Smartphones and the Jeux Absurdes

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Years ago I noticed something. All of the games on iOS and Android that are promoted are crap. By this I mean that they have a very simple design. Complete a challenge, fail, watch an add, compete, win, watch an ad. Every single game makes you see an ad every few seconds.

These games aren’t especially good. They’re designed for infinite obsessive, absurd game play. Absurd because once you reach a level you fail again, and again, and again. The failure is intentional. It wants you to fail so that you pay to win. The pay to win model is flawed because in the end you fall into an absurd loop and you have to either pay to play, after watching dozens of ads, or pay money for boosts.

It’s worth knowing that if you force quit an app on android, and iOS you interrupt the ad and you get away with not watching them. These ads aren’t even good ads. They’re for crappy games that are too awful to be talked about with word of mouth. If a game is advertised in either store it is almost certain that the game play is the same.

These games are not designed for the beauty of a game. They are not designed for us to enjoy a game, and progress. These games are designed to short circuit our addiction centres to play for hours and hours, with little intellectual progress.

Clash of Clans and Hay Day might be pay to win, but at least they have a certain amount of game play, although I gave up on Clash of Clans years ago. I was tired of the constant story nagging. With Hay day I still tolerate the game.

The problem with Amaze Go and Loop Sort, among other games, is that they require only a little focus, so as you’re playing you can day dream and think about things. I’m at level 119 of Loop Sort and now, more and more often I overload the conveyor belt, and I have boosts that I can use to win, for free, but they’re limited, and if I use them then I am “paying” to win, rather than progress. You hit the “If you want to continue, you have to pay”.

I reached such a level with Hexa sort and deleted the game. These are games, to distract us for a few minutes, every now and then. When we start paying to pass a level we’re paying to win, and I refuse to pay to win. I’d rather pay to play, once.

It reminds me of the swimming pool pinball machine, and could draw a link to video game arcades of the past. In fact we could liken it to pub Fruit machines, where you pay, hope the icons line up, and get a payout. You pay a few centimes, or a few francs, and that’s how the game breaks even.

The problem, in my eyes is that these games, through pay to play, and pay to win are making honest grit and determination to win, less rational. Hypothetically it is using a random algorithm to see whether you win or lose, but with the pay to win games it feels as though they’re deliberately getting you to lose, to feel compelled to spend money.

That’s when you go from playing a game, to paying a game. That’s when the game slides into an irrational waste of time. That’s why I force quit when ads play.

It’s not that the games are brilliant fun to play. They’re just designed to generate revenue, without taking any time to consider user experience and game play.

In the end, my primary reason for force quitting the ads is that they’re for irrelevant crap. If they were for a quality product then I might be attentive, but if it’s to encourage me to download and play with yet another pay to win game, then I’m done.