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???
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Just fucking get “Yeah You Want Those Games” on Steam.
Btw, I love the ones where they actively acknowledge that many of the ads are fake “Why does everyone say this game is fake? I’m playing it right now.” or “See, we’re going to walk through the game in order to prove it’s real…” proceeds to make overly generic commentary that proves nothing
And I find it amusing this game Envoy: The King’s Return has been a puzzle game and an RTS, and it seems the voice over keeps getting confused… because after the generic voice over for Envoy sometimes says “Let the battle begin!”, after showing it as a puzzle game.
Wishlisted, this looks like it’ll be some cheap fun for my deck. Thanks for sharing 😁
I love that somebody actually went and fucking made them.
This doesn’t answer the question but it’s amusing.
That’s really a smart idea 😂
Hilarious!
It’s important to realize that this isn’t a game, it’s 20 seconds of animation that looks like a game. There would be a lot more work designing levels or an algorithm to send enemies etc.
The actual game is designed to be as addictive as possible so you become a whale spending money on it. The advertising is designed to get you to download the game. Two different jobs.
Also, easier A/B testing and targeting if you can just advertise different games to different people but funnel them all to the same end game.
If the math worked out that people who saw the real game downloaded it and ended up paying more money, they would advertise the real game. Guess the math doesn’t work.
The ads also have obvious mistakes in the gameplay. That’s to deliberately induce frustration in the viewer, who thinks they would be able to do better.
Can’t cite sources, just want to reaffirm. Kept running into that concept when researching game design, advertising, psychology.
Yeah, advertising is one of those things where it superficially looks awful. Then you study the details, and it only gets worse.
Ah yes, the 'ol fractal of horror
iirc they actually started adding these as mini games after getting sued for false advertising
The ads are for testing game concepts, if an ad have enough engagement the game is made.
Problem is, hero wars never seems to make these games lol
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pretty much going right for the dopamine hit; gotta keep em hooked.
Does anyone understand the point of advertising a game doing something that, after downloading, it does not do?
They’re called “lies.”
When I was pitching games to publishers, this was how they would test game ideas to see if there was interest. You essentially sent them a few minutes of gameplay or faked gameplay ideas and they would create these ads.
You installed their app on your phone, giving them access to some kind of array of data points on you, up to and including information stored on your device/keylogging you.
Anti-user features are a major thing. People are dumb enough with technology you can get away with openly screwing over your “customers”. The antifeature in this case is “it’s not actually the advertised game, it’s a cheap pay to win thing”.
Presumably, people download this thinking it’s cool, and then end up playing it anyway and whaling for the “developers”, who may literally be four people, one of which reskins existing games, while everyone else does sales and marketing.
Don’t know if the others are correct about the reasons, but here’s what I felt to be a reason when I once installed such a scam. They do whatever they can to make you run the game and then try to hook you up by using every trick possible to increase engagement. Then they sell you worthless in-game resources for real money. The game I played didn’t even have ads aside from ads of purchasing in-game stuff everywhere
Baiting you into paying for in app purchases.
It’s basically elaborate clickbait, but for apps. In the field of user experience design, it’s referred to as a “dark pattern.”
Bait and switch
This isn’t even the worst offender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_E9iW_wTk
There’s actually a game made of these games called, hold your breath: “Yeah! You Want “Those Games,” Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let’s See You Clear Them!”
One of the funniest advertisements I’ve seen on youtube was basically someone on tiktok going “Okay, I’m gonna try this game out called ‘Insert Incredibly Generic Title Here’. Is it a fake game? Let’s see.” 10 seconds of them playing level 1: “okay, I blew up that barrel and got some coins. Looks like it’s not a fake game.” And that’s the advertisement: Our game is a game that actually exists and isn’t an appstore scam.