I am addicted to Angry Birds. The first step is admitting it. There, I feel better already. It is such a relief to share. It has been hard for my family, dealing with this in the darkness. I will always be an addict, but one day at a time I can reclaim my life. Every day spent without flinging birds at little green pigs will be a victory.
Obviously, I am not alone, because the new inflation measure for the UK includes the cost of smartphone apps (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12744400). They are evidently now necessary to people’s lives, and their price increase considered to have a direct influence on our sense of wellbeing. Somewhere out there there are more people like me. What a thought.
But how can you tell which apps are going to be successful. Where are the opportunities?
I worry about this a lot at the moment, because we have clients who are working with the developer community to create exciting and commercially successful apps and games. Who would ever have guessed that catapulting vengeful cartoon birds at smug green pigs would capture the world’s imagination?
But why are some games and apps so addictive? I am going to be trying to figure this out over the coming weeks and blog on it again.
In the meantime, I am sharing this Israeli video about bird/pig peace talks (perhaps the odd parallel being drawn.) I loved it, and it provided me with a bit of cold turkey from playing the game itself. Don’t watch it if you don’t like bad language!