The smartphone game app-eal

'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' may be a child's game, yet many adults are hooked on the smartphone freemium. It is so addictive that people stop conversations midstream just to get on with the game.

LET me tell you my dirty little secret.

I own a restaurant, toy shop, ice-cream shop, flower shop, bookstore, bowling alley, day spa, house of hats, carrot farm, cherry stand, apple stand, corn stand, mane salon and windmill.

And I possess 29 little ponies (with names such as Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Octavia, Applejack and Splitfire) that work slavishly in my business empire.

I own a town called Ponyville.

It is a virtual town in a game called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic that I religiously play on the iPad. (How religious? As I'm typing this I'm monitoring Ponyville to see which of my enterprises has made money).

The game is an adaptation of the popular children's TV show called My Little Pony. It's objective, according to Gameloft, the developer of the game, is: "After being locked away in the moon for centuries, Nightmare Moon is set free and spreading night across Ponyville! Only Twilight Sparkle and her friends can free Ponyville from her grasp and bring light and friendship back to the land. Help them rebuild the town and reach their dreams in exciting quests!"

Basically, what I need to do is earn money to buy ponies so they can work in my business ventures from where I earn said money. I also need to play mini games (such as ball-bouncing and apple-picking) to keep my ponies happy and strong.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm addicted to the game as I'm not even a fan of the cartoon.

It is not the type of game that will give me an adrenaline rush and where there is a possibility that I would be found dead inside my house after getting a heart attack playing it.

To quote a review by insidesocialgames.com, "its core gameplay is predictable and uninteresting, even with the addition of the mini games, which are all rather shallow and simplistic".

So why am I playing it instead of reading Battleground America by Jill Lepore, a must-read New Yorker article on American gun culture.

I can't explain it. Probably it is the collecting of ponies for the sake of collecting them.

And collecting ponies is not cheap.        

Michelle Starr, cnet.com editor, wrote about her experience playing the game which "had been hotly anticipated by Pony fans for months leading up to its release, and has been downloaded in droves".

Starr reached level 43, where Rainbow Dash, the last of the six ponies (one of the most popular), is unlocked.

"Her price? 500 gems. You have two options: play the game for three years and hope that there's no max level; or spend AU$ 51.99 (RM165). But without doing either one of those things, the game cannot be completed," she wrote.

"It is, quite simply put, the most blatant demonstration of sheer greed that I've ever seen in a freemium (defined as: free to play or gamers can pay to progress faster) title.

Gameloft and Hasbro knew that the legions of My Little Pony fans would flock to the title, and that they would want that last pony unlocked. They also, presumably, knew that children would gravitate toward the game as well."

Yes, I've spent a small fortune on Ponyville. I'm not sure how much of a fortune as it is automatically billed to my MasterCard.

By now, I probably could have bought half an iPad mini with the money I have spent on those ponies.

However, I can't say no to my lust to expand my business empire. Today, there's a note: "2012 is going out with a bang. 63% off. (picture of Princess Luna's Royal Guard) Get him NOW!"

So tempting. Princess Luna's Royal Guard, the cool looking Pegasus, now costs 296 gems from 800 gems previously. That is about US$ 19.99 (RM61).

I can get free "currency" if I introduced the game to my friends on Facebook. But so far I've resisted as I'm ashamed that people will know that I'm a "brony" (male fans of the My Little Pony game and the TV show).

I don't want to become someone who is secretly laughed at on Facebook.

On my timeline, I get updates that a former Sabah Deputy Chief Minister plays games on Facebook.

For example, Datuk X completed Level 80 in Candy Crush Saga and Datuk X completed Level 34 in Bubble Witch Saga.

I have always wondered why adults play games on the smartphone.

For example, I once went out with a friend who, in between a political conversation and a glass of Guinness Stout, would touch the screen of his android phone.

Being polite, I did not ask what he was doing, but I think he was playing a freemium app, Smurfs' Village. I swore to myself that I would never be like him – an addict to a game meant for little girls.

So yes, I should quit playing this mindless game. Time for me to say goodbye to Rainbow Dash and friends. I shall.

Anyway, I have to go now. I want to buy Princess Luna's Royal Guard. Please, don't tell anyone.

Read More @ Source

More » Bonology.com | Pakatan Rakyat (PR) | Sociopolitics Plus | 大马社会政治