47
kiki
2y

Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, are scumbags.

When you progress to a certain level, they offer you a cool new thing — to hatch an egg. You click “hatch”, and then you have to wait 24 hours. This builds excitement — after all, it looks like an amazing new mode, and you can't wait to see what it is.

The reality is, you hatch this beautiful little creature. From here on, you have to FEED it regularly, or it will die. They drew it the cutest way possible. How should a child resist feeding this cutie? When I hatched it, I didn't know what this new mechanic was, and I assume new players don't know either.

You feed it apples. You can find apples on certain levels, but they are scarce. The further you go, the more apples are required to keep him alive. Play the game actively to keep up with it and get apples! Or, you could just… I don't know… BUY them.

“Mom, I need $11.99 to feed Fluffy, otherwise it will die!”

A straight-up scumbag fucking mechanic in a game targeted to impressionable children that will have a hard time seeing this tiny beautiful creature die of starvation. Let's guilt-trip kids into asking money from their parents!

Comments
  • 17
    Ten apples is 0.99 while 100 is 11.99... That's weird as f
  • 6
    @retoor economy at its finest state ;)
  • 10
    @retoor kids aren't good at counting
  • 1
    @kiki anyway, how much apples did you buy in the end?
  • 3
    @retoor she just hacked their server and put the max directly in the db, we can't leave Flufly to starve when we don't play
  • 3
    @We3D I want to see how it looks when he's dead
  • 1
    @retoor I'm sure it's a mixture of sad and in the same time still cute pic
  • 4
    By comparison, in Bandai Namco’s mobile game “My Tamagotchi Forever”, the Tamagotchi cannot die at all, because they recognized how predatory that would be in a game based on in-app purchases.

    Now SEGA has acquired Rovio because they’re also a vile company nowadays.
  • 8
    Mobile gaming at its finest. It's so sad that a decade ago we thought that there would be good mobile games.
  • 11
    Mobile games are almost exclusively designed around some psychological insight that maximizes the amount of money that the average user pays regularly.

    And it slowly starts to leak into PC and Console gaming.

    It‘s really sad.
  • 14
    At this state of the "gaming" "industry" "casual" "games" have become a tool to teach media literacy and corporate abusiveness more than anything else.

    If you have a kid, this is a must-teach. Play that "game" with them, warn them beforehand that this isn't about the fun but about the life lesson, hatch an egg, show them the shop and explain why it is there and how the whole thing is actually meant to be a trap, let the hatchling die, uninstall the "game". But never ever just leave the kid alone with such a "game".

    Maybe the old fairy tales need an update. We need child compatible stories about corpo greed.
  • 2
    @Oktokolo if we 'the insiders' don't write that fairy tells, bet no one will... or at least not in our perfectly logical style ;}
  • 3
    @We3D Fairy tales aren't like the stuff we write. They are to be interpreted by children, not a computer. And they don't need to be more logical than the old fairy tales - they just need to cover the new threats.
  • 0
    @Oktokolo sure, but why not train them from an early stage for what awaits them in most of the cases ( either becomung 1 of us or not )
  • 1
    @We3D Well, that actually is, what the fairy tales have been invented for. They teach kids to not be stupid or do wrong without actually requiring them to understand the big picture before they are able to do so.
  • 0
    @Oktokolo I'm aware of that, and I'm thankfull for that. my point was that it wont hurt ( much ) if some of them try to hook them into programming from their first steps in our messed world ;) so they don't get hooked on all the stupid mind games the world presents to them... or at least not so easy or not all of them =]
  • 3
    @electrineer the only games worth playing on mobile are actually retro games on emulators.
  • 2
    @soberGhost PPSSPP ftw
  • 3
    @soberGhost yeah, medabots on gameboy advance emulator
  • 2
    @We3D let's goo ! Monster Hunter P3rd is like my chill pill 😂.
    @retoor will try that one. I mostly played Minish Cap and Pokemon on gba.
  • 1
    @soberGhost I'm more into fighting games and JRPGs and I was so excited when they made a mobile ver of BlazeBlue... but yet another loot oriented one so I've returned to the classic versions
  • 1
    @soberGhost yet the controls was executed the best way I've seen on a touch device for a fighting game so I enjoyed it till the point I can't advance w/o paying
  • 1
    @We3D That's nice. You should try "King of fighters: the orochi saga". It has all the KOF from 94 to 98.
    Soul calibur is a must too if you like fighting games. Their graphics are incredible when you scale it up.
  • 1
    @We3D pay to win sucks fr
  • 1
    @soberGhost trust me, I've tried most of them ( at least the popular ones ) starting from the arcade machines era. and still playng my favs ofc
  • 1
    @We3D KOF is the only fighting game (besides naruto storm) I don't really suck at 😂. Haven't played many JRPG besides final fantasy I guess.
  • 2
    @soberGhost I can't say that I'm the king of fighting games too. I play for fun and their beautiful animations than for the win, but it soo fun when u play agains human in the same room and hear them reasons for why they loose :D
  • 1
    @We3D ikr 😂
  • 0
    @electrineer I thought they’d be shit from the getgo because the controls are atrocious 😛
  • 1
    @ars1 I bought a bluetooth controller back in the day only to find out that there aren't any good games. I haven't really used it ever.
  • 1
    @ars1 there r few games that not only don't suck at conrols but take full advantage from the touch... mostly one tap and swipe but with the right gameplay it all fits...and not all are loot oriented, but still...
  • 3
    All mobile games are trash, unless they're ports of normal existing video games from consoles or PC.

