Zynga was supposed to help launch the market into another tech-stock boom. It has impressive revenue and, ostensibly, a history of profits. And that's why everyone's nervously talking today about how the videogame company's brand new stock is melting: The tech bubble is turning to bust.

As a rule, you'd best avoid peering behind the scenes of your favorite online pastime; you probably won't like what you find. Drill into the backstory of "Mafia Wars" creator Zynga, for example, and you'll find a sweatshop where ruthless managers closely monitor the performance of even cafeteria workers, and where…

Zynga's been the poster child for the current tech bubble. It built an implausible sounding business around FarmVille and other Facebook games, its offices were over the top self parody, and it planned a billion dollar IPO. But everything seems to be falling apart. Go figure.

Zynga, the maker of FarmVille and other Facebook games, is expected to file for its initial public offering tomorrow or shortly thereafter, seeking a valuation of $15 billion to $20 billion. It's one of the tech bubble's most rational IPOs.

If there is one takeaway from Vanity Fair's long profile of sordid FarmVille pimp Mark Pincus, it's that obnoxiously flaunting your funding and coarser instincts like a blowhard is threatening to come back into fashion, just like in 2000.

In February, Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus filed for a restraining order against Vera Svenchina, an amateur filmmaker and former stripper from Russia.

Hey! Looks like exploiting the weaknesses of addicts and kids does pay off: Investors are considering pouring another $250 million into gaming company Zynga, Inc. "in a deal that could value the three-year-old start-up at between $7 billion and $9 billion," according to The Wall Street Journal. That's right, the…

CityVille is now the most popular app ever on Facebook, with 84.2 million users. It even beats FarmVille, both in total users and in its ability to make money for evil Facebook gaming empire Zynga.

Zynga, the more-than-a-little-sketchy company behind the insanely popular Facebook game Farmville, is debuting a new product: Cityville, "Zynga's most social game ever." Great! Because what Facebook really needs is another blockbuster game that constantly encourages people to invite their friends.

The company behind Mafia Wars and Farmville doesn't like to talk about the sad addicts who fuel its profits. But it does quietly run a special store for them, where imaginary credits are bought with very real bank transfers.

Give Kevin Rose credit: The Digg CEO keeps a cool head. "Gotta take risk" was the tech playboy's cheerful response to Digg's mounting problems today. His secret to staying relaxed: Extracurricular investments with buddies hedge Rose well against Digg's death.

Online game titan Zynga just saw its advertising firm hit with cleaning bills and fines for gluing fake money to sidewalks in San Francisco to promote the Zynga game "Mafia Wars." Now, they're doing the same thing in NYC. Scofflaws!

Facebook sealed a five-year deal with FarmVille-maker Zynga. Details are secret, but we're guessing Zynga promised to stop doing "every horrible thing in the book" to users, while Facebook promised to stop trying to take all Zynga's money. [VentureBeat]

Russia's Digital Sky Technologies might be the toast of Silicon Valley, but the investment firm gives the Russian founder of Chatroulette the creeps. Sometimes it takes a teenager to say the obvious, rude things adults can't bring themselves to utter.

Gaming mogul Mark Pincus trashed-talked his way to Wall Street's gutter, trafficked scammy Facebook ads, and is now targeted in a class-action lawsuit. The FarmVille creator's now reaping $450 million in annual revenue and may go public. Revenge is his.

A British kid stole his mom's credit card and blew more than £900 on FarmVille, the Facebook game infamous for its seedy advertisers. And amazingly the shameless company that runs the game won't issue a refund.

The investigative bloggers at Brazil's Folha Online say Zynga confirmed keeping half the money in certain fundraising campaigns linked to Haiti relief. Zynga says it's been open about this all along. But these aren't questions the company behind Farmville relishes.

It's hard to say what's more pathetic: That the social networks at the center of Silicon Valley's growth derive so much money from online scams, or the way one venture capitalist excuses the whole sad scene.

Alisher Usmanov is nicknamed "the hard man of Russia," but he's good at seducing the softies in California's tech community: An investment firm he backs lead a $180 million investment in Zynga, the gaming company that trafficked in scammy ads.

Facebook and Zynga are the defendants in a federal class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday, which seeks upwards of $5 million for social network users scammed in online game ads. Neither company's top-drawer investors can be happy.