It seems like if what you’re showing is what you understand they find appealing and fun, then surely that’s what should be in the game. You give them that.
But instead, you give them something else that is unrelated to what they’ve seen on the ad? A gem matching candy crush clone they’ve seen a thousand times?
How is that model working? How is that holding up as a marketing technique???
One of the more interesting things about how these games are advertised (I don’t play mobile games but I suspect a lot of people that do are kids) are that it always shows someone playing the game poorly. It’s supposed to make you go “huh. Well that looks easy. Wait wth is he doing? No! He could have gotten the powerup. Oh! Looks like he might get this one! What?! How do you mess that up?! I bet I could do that.”
One thing that I’ve realized about this generation of kids and people who didn’t grow up on tech but were forcibly introduced to it(millennials, gen x, boomers) is that they don’t want the game to be challenging or to reward skill. They just need the game to be flashy and to pass the time. That’s why these games are always made to look so easy and like the guy playing is a moron. A lot of people are attracted to games in a different way than “gamers” … They are not attracted to the challenge or the mastery, they’ve attracted to the visuals and lack of difficulty.
I believe these types of games are akin to gambling. The last time I went to Dave and Busters, you wouldnt believe the amount of adults i saw playing games of chance (not skill) for tickets. Exactly like a casino.
As a gen X who has been gaming for all my living memory, electronic gaming since I was 5, and gaming on computers since i was 10, I don’t think you have any clear idea what those generations are like. Certainly, there are groups that vastly prefer games of chance to games of skill, whether they be electronic or not, but I’ve seen those in every generation, just like I’ve seen the opposite.
There’s a psychological phenomenon around this but I forget the name for it. But yes, there’s evidence that seeing someone play poorly, and thinking “oh that’s easy I could do that” actually does motivate you to want to do it. Like a weird “prove I’m better” self ego stroke sort of thing. And these ads very much are intentionally playing into that.
True, I’ve seen ads that are like “if you can make it to level 5 you’re a certified genius” or something like that. It’s really sad.
Additional facet: when I was younger, only super nerdy, tech people into coding and stuff played video games. Now tho, way more people playng phone games, video games. So games popping up to cater to people who aren’t super nerdy or into tech.
see also the find the lady game played in tourist traps around the world.
Pretty much going right for the dopamine hit; gotta keep em hooked.
A lot of that is due to hardware limitations in the past. If you bought a game that had little content and what content there was was primitive graphics, you’d feel ripped off. Making it challenging means you’re going to be spending more time with the game and feel like the money you spent was worth it.
Now they have the capability to build entire worlds in video games and it looks aesthetically pleasing. Because of this it’s possible to make games closer to a movie experience. But a much longer movie where you can choose the character’s path. No need to make it incredibly challenging to increase the number hours needed to finish it.
And FMV games existed back in the 90s, they just weren’t popular because the resolution sucked.
There are still challenging video games being made and kids still play them, that kid that got the kill screen on tetris for example. That took a lot of skill. But kids have the option of playing video games that are more like controllable movies now too, but these games don’t suck unlike the 90s FMV games.