The Growth of Hypercasual Games
venturebeat.com
venturebeat.com
They try to put their spam-bundleware-crapware-search-bar into everything.
And this is just another article trying to convince app developers to make yet another spam app with spam bundle-ware
Ironsource doesn't offer any sort of "search-bar" as far as I am aware - they're a mobile advertisement/UA company.
> IronSource is likely to blame third party "partners" for most or all of the defects we have listed, but our analysis indicates that IronSource is importantly responsible.
Also from the second link:
> That’s not to say that IronSource is necessarily aware that a publisher (pay-per-install) is redirecting visitors to sites that impersonate Google Chrome.
This is a clear failure on Ironsource's part to secure their network, but it isn't evidence of any malitious intent on their part.
> This is just a spam piece from the spam company ironsource.
It's their job to deliver ads. And ad mediation. And UA.
> They try to put their spam-bundleware-crapware-search-bar into everything.
They don't have a "spam-bundleware-crapware-search-bar". You're frustrated at specific advertisements on an advertisement network/the security of the network as a whole.
> And this is just another article trying to convince app developers to make yet another spam app with spam bundle-ware
s/yet another spam app with spam bundle-ware/a mobile application utilizing advertisements/
I'm not saying anything about the quality of Ironsource as a network, but lets not make them out to be the boogeyman. They are, at worst, inept.
I am serious, my dude.
I don't care. Whether a company acts deliberately evil, or is only negligent, is a legal distinction. What matters is what happens to me, the user. If they deliberately do bad things or negligently allow others to do bad things through them, the net results is bad things coming my way from that company. My defensive action is the same: avoid.
Having said that I'm guilty of having way more titles in my Steam library (most probably still far deeper than what the article regards) than I'll ever play. There's a certain addictive element, combined with the optimism of having the time to do them all.
(I prefer to read HN or watch Netflix if I need chill time on the mobile, and keep it free of games, even though my S10+ is just about the latest and greatest.)
I just moved house and finally dug out my thrustmaster for a bit of E:D action, though I do find it a wee bit "grindy". I've also been toying with re-activating my paid-for Eve accounts and seeking out my old corp. The problem with Eve though is that it becomes all consuming. One minute it's 6pm on a Friday evening, in a flash it's suddenly 9am on a Sunday morning.
No other game can pull you in this way, where geo is important because you live in a timezone opposite to the defender's, and thus can prep and ambush for when the target's prime-time comes online.
I did play Eve around the time of the Beta and for a while after release. Set it to train a skill while I was sleeping, set it to another skill in the morning, and then played a couple of hours when I got home from work. Then I realised I already had a job.
For example combat is only nominally 3D as guns fire in all directions equally well turning any fight between two ships into a 2d slug match. Large scale combat is mostly about calling out targets than positioning etc.
Extreme grinding combined with permanent ship loss hide a multitude of sins. But, spend some time fighting in relatively cheap ships and the game becomes boring.
Combat is short and brutal and best done with major risk. The game is designed so that there is no clear "best" anything and for me that's where the depth is.
I also find myself going back to these heavier games time after time. I always convinced myself that casual games allow for quick picking up and putting down just in case something comes up. But at the end, I find myself getting tired or bored. I recently picked up Street Fighter 5 and borrowed an arcade stick from a friend who played competitively. Very easy game to get into with movesets that aren't complicated and short matches, but it's a tough game to master when you factor in combos, frame data, reading opponents, learning character match ups, etc.
I also think the massive Steam library is a symptom of the console market. If you're primarily a console player, your games are almost always $60USD. You might be able to grab a title that's $40 on release, but that's rare. PC players are used to discounts and smaller titles. Sometimes it's really steep discounts like 20% off + all DLC only 6 months after release. I think PC players (myself included) are willing to bite the bullet by spending $30 on a full title that we may play since we are so conditioned on the value of a launch title being $60. Rocket League is a prime example. If Rocket League had been a console only release in 2012, I'm certain it would have cost $60. However, it was released for $20(?) to PC and PS4 by a smaller company.
Just another day in this perfectly normal and sustainable industry.
However I did encounter a lot of people who gave in to temptations, either out of frustration, or the need to compare with others, or some other factors that I don't fully understand. That kind of analysys would've been more interesting.
So, there isn't a psychology behind people spending money in these games as most people aren't spending any money at all. That's one of the reasons why the genre is so popular.
Yet somehow the majority of F2P games adopted an outright abusive artificial "idle"-component, that's heavily monetized, it's just bad, if you see one just stay away, no good will ever come from that place.
Especially don't let your kids anyway near them, your parenting stands no chance against hyperoptimized gratification loops, that slowly transition over into Pay2Win-only in the first 8h or less.
You can have a hypercasual core loop with midcore meta/economics mechanics on top, think Merge Planes, any match 3 game with stuff tucked on. Pure hyper is normally fine.
The main differences: - anyone (that includes kids and non-gamers) should be able to easily pick up and play the game - the simplest input possible, usually just tap anywhere on the screen - simple (primitive) graphics with high contrast and readability (again, so it doesn't confuse non-gamers)
So it's like a casual game but even more simplistic and stripped out of any depth.
Casual games are also simple but they usually feature some kind of progression, with new mechanics being introduced from time to time. For example, with Angry Birds, you unlock new birds as you progress. Candy Crush has different type of candy. In-app purchases are their main revenue source.
[0]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dotemu.ys1... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dotemu.ys2...
[1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=802601025697058988...
I think they're interesting products, but the kinds of dark patterns used to hook users is a little bit disturbing to me.
But Double Coconuts' CEO David Fox recently spoke exactly on said topic at GDC Mobile 2019. Video posted when available
https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/the-flappy-bird-that-lai...
Having said that, it does seem to be slowing down some-what.
If there are in a similar boat, calling it entertainment would be just. Calling it gaming would be a stretch.
Maybe by your personal definition it would, but they are most definitely games.
If Apple get that right, that could completely upend the whole free-to play, freemium, "hypercasual" business model
Because there's nothing to discuss. The service will only available sometime this fall, and it's entirely unclear how many games will be available, what games, their quality etc.
Apple Arcade is focused on a premium gamer who generally pays for stuff before trying.
if they allow freemium then what is the point? people will just ignore it in favor of the app store in that case.