4 ms·

Feels like the race to the bottom is nearing the finish line

incrudible 2y ago
Case in point, I just saw one of these bizarre advertisements for a game where they show some simplistic gameplay that is supposed to hook you, which is not at all the point of the actual game. It was about a pregnant women and her other child, freezing outside in the winter. I had to watch it to the end and it turns out the game was... Gardenscapes.
- htrp 2y ago
  a/b testing to the (local) max
- mschuster91 2y ago
  Yeah they've run shitty ads for years now. And it seems like the one time they did face consequences for their fake ads four years ago clearly wasn't enough [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24761349 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24761349
  - n_ary 2y ago
    It is a common trick. There are many culprits using same tricks: Gardenscape, Whiteout Survival, Frozen City, Township, Fishdom, Hero Wars and to some extent Royal Match. All of these appear to enjoy a lot of downloads, so whatever tricks they are using works very effectively.
    - mschuster91 2y ago
      > All of these appear to enjoy a lot of downloads, so whatever tricks they are using works very effectively. That's because "# of downloads" is a crap metric that's easily gamed (be it by fake ads or bot campaigns or whatnot). A more useful metric would be "# of installs still active after 1/2/4 weeks", that would disincentivize a lot of these scams, but at the cost of Google being able to claim download numbers for the vitality of their app store ("# of app installs a day!!!"), which is why Google doesn't do much against this shit despite the "quality" dragging down the image of the entire Play Store. Unfortunately there is no competition worth the name as the Apple Store is similarly plagued by copycats and fakes, so neither party has an incentive to de-enshittify.
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- jandrese 2y ago
  The one thing I like about new Twitter is how those deceptive ads can get community notes that say "gameplay depicted is not in the game".
  - bonestamp2 2y ago
    Ugh, if they make an ad that has non-game game-play that gets a lot of clicks... why not make that game instead/too?
    - jprete 2y ago
      I've heard that they do metrics on the ads to pick particular pseudo-games to implement. But they don't make money on clicks, they make it on whales, so they are also going to get rid of pseudo-games that can't get whales to spend more microtransaction money.
      - tivert 2y ago
        > But they don't make money on clicks, they make it on whales, so they are also going to get rid of pseudo-games that can't get whales to spend more microtransaction money. This video did a very good job of explaining it, to me, someone who never plays mobile games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhajAqI66nU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhajAqI66nU (https://archive.org/details/youtube-NhajAqI66nU https://archive.org/details/youtube-NhajAqI66nU). tl;dr: it's all about getting whales into the game. The type of games people will download based on ad game-play are not the most monetizable (b/c whales). So the main game is a highly monetizable city-builder (which whales spend on), with the ad's minigame somewhere (which at most only has a few minutes of playtime). The ad's mini-game is often developed as a concept for the ad first, then only actually implemented later after A/B testing the ads. It doesn't matter that most people will get frustrated and delete the game when it's not as advertised, because the people who do that aren't whales.
        bonestamp2 2y ago
        Does anybody know how much money someone has to spend to be considered a mobile gaming whale?
deleted 2y ago
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Case in point, I just saw one of these bizarre advertisements for a game where they show some simplistic gameplay that is supposed to hook you, which is not at all the point of the actual game. It was about a pregnant women and her other child, freezing outside in the winter. I had to watch it to the end and it turns out the game was... Gardenscapes.

htrp 2y ago
a/b testing to the (local) max
mschuster91 2y ago
Yeah they've run shitty ads for years now. And it seems like the one time they did face consequences for their fake ads four years ago clearly wasn't enough [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24761349 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24761349
- n_ary 2y ago
  It is a common trick. There are many culprits using same tricks: Gardenscape, Whiteout Survival, Frozen City, Township, Fishdom, Hero Wars and to some extent Royal Match. All of these appear to enjoy a lot of downloads, so whatever tricks they are using works very effectively.
  - mschuster91 2y ago
    > All of these appear to enjoy a lot of downloads, so whatever tricks they are using works very effectively. That's because "# of downloads" is a crap metric that's easily gamed (be it by fake ads or bot campaigns or whatnot). A more useful metric would be "# of installs still active after 1/2/4 weeks", that would disincentivize a lot of these scams, but at the cost of Google being able to claim download numbers for the vitality of their app store ("# of app installs a day!!!"), which is why Google doesn't do much against this shit despite the "quality" dragging down the image of the entire Play Store. Unfortunately there is no competition worth the name as the Apple Store is similarly plagued by copycats and fakes, so neither party has an incentive to de-enshittify.
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jandrese 2y ago
The one thing I like about new Twitter is how those deceptive ads can get community notes that say "gameplay depicted is not in the game".
- bonestamp2 2y ago
  Ugh, if they make an ad that has non-game game-play that gets a lot of clicks... why not make that game instead/too?
  - jprete 2y ago
    I've heard that they do metrics on the ads to pick particular pseudo-games to implement. But they don't make money on clicks, they make it on whales, so they are also going to get rid of pseudo-games that can't get whales to spend more microtransaction money.
    - tivert 2y ago
      > But they don't make money on clicks, they make it on whales, so they are also going to get rid of pseudo-games that can't get whales to spend more microtransaction money. This video did a very good job of explaining it, to me, someone who never plays mobile games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhajAqI66nU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhajAqI66nU (https://archive.org/details/youtube-NhajAqI66nU https://archive.org/details/youtube-NhajAqI66nU). tl;dr: it's all about getting whales into the game. The type of games people will download based on ad game-play are not the most monetizable (b/c whales). So the main game is a highly monetizable city-builder (which whales spend on), with the ad's minigame somewhere (which at most only has a few minutes of playtime). The ad's mini-game is often developed as a concept for the ad first, then only actually implemented later after A/B testing the ads. It doesn't matter that most people will get frustrated and delete the game when it's not as advertised, because the people who do that aren't whales.
      - bonestamp2 2y ago
        Does anybody know how much money someone has to spend to be considered a mobile gaming whale?

deleted 2y ago

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