Are mobile apps a scam?

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ccovell
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by ccovell »

I can't comment, because I'm a blinkered retro-anticapitalist who only plays games 20-years-old or older... but Simon Butler in this video describes why he hates F2P games. The entire video is a hilarious watch as well, with 3 ex-Ocean artists reminiscing about the good/bad old days.

https://youtu.be/kR3Gd4-8nnY?t=1432
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dougeff
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by dougeff »

That's a great clip, and true (about levels being literally impossible to beat until you've played it X many times)...

I was talking to someone else, who told me...on Candy Crush...if you have an impossible to beat level, just don't play the game for a few days, and when you play the impossible level, it will be magically beatable. It's 100% programmed to screw with your phyche.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by FrankenGraphics »

The stinking part is that candy crush would be a good puzzle game hadn't it been rigged levels.

On a brighter note, Super Mario Run seems to do everything the right way.. and be fun, looking at gameplay clips.
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dougeff
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by dougeff »

There are so many clones of Candy Crush by now. I'm sure at least one of them is not rigged to fail.
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dougeff
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by dougeff »

The average user of the app 'Game of War' has spent $550 in in-game purchases. Mind blowing. That's more money than I've spent on all games (purchased console games) in the past 10 years.

Granted, one user spent over $1 million on that game in money he stole from his employer, which tends to skew the average up a bit.

http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/01/game- ... s-in-2015/
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koitsu
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by koitsu »

And now you know why the term "sheeple" or "cash cow" is absolutely true for the mobile games industry -- and why mobile gamedevs keep following the F2P/microtransactions model. I maintain that it's awful and doing nothing but mostly creating utter crap, but as long as people keep shoving money into it, it'll stay afloat.
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Banshaku
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by Banshaku »

"Follow the whales" would be the word in vogue these days, maybe derogatory but appropriate for disproportionate big spenders..

After working on some mobile project and seeing how f2p became huge in Japan, even bigger than regular console games, I only have spite for this market. It flushed the current game market to the toilet for short term profits (konami being one of the many suspects doing so).

Scam seem quite an appropriate word. I wanted to like because I love portable terminals but I really cannot with the current trends.
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Dwedit
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by Dwedit »

Some free to play games are much better than others. Card Hunter is downright excellent.
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M_Tee
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by M_Tee »

Considering the only time I have to actually play games is when I'm on the subway each day, I've tried quite a few mobile ones. I will occasionally pay for an app if it's solid and stand-alone, but I never make in-game purchases.

On that note, I strongly recommend MicRogue:
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and Rust Bucket:
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aimeusdietger
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by aimeusdietger »

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thegrrr
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by thegrrr »

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tepples
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by tepples »

If you claim that the business model of certain freemium games is unethical, then how should a game studio keep a roof over its employees' and/or contractors' heads?
calima
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by calima »

aimeusdietger looks surprisingly like a spambot:
- necro as first post
- a fresh pasta though
- that sig (preparation for changing it to a spam link)

If you're not a spambot, do say so.
snarfblam
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by snarfblam »

tepples wrote:If you claim that the business model of certain freemium games is unethical, then how should a game studio keep a roof over its employees' and/or contractors' heads?
That's a great clip, and true (about levels being literally impossible to beat until you've played it X many times)...
I was talking to someone else, who told me...on Candy Crush...if you have an impossible to beat level, just don't play the game for a few days, and when you play the impossible level, it will be magically beatable. It's 100% programmed to screw with your phyche.
At this point, I don't see how that's "a claim." Using dishonest game mechanics designed to trick players into paying more is not the only way to be commercially successful, but if rigging the game were the only way to do it, then just don't.

More generally, if freemium is the only way for game companies to make money on the platform, then part of the blame goes to the players, but it would help if it were easier to find good, solid games that were worth paying for upfront. When I look through the pay-for games on Google Play, it doesn't look any different from the shovelware nightmare that is the free/free-to-play listings. So, certainly, part of the blame goes to the platform and developers. I mean, I tried, but I've given up on mobile as a competent platform for quality gaming.
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Re: Are mobile apps a scam?

Post by Drag »

After some careful thought, freemium feels a lot like a way of trying to make something financially feasible that isn't actually financially feasible. I've stopped to decide whether or not I'd try making mobile games, and it feels like it's too much of a crapshoot.

One thing that miffs me is how popular Flappy Bird got, just by pure chance, this one game is the one that got insanely popular. Meanwhile, there's dozens of other games that have more depth and more time put into them that just don't take off. You also have the price limit where the average price of a game has to be around $5 at most. You also have to consider when people actually play their phone games. It's usually during spontaneous bouts of downtime, like waiting for the bus, or trying to ignore people. The games need to be simple and need to be easily jumped into and jumped out of, and usually there's no real depth to them, so people only expect to shell a handful of dollars since it's the equivalent of buying a tetris keychain. A toy.

So that's another point to address, if these games need to be easily jumped into and out of, and are only played during spontaneous bouts of downtime, imagine how frustrating it is when you're "out of energy" and have to wait x amount of time to be able to play again, ~or you can pay to play right now!~ This tactic feels so un-kosher, Hi, I'm a game you can play in your downtime, except not really because I decide when you get to play, unless you feel like shelling out. I've written microtransactions as a necessary evil for the mobile platform (and since I'm not a fan of it, I'm not entering the mobile platform), but pay-or-wait models are what feels scammish.

Anyway, mobile games need to fit a specific mold because of the user base and when this user base actually plays the games. That usually ends up with a game that's so simple it might as well be a cheap toy, so the price has to stay super low, but you can't fund your company with just that, so that's where microtransactions come in, pay-or-wait comes in, pay-to-win comes in, it's all just a lame hack to get something that's not financially feasible to be financially feasible, and it's just not for me.

How do you make mobile games without microtransactions and stay in business? Simple, move out of mobile and go to console or PC.
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