It’s true. Cityville is what is known in the online biz as a “freemium” game. Meaning that its basic services are offered free of charge but that certain special game play options, which we all know and love, are offered for a cost. It’s a model that may well be here to stay. If we may expand a bit beyond the topic of Cityville game play to the topic of this game we call life, and that particular part of it relating to the business of play, it’s worth a look.

If you’ve ever watched footage from cheap helmet cameras, be it of a battle captured from a soldier’s point of view or a hometown football game from an individual player’s, you know how our vision is often obscured by the constant movement of modern life. You have a very clear and extremely accurate view of what is right in front of you, but it’s constantly changing and sometimes hard to focus on. That’s kind of like what’s making it difficult to figure out what’s going on in today’s world, particularly as it relates to consumer businesses like what Zynga is doing with Cityville and it’s various spin-off and related games.

Still, one thing that remains clear is that, especially for products we’re often not sure we want and we always know we don’t “need” — like games — most of us are not going to buy the proverbial pig-in-a-poke. The freemium model is therefore quite brilliant in that it permits us to get hooked without paying out any money initially. Then, as we become more involved in the game, many of us inevitably shell out enough for Zynga to become as successful as it’s currently becoming.

Like video footage from contour helmet cameras, it’s an idea that looks shaky, but it delivers the goods. Of course, as Cityville players, we’re not thinking about that end of it most of the time, but — as we’ve already kinda sorta said, business is also very much a game.