountered a big problem. It turns out that you cannot play any of Zynga’s games on the Zynga website unless you have a Facebook account. You can’t even log in without one. Clearly, Zynga doesn’t have any interest in attracting gamers who don’t happen to use Facebook.

Personally, I found this to be disappointing. I’ve already decided that I am done with Facebook. Zynga’s games are fun, but they aren’t important enough to me to convince me to get involved with Facebook again. It’s not worth it!

Fortunately, Zynga’s competitor is accepting all gamers, (even those without Facebook accounts). You can go to Playdom.com and sign in with an email address.

Two of the three games that you can play on Playdom’s website, Gardens of Time, and Blackwood and Bell Mysteries, are ones that I used to play on Facebook. Both are the “find the hidden object” type of games that I enjoy. I missed playing Gardens of Time more than I realized!

The games at Playdom, and the games at Zynga, can be played for free. However, it is possible to spend real world money in order to get something especially cool to use in a particular game. Right now, the only game I spend money on is World of Warcraft.

There is potential that someday, I will decided to spend a few bucks on one of these “time waster” games. Zynga has made it absolutely impossible for me to consider giving them money. Playdom, on the other hand, has been very welcoming. It is obvious which company has the chance to get some real world money from me, and which company does not.