The App Store Is Proof We’re In Idiocracy (14)
The App Store Is Proof We’re In Idiocracy
from http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/16/the...-in-idiocracy/
The number one game in the iTunes App Store is a game about selling weed. Yes, really. The app, “Weed Firm,” however, looks brilliant when compared to what comes next: it sits just above yet another fairly dumb, time-waster of a game called “100 Balls,” reminiscent of beer pong. And that’s followed “Toilet Time,” which offers you quick games to play while you…um…go, as well as “Make It Rain,” which tests to see how fast you can swipe to make the money fly.
Welcome to the Everyman’s App Store.
Or, as some have put it, Idiocracy.
These games, the mobile equivalent to America’s obsession with low-brow content along the lines of “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” or “The Real Housewives,” aren’t just popular in the U.S., but are making their way into the top charts of a number of English-speaking countries around the world.
Their popularity is reflective of many factors, including the increasingly shady app marketing techniques fly-by-night app developers are using to manipulate the top charts to unfairly boost their brain-damaging, disposable app above the next “Flappy Bird” or “Red Bouncing Ball” clone.
But their presence is also indicative of the changing nature of the App Store itself.
Today, smartphones are nearing saturation in developed markets, meaning these phones are now in the hands of a broader, more diverse group of people, both young and old, who won’t necessarily share the same tastes as the tech elite whose punditry and personal recommendations about the “next great mobile app” used to matter more. (Cough, TechCrunch, cough.)
The App Store is for everyone, and, in droves, “everyone” likes tabloids and reality TV over literature and NPR.
Plus, let’s not forget that, today, even kids have iPhones – heck, they practically require them for socializing. And they’re going to play some pretty stupid games.
In fact, “Flappy Bird” creator Dong Nguyen once told us he believed that most of his players were school children.
This more “mature” market (which seems a hilarious word to use given the context of weed farming games and time-wasters for your bathroom breaks), is no longer downloading their first-ever apps onto their first-ever smartphones, which is why even apps as popular as Google Search, Pandora, WhatsApp, Pinterest or Twitter, are regularly out of the top 10 entirely, and often out of the top 20.
This schoolyard crowd may also have power to sway the App Store’s charts in ways the broader industry has yet to fully grasp. Grade school trends over the years have had the power to move markets, but today, it’s not toy stores selling out of Cabbage Patch Kids or Tickle Me Elmo dolls, but virtual store shelves restocking unlimited quantities of whatever this young crowd is goofing around with next.
But we can’t blame the App Store’s race to the bottom only on the ever-younger ages of iPhone users.
Maybe in today’s high-pressure, information-saturated, always-on world, people are just looking for a little escapism. You’ve probably indulged too.
Judge ye not without looking at your own homescreen.
George Washington also imported the medicinal Indian Hemp plant from Asia, basically Marijuana, which was used for fiber and intoxicating resin production. In a letter to William Pearce who managed the plants for him Washington says, "What was done with the Indian Hemp plant from last summer? It ought, all of it, to be sown again; that not only a stock of seed sufficient for my own purposes might have been raisied, but to have desseminated seed to others; as it is more valuable then common Hemp." He anxiously sent more letters to Pearce, to get the most out of the seeds.
Other presidents known to have used cannabis include James Madison (claimed it inspired him to found a nation on democratic principals), James Monroe (used until he was 73 years old), Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, and Franklin Pierce.
Its good to be an idiot. Being idiot have lots of advantages. There are many people who are inherently successful but still an idiot.
If you want some facts, Google:
< Your successful guy > + idiot
The big reason these stuff work is because they relieve STRESS.
Hope nobody is complaining about this - as it shows their insecurity in a major way.
Music production is similar - the simpler, the better. When you polish something simple, it's much better than doing what I call "complexity for complexity's sake".
Don't try and impress other app developers. Instead, frustrate them by getting your app to the top of this chart. Start by re-coding Piano Tiles and Flappy Bird, then work on 5 simple games and try and smash it.
Damn I gotta learn to code for Android/iOS. We should make a section for Mobile App success.
Apple's been threatening to "clean up" the App Store for the last 18 months. At one stage they said they will delete every game that uses the keyword "flappy". One thing I've learned is that Apple's threats almost never materialize...unlike Google
Just keep in mind these are FREE games, which bring in a different audience then paid games. Paid games are usually much higher quality indie pieces of art!
Make It Rain Now Generating $50,000 A Day
from http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/19/th...ing-just-that/
Be honest. If you had a stack of cash in front of you right now, you’d likely end up swiping it all into the air while yelling something like “making it rain.”
It’s OK.
You can admit it.
Well, for those of you who can accept that about yourself, you’re in luck. The latest mobile game sensation is Make It Rain, and it’s all about collecting cash. It’s a free-to-play release for iOS and Android, and the object is to make money. You can accomplish this by swiping your phone like you are Lil Wayne in a music video.
If that all sounds stupid to you, well … yeah. It is stupid, but that gameplay structure is making around $50,000 every day, according to Space Inch.
Make It Rain is currently one of the most-downloaded games on iOS and Android. It debuted in April, and it has already racked up more than a million downloads. And, like the arcade-style flying game Flappy Bird, Make It Rain kinda came out of nowhere.
“We didn’t think it would be wildly popular — but it is,” said Segall. “And we really didn’t even do anything.”
By “anything,” Segall is talking about marketing. His studio spent $10,000 producing Make It Rain, and then they put only $1,000 toward “acquiring players” when it launched last month. Then Space Inch just let it go … only to find it rapidly climbing the charts weeks later.
One Monday they saw that Make It Rain managed 10,000 installs. Then the next day it got 15,000 more. Then 20,000, and then 140,000.
“And then we did 220,000 installs in a day. That’s what got us to No. 1,” said Segall.
With the downloads came the money. Segall confirmed that Make It Rain brings in around $50,000 from advertising and in-game purchases every day. But how did it even reach this level of success in the first place?
“We really don’t know what happened,” said Segall.
OK, there's a very solid sweepstake lander idea right there...
"Swipe your phone to have a chance to win an iPad!"
Originally Posted by caurmen
as an android dev, if I told you my biggest earning apps, you wouldn't believe me. they're the stupidest things yet people will pay for them. it's great that all these idiots are on their smartphones. and most importantly, they're used to buying apps and IAPs. great article from techcrunch.
Originally Posted by stackman
I was a weed firm addict for a day lol, quite addictive but very very repetitive got boring fast
Originally Posted by mykeyfocus
Tap fast..
Tap on the moving rabbit..
Endless 'game' angles
Thanks for the script though
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