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How do you discover quality games? I've found the ability to discover apps outside the top 100 to be virtually non-existent with the current app store configura

How do you discover quality games? I've found the ability to discover apps outside the top 100 to be virtually non-existent with the current app store configuration.

jwcooper 11y ago
This is the biggest problem for sure. So many of these games just get buried in either app store by the worst type of games and apps. I've mostly discovered them over time by recommendations from people, or from discussion boards or sites that cover games, or even when they get featured by Apple in the app store. It's amazing that app discovery is so difficult to solve for the big app stores.
- hudell 11y ago
  There are so many stores on android, I will be surprised if there isn't any that only accepts games without IAP.
pjmlp 11y ago
By doing as we always did, reading game reviews by people that work doing only that.
drzaiusapelord 11y ago
>How do you discover quality games? You can't because the discoverability is terrible and the various app stores just care about raw sales, not quality. So that means that devs who want to make quality games never get noticed and that's a major disincentive to produce such games. Mobile gaming doesn't have the tech press, steam-like reviews, etc other gaming has. Its a lot of impulsive buyers feeding a market that delivers crap because crap is good enough for them. This is like asking where the chess table at a casino is. The casino and the people who go there have no interest in chess. They just want you to toss your money into a skinner box, which is what freemium games are. Google and Apple could fix this, but prefer to lean towards the 'popular' discoverability than the 'quality' discoverability. I think they're wrong and have turned mobile into a ghetto in so many ways - its not just games, but obviously they prefer this method, which I imagine is more profitable. See the recent reports on how freemium games are powered by 'unicorns' who pay vast sums of money for in-game purchasing, all of which Google and Apple get 20-30% of.
- pavel_lishin 11y ago
  > You can't jwcooper did > Mobile gaming doesn't have the tech press, steam-like reviews, etc other gaming has. I was going to say [citation needed], but then I just literally googled "mobile game reviews" and hit two matches at the very top: http://www.polygon.com/games/mobile/reviewed http://www.polygon.com/games/mobile/reviewed and http://toucharcade.com/ http://toucharcade.com/ > This is like asking where the chess table at a casino is. Ballrooms A through C: http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/schedule/ http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/schedule/
  - drzaiusapelord 11y ago
    Exceptions don't disprove the general trend. Its pretty disingenious to find small exceptions and pretend they're the standard. The reality is that app store discoverability is terrible and p2w and other freemium games dominate sales. These types of sales demotivate devs and publishers from treating the mobile world like consoles or PC, where very good games exist and are easily found. This is a solved problem almost everywhere else? Why is it such a massive problem on mobile? When HN-level people are asking "Geez where are the good games," then you have a problem. If they're struggling then Joe User absolutely is.
    - pavel_lishin 11y ago
      Discoverability is terrible, but so was the "chess table in a casino" analogy. You don't look for a chess game by randomly wandering around a casino, and you don't look for quality games by randomly going through the app store. You're right that there's a problem there, but while it's a problem that ideally needs solving, solutions do exist, and so do quality games.
    - st3v3r 11y ago
      Those aren't exceptions, though. Those are easily available. You're just too lazy to look for Touch Arcade.
porsupah 11y ago
THere's not going to be an exhaustive source, of course, but I've found TouchArcade's reviews to be of some value, as well as their forum. Their weekly roundup of new releases, including trailers for each, is another avenue for being able to quickly peek through what's out there - any that pique my interest, I'll open in a new tab, and see what further screenshots or user sentiments are to be found. http://toucharcade.com/ http://toucharcade.com/
- hayao 11y ago
  That website only covers videogames for iOS, do you have any other suggestion?
  - thirdsun 11y ago
    If you have any interest in PC games you can't get past Rock Paper Shotgun in my opinion. If you were expecting a site focused on Android gaming however, then I'm not of much help unfortunately.
xiaoma 11y ago
From your friends, just like always.

How do you discover quality games? I've found the ability to discover apps outside the top 100 to be virtually non-existent with the current app store configuration.

jwcooper 11y ago

This is the biggest problem for sure. So many of these games just get buried in either app store by the worst type of games and apps. I've mostly discovered them over time by recommendations from people, or from discussion boards or sites that cover games, or even when they get featured by Apple in the app store. It's amazing that app discovery is so difficult to solve for the big app stores.

hudell 11y ago
There are so many stores on android, I will be surprised if there isn't any that only accepts games without IAP.

pjmlp 11y ago

By doing as we always did, reading game reviews by people that work doing only that.

drzaiusapelord 11y ago

>How do you discover quality games? You can't because the discoverability is terrible and the various app stores just care about raw sales, not quality. So that means that devs who want to make quality games never get noticed and that's a major disincentive to produce such games. Mobile gaming doesn't have the tech press, steam-like reviews, etc other gaming has. Its a lot of impulsive buyers feeding a market that delivers crap because crap is good enough for them. This is like asking where the chess table at a casino is. The casino and the people who go there have no interest in chess. They just want you to toss your money into a skinner box, which is what freemium games are. Google and Apple could fix this, but prefer to lean towards the 'popular' discoverability than the 'quality' discoverability. I think they're wrong and have turned mobile into a ghetto in so many ways - its not just games, but obviously they prefer this method, which I imagine is more profitable. See the recent reports on how freemium games are powered by 'unicorns' who pay vast sums of money for in-game purchasing, all of which Google and Apple get 20-30% of.

pavel_lishin 11y ago
> You can't jwcooper did > Mobile gaming doesn't have the tech press, steam-like reviews, etc other gaming has. I was going to say [citation needed], but then I just literally googled "mobile game reviews" and hit two matches at the very top: http://www.polygon.com/games/mobile/reviewed http://www.polygon.com/games/mobile/reviewed and http://toucharcade.com/ http://toucharcade.com/ > This is like asking where the chess table at a casino is. Ballrooms A through C: http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/schedule/ http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/schedule/
- drzaiusapelord 11y ago
  Exceptions don't disprove the general trend. Its pretty disingenious to find small exceptions and pretend they're the standard. The reality is that app store discoverability is terrible and p2w and other freemium games dominate sales. These types of sales demotivate devs and publishers from treating the mobile world like consoles or PC, where very good games exist and are easily found. This is a solved problem almost everywhere else? Why is it such a massive problem on mobile? When HN-level people are asking "Geez where are the good games," then you have a problem. If they're struggling then Joe User absolutely is.
  - pavel_lishin 11y ago
    Discoverability is terrible, but so was the "chess table in a casino" analogy. You don't look for a chess game by randomly wandering around a casino, and you don't look for quality games by randomly going through the app store. You're right that there's a problem there, but while it's a problem that ideally needs solving, solutions do exist, and so do quality games.
  - st3v3r 11y ago
    Those aren't exceptions, though. Those are easily available. You're just too lazy to look for Touch Arcade.

porsupah 11y ago

THere's not going to be an exhaustive source, of course, but I've found TouchArcade's reviews to be of some value, as well as their forum. Their weekly roundup of new releases, including trailers for each, is another avenue for being able to quickly peek through what's out there - any that pique my interest, I'll open in a new tab, and see what further screenshots or user sentiments are to be found. http://toucharcade.com/ http://toucharcade.com/

hayao 11y ago
That website only covers videogames for iOS, do you have any other suggestion?
- thirdsun 11y ago
  If you have any interest in PC games you can't get past Rock Paper Shotgun in my opinion. If you were expecting a site focused on Android gaming however, then I'm not of much help unfortunately.

xiaoma 11y ago

From your friends, just like always.