This is a list of common mobile app tricks that are used to increase user engagement and investment. These mobile app tricks actually worsen the user experience.
Trick 1: Overly “Grindy” Games
If a user wants better items or characters in the game, for example, this caliber of mobile game will set up the player so that she might need an absurd amount of currency (that the game developers would like the user to buy with real money) to acquire the items. For example, if the player considers Shadow the Hedgehog to be the best Sonic character, s/he would need to play for a long time to save enough “rings” to make Shadow playable without a paywall on a Sonic app with “grinding” as its modus operandi.
The user is technically able to save up the coins or gems slowly through standard gameplay so the developer can legally claim the game “is free” and “doesn’t require in-app purchases to play,” but the average person has a busy lifestyle that doesn’t allow for a game other than a type that they may check quickly during a short break and then resume work. Games that require too much “grinding” really make the items only accessible behind a paywall, and the player is better off just not bothering with said overly “grindy” game.
There are also daily login bonuses and seasonal rewards, even timed character events where you play intensely for a certain time to earn new characters. Based on reviews I’ve read for the Sonic Forces and Sonic Dash mobile games, for example, they could turn out to be finicky and dysfunctional events where the user might not get the character despite following the instructions to a T (logging in the required number of days and finishing or obtaining the requisite amount of currency/items/quests), presumably because a glitch locked the user out of access to the character.
Sonic Forces also disconnects users from multiplayer races too easily, proven through Google Play reviews alone, and the player’s hard work means nothing as s/he loses trophies to cheating and overpowered players, some of whom might be bots. The user may lose position from first or second place to a lower rank. This app also shares your location with third parties. This may make the multiplayer aspect unsafe and unhealthy for children, even if it’s the user vs. other kids or bots.
To Sega’s credit, their latest app, Sonic Rumble, does not share the user’s location with third parties, nor does it appear to be so “grindy.”
Trick 2: Games Being Programmed Against You
Bubble Popper and match-three games, in which the user plays by linking bubbles of the same color or matching at least three of the same tile before time runs out, commonly use this trick.
The first few levels are made easy to welcome the user, but he has to pay for boosters eventually, when he gets to more advanced levels. The game is programmed to turn against the user just as he gets hooked on it. The player may run out of moves, correct color bubbles, the needed tiles, or space on the game board just as he runs out of time or is warned that there are mere seconds left. The game may instead give the player the wrong color bubbles or tiles that are very different from what he actually needs, rendering him stuck on that level. Or the player may only be given five hints and must spend coins to see more, but it is difficult to come by said coins in the first place.
Developers claim that these games do not require spending real money, but the user may be stuck in one place and need an in-app purchase to progress.
Most crossword games, designed in the vein of Wordscapes, also have this problem, intentionally confusing the user by requiring obscure words to finish the puzzle and making the coins with which to buy “hints” difficult to find. Some of these obscure words appear to be made up. Many players may be bookish and have read a library of esteemed authors who use language as complex as Dickens’s cover to cover, but these words wouldn’t have occurred to this sort of player. These crossword games are marketed as a tool to keep one’s mind sharp, but this almost feels like false advertising.
Note: These are not the same types of games as Wordle.
Trick 3: “Restoring” Energy
Some types of games, such as Meow Tower: Nonograms Offline, allow the user to play for a while. However, the player then runs out of “energy” and has to wait while the game “restores” to play more. Players can wait, watch ads, or use gems to restore energy.
From a “teachable moment” perspective, this trick is not as bad as it sounds. The “restoring energy” trick incentivizes younger players to take a break for a while, experience delayed gratification, and do something different. When the player returns to see what’s happened in the game, her energy will be fully restored, and the game is ready to play. However, the gimmick also exposes the game as an unsustainable investment of a more mature player’s time.
Trick 4: Pointless Games With No End Reward
Merge 2048 clone games seem to have no end reward. The main event is to merge two items that are the same number just to reach 2,048.
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