Angry Birds Game | Why do so Many Play it?
The Angry Birds Game is a world wide smash hit and if you play it you are one of 500,000,000 who have downloaded it in the last two years! In December 2010 they broke the 50m downloads mark so just 10 months later they have increased by 450m WOW!
Rovio the Finnish company who devised the angry birds game were on the brink of Bankruptcy just two years ago and now they are reported to be worth billions. That’s the stuff of legend, but the question is why?
When I first saw it I was reminded of a game called Gorilla which was tucked away in the basic DOS back in the dark ages of the 1990′s. Instead of slinging Bird you had a gorilla chuck bananas at targets – Employers banned it but you could still dig it out and I wasted away hours on that! The Angry Birds game is not so different.
So why do so many people enjoy playing it ?
Peter Verterbacka, is dubbed the “Mighty Eagle” of Rovio, and he reveals that are 200 million minutes of Angry Birds are played every day on a global scale. As Peter put it, that number compares favorably to anything, including prime time TV.
As the Angry Birds Game game crosses so many cross cultural boundaries perhaps we ought to make them UN ambassadors. After the famous peace treaty with the pigs which quickly spawned a viral explosion how difficult can our little human problems be.
If you haven’t seen the peace treaty video yet here it is here for you .
So Yes, Angry Birds Game is popular, no disputing that but WHY?
It is often described as an addictive game, and you’re somone who’s hooked on the Angry Birds Game you know that it is clever game, it has cute characters, superb design and simple objectives. But addictive?.
Video game addiction is usually associated with the huge multiplayer online games, programs like World of Warcraft which has an interactive and social nature perhaps filling the void of friendship and acceptance that these days the real world doesn’t seem to provide. Their reward systems help too making it a must for competitive folks. Playing these games you become a social outsider often only playing with other people in solitude.
The other addictive games that come to mind are puzzles, like Tetris and Bejeweled. Which often stimulate the brain giving instant visual feedback, and creating unfinished business that the player feels compelled to complete, That couldn’t be said of the Angry Birds game.
Between these two classes lie social games like Farmville. With a social layer and a rewards system, and repetitive, automatic tasks, like Tetris.
Angry Birds though doesn’t fit into any of these descriptions It isn’t automatic in fact it requires careful, calculated precision and it offers no rewards other than new levels and abilities; whats more there’s nothing social about it.
So here’s one theory: the Angry Birds game is not addictive, people play it because it’s just a solid old fashioned sort of game, the kind that makes you feel you want to play for a while.
Like the Super Mario Bros. 3 you may have played for hours on end when you were a kid.
OK the Angry Birds Game is compelling but does that explain the huge numbers who download the game?
Aficionados play it with such focus that world-wide is uses those 200 million minutes a DAY, which translates into 1.2 billion hours a year. What could the human race achieve with that kind of focus on world problems such as poverty, hunger and social deprivation.
Clearly there is more to the Angry Birds Game and something special is going on. Why is this seemly simple game so massively compelling? Creating truly engaging software experiences is far more complex than one might assume, even in the simplest of computer games. Here is some of the cognitive science behind why the Angry Birds game is a truly winning user experience.
It’s simplicity hides some subtle detailed mental triggers
A simple interaction model needn’t be, and rarely is, that simple. Simple means once users get used to the software, their mental model of how to relate to it is quickly and fully embedded in their brain. but simple does not equal engaging.
The Angry Birds game is a simple interaction model and easy to learn because it allows the player to speedily develop a mental model of the game’s methodology, basic strategy and scoring process. What makes it engaging and therefore addictive, is the carefully scripted expansion of a players mental model of the strategy plus incremental increases in problem solving difficulty
The cleverness of the Angry Birds Game is that these little cute feathers fiends are packed full with clever behaviors that expand the players mental model just at the point when game-level complexity is increased. That isn’t either easy nor accidental, the process of creating this simple, engaging interaction model is exceedingly complex.
The Angry Birds game is clever, very clever and if it has you hooked it’s not by accident its by design.
If you are writting this phenomenom up as you thisis or just desperate to know why you are so hooked there is a great source article here
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