    Any game that is a free-to-play product, regardless of platform, also belongs in the garbage bin.
  • 2
    @nururururu I don't know the term free-to-play but how can that be a bad thing
  • 3
    @retoor they are generally built to make the player spend money through predatory practices, rather than being built as a game. The free part is to try to get you into it, like a gateway drug.
  • 1
    @ars1 or pay to remove ads strategy
  • 2
    @retoor a purchased game is (or, rather, should, in this day and age...) be a finished product which you buy, the publisher gets its money, and then you get a complete experience. Free-to-play games are "free-to-play", not "free". They are designed to be a continuous source of revenue for the publisher. Being free to play means there is no barrier for entry, and you only have like ten people paying out of a thousand. The people who don't pay need to be in the game to keep the paying people entertained, so there's a high incentive for developers in these games to implement what I like to call "addiction mechanics", exploiting all kinds of psychological tricks such as creating demonstrable "bragging rights" for players and having "daily streaks" that require you to play every day so you can keep the bragging rights (e.g. belonging in a ranked tier) or get some meaningless items (which you can of course get faster if you pay). Anyway, it's all trash meant to keep people addicted.
  • 2
    @nururururu daily strikes are sad. Has my replika and 9gag too. Getting rewarded for logging in. OMG
  • 1
    @retoor usually a 99 cent is one buy to get rid of are you sure question.
  • 1
    @retoor They should have named it pokebots.
  • 0
    No problem here.
    It teaches kids to "Let Fluffy Starve".

    Capitalizem.
  • 0
    @soberGhost you're playing it. Awesome. Metabee version?
  • 0
    I’d rather use a gamepad for shooters than a touchscreen emulating a handheld console. 😖
  • 2
    @Lensflare pst, there r gamepads for phones ;)
  • 2
    @retoor Yes I did for like an hour or so. Meet a chick called Nae Nae. Got finessed into buying a medabot instead of dinner all so I can get whooped be a savage little girl that spawned out of nowhere.
  • 1
    @We3D console controllers work on phones too. For Android at least. Got a ps4 controller with a holder/clip.
  • 1
    @soberGhost does a regular PS3 one work also ( I'll figure a stand for the phone )
  • 1
    @We3D it should work without issue using an otg cable. Bluetooth pairing works too but you'll need root access and an app called sixaxis to do so.
  • 1
    @soberGhost will try w/ the cable first, too lazy to install and configure the app ;) thks 4 d info
  • 2
    @soberGhost it works like a charm. the PPSSPP really is gold. This time will unlock all players on 'Rurouni Kenshin'. it's even better than the original PSP ^,^ 10x again 4 d tip =]
  • 1
    @We3D It's my pleasure. Glad I could help.

    PPSSPP is by far one of the best emulators on mobile. It's features are no joke : upscaling, shaders, speed hack, ad-hoc and online multi, net chat and so much more. It's just great imho.
    Enjoy it !
  • 1
    @soberGhost true. I love it too =}
  • 1
    @retoor That's due to stupid tiers on Google/Apple Pay API.

    They program tier 1 ten apples, tier 2 hundred apples

    In some countries, the tiers make sense, in others they don't.
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