He was getting thousands of abusive tweets from the gaming community and death threats. Getting raciest messages from people who hope you and your family get cancer and die will soon wear you down. Not every body cares about money.
Actually this is time which social start talking about it. On November 17th, 2013, Redditor Bronxsta included Flappy Bird in a list of “masochistic” iOS games submitted to the /r/iosgaming[2] subreddit. On January 17th, 2014, Redditor Transizzleator submitted a post urging viewers to “help Flappy Bird take off” to the /r/gaming[3] subreddit. On January 27th, YouTuber PewDiePie uploaded a video in which he plays Flappy Bird (shown below), which gathered more than 5.4 million views and 45,000 comments in the next week.
Death threats? OMG That is scary. Especially when people know who you are and where you live. God damn sick people!
Not to mention a thread on TouchArcade Forums with the heading "Flappy Bird - a punch in every developers face" !!!
Dragon Punch! No offence, but all this continuing coverage and exposure (articles, tweets, forums) is starting to feel like a punch in the face...
I find even more irritating the exposure a lot of badly made clones are enjoying right now. Maybe I'm just envious
According to the Telegraph, there may be another reason for Flappy Bird's success: "However the app has also received criticism for its unprecedented popularity. Despite being released in May 2013, the app did not start receiving high download volumes until December last year. Speculation is rife that bots have been deployed to download the app thousands of times and falsely propel the game up the download charts. " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10630198/Flappy-Bird-resurfaces-on-eBay-for-150000.html
There is nothing illegal about using bots its just against apples terms of service so there was no real issue. the worst that would happen is apple ban his developer account which has not happened. He pulled the game not apple. Main steam media just prints any old crap that might grab a head line. like iphones selling for £5000000 with it installed. when actaully there just being bid up by pranksters or con men from nigeria
" He pulled the game not apple." We can't be sure who made the decision or what discussion preceded it.
Then there is hope for all of us! Also interesting it waited for 6 months before downloads took off. Maybe my app will do the same... There's still time!
I heard about Flappy Bird when my friends started to brag about their scores. Later on, it was all over the net. I played and had a best of 14 then removed it. There's nothing particularly special about it, and for me it was just another game receiving a lot of social attention. But as someone working for a startup game development company, I can't tell 100% if the bird's popularity was built entirely on luck. The game found that sweet spot to trigger everyone's curiosity. Although it received a lot of criticisms, it made a huge impact on how users react to a new game concept.
This sums it up quite nicely "It is the perfect example of how a mundane app with an addictive premise can go viral, thanks to social media and word of mouth. What's more, Flappy Bird was a success because it didn't fit the mold. Anyone trying to create the next Flappy Bird will likely fail this was a perfect storm of circumstance, luck and viral drive. " http://mashable.com/2014/02/10/flappy-bird-story/ There are probably 1000's of games as addictive, original, and uninspiring that could have just as easily taken its place. It's hard for onlookers to swallow LUCK. Notice that the ingredients (circumstance, luck and viral drive) for the "success" that flappy bird was, have almost nothing to do with the actual game! Trying to recreate this anomaly would be like playing the same lottery numbers as the last winner, and expecting to win something. In fact, going anywhere close to this anomaly will actually be worse now, since 1) its been done, 2) the market will be flooded with similar products.
I like those three words you mention. It's like nature put em all together, not even the flappy creator himself have seen it coming. I also agree that the market will be flooded by similar products, trying their best to squeeze a little something before the flappy madness goes down the drain.
Maybe, maybe not. http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/11/how-in-app-review-mechanics-pushed-flappy-bird-to-the-top-of-the-charts/
The only thing "wrong" with this whole situation imo, is everyone else making all these shameless clones. Even then, as much as I don't like it personally you almost can't blame them. With the amount of Flappy clones on the top free charts right now, clearly this is whats in demand right now.
