Yep, the app store really, really needs a section for games that are ad-free and that don't have any consumable in-app-purchases.
Angry Birds was a really nice game, and I'd love to let my kids play it, but it just isn't playable any more. It's so full of crap. Ads, in-app-purchases, loads of shit. I'd easily pay 10€ to get back the original version of Angry Birds that I bought in 2010 or so, but that version is gone for good.
There are some games that aren't full of crap. Monument Valley, Alto's Adventure, Pinout, Blyss, Canabalt, Glider, Paw Patrol, Duplo Trains are some ad-free games that I can recommend.
I'd love to have some kind of curated list of ad-free games. The games that Apple promotes / features in the store are usually less obnoxious, but I'm not sure if there's a way to search for them.
Since Apple has removed the affiliate payments for apps, I don't think there's an easily monetisable way to build a recommendation website for ad-free games, but it may be possible to build it as a volunteer effort?
Perhaps we need to consider if something is wrong about this culture of constant upgrades.
Not just phone apps, but other applications too. Upgrades are actually hostile to the end user. There's nothing to counter the incentives of companies to keep sneaking in more ways to squeeze money out of their users.
Interestingly thinking back, I remember when I first discovered Chrome's aggressive autoupdate and I felt disquieted. Now I have a better sense that it's fundamentally not to the benefit of the end user. Actually there's some benefits for web developers, which tricks them into becoming part of this culture, and heavily pushing for these newer browsers with their built-in autoupdates now.
Problem is, most software upgrades are all-or-nothing. You can’t just take the good (security fixes, better performance, etc.) and leave the bad (reduced functionality, new worse UI, more ads). It’s in my view a major unsolved problem in software.
Amazon's Freetime unlimited store is entirely ad-free apps, and bans in-app purchases, from what I can tell. It's only available on Kindle Fire devices, but it's a good option. (I think a big part of that is that you pay $3/mo for access)
The versions of Angry Birds there are ad-free and in-app-purchase-free.
I think I still have the original Angry Birds game installed on a ~10 year old iPod touch I have laying around. I'll have to make sure to preserve that now, if it's impossible to get older versions of games like that.
Hopefully you've kept that device off the internet. Tyler paid for version I have was updated to gimp the game, so not only do you have beat the previous level you also need a certain amount of coins that do not transfer between levels. You can of course buy them. I tried playing after discovering how terrible Angry Birds 2 was. There away are still unlimited lives and as far as I can tell the other older spin off games haven't had their mechanics changed.
> Ads are as a result of people not being willing to pay for apps. It's the consumer's fault things are the way they are.
You can't blame one side. Customers would totally pay for apps if no free ones were available, but the moment an app developer releases their product for free, everyone else finds themselves in a huge competitive disadvantage, and have to follow suit. If you want to blame customers for picking the best offers, then also blame producers for making these offers in the first place.
> As is it's already a lottery as to whether you'll make less than minimum wage or equivalent for your time spent developing an app where you've taken a huge risk and foregone a possible $200k per annum job.
If it's such a shitty value proposition, then well, don't do it.
Personally, if the choice is only between no apps and the garbage fest we have now, I say let's axe the entire ecosystem. Or at least change the rules so only three types of applications are allowed: 1) one-time payment, full version, no advertising garbage; 2) subscription-based, full version, no advertising garbage; 3) free forever, no in-app payments or advertising garbage.
I don't think it is that simple. Many people would not pay for games, full stop. Not even if there would be alternative. And they did not paid for games in the past. Note that it was free games that breached to demographics of people who never expected to like games.
And I am personaly in that group. I did paid for some games now, but only after I played a lot for free which allowed be to gain trust and recognize better what I am looking for. As long as all games were paid, I was not playing and had no way to learn about the game before spending money - meaning first few bad games buys me it is not for me and that was it.
Same frankly with games for kids. I bought some, very few, but buying tablet games is something I see as waste of money.
Back in the old days, we had this thing called "demo version". Companies would release a fraction of their product for free, which was enough for players to evaluate whether the full game is worth buying.
I know there's a fraction of people who won't pay for games at all, no matter what. But there's also a fraction of people who will, and currently the companies in the mobile space are not even willing to take money from the latter in pursuit of monetizing the former (through ads, or tricking into payments).
Related, Steam is a living proof that a lot of people are willing to pay for games if the platform cuts out all the bullshit and makes the experience seamless.
> Note that it was free games that breached to demographics of people who never expected to like games.
I'll concede that point; casuals are a good example of that. Still, that's why I included point 3) at the end of my previous comment. There's a place for free content, but it must not be seen as a vehicle for monetization with ads. Leave making free games for people who do it for fun, or for their portfolio - or resurrect the concept of demo versions. Especially in case of causals, there won't be a shortage of content. App store operators could fix this situation by fiat. It would hurt their bottom-line a bit, but it would benefit humanity greatly.
Then the companies found out that releasing demos lowers sales and stopped doing them. Hype and pre-orders and social pressure of "you are not gamer if you don't buy it" earn more. Steam does not have games for me on it or they are hard to find. Disappointment that made me stop buying happened there.
Steam is example of platform that serves one tastes group well predominantly clustered in one demographic. There is nothing wrong with that, obviously, but you can't extrapolate the lesson more widely. Not sure how now, but steam used to be hostile to anything causual or too much tablet like.
I don't understand why games must not be vehicle for ad monetization. I understand need for some regulation, bit later claim, I don't get at all. Why there won't be shortage of content for causuals? There was such shortage for years.
And I don't see benefit for humanity either. However this all develops, the whole topic is largely inconsequential.
Intelligent people realise that individuals can't be at fault for making local rational decisions that cause systemic problems.
Apple and Google have caused this problem in the first place by allowing in-app ads and microtransactions to exist. And they are the only ones that can fix it, barring some legislative smack from the EU.
e.g: Apple was misleadingly marking IAP apps as free until they got sued a bit and had a change of heart.
Like the OP I paid for a copy of angry birds in 2010 or so.
I’d love to let my kids play that version. But auto updates means that version is long gone — and I don’t even have the option of paying more to just turn off the ads
There was a really immersive space game, Galaxy On Fire 2, that got bought by another company. It was like $8 or $9 and suddenly it was full of ads. The only way to play it like the original was with your phone on airplane mode. There are a lot of conveniences with modern apps but malicious updating is really annoying when it happens.
As much as I hate your attitude, you're not wrong. Ads were created to get you thinking about someone's product, and the more you think about it, the more likely you'll purchase it.
> It's the consumer's fault
I'm sure the fault is shared, but we do vote with our wallet. If you don't want the paid version, then suffer the free alternative. But at least there is an alternative, no?
What if there's no paid alternative, because everyone realized that adware and dark patterns are more profitable?
Such is the case every time I see someone say "vote with our wallets". Customers don't get to vote with their wallets, because they can only choose from what's available, not from the space of all imaginable software.
Unfortunately, too few people care about the various problems with advertisements - not the least of which are privacy concerns - to do that. They'd rather have the software, and [think they] ignore the ads.
This would be reasonable, but I can't help thinking that many - if not most - are not making informed decisions.
The beautiful thing about software is, if they don't like it, they can recreate it themselves. But yes, the incentive to show ads is quite high by the advertisers.
We tried the easy way (pay for the app) and it didn't work, now we do it the hard way (ads).
Angry Birds was a really nice game, and I'd love to let my kids play it, but it just isn't playable any more. It's so full of crap. Ads, in-app-purchases, loads of shit. I'd easily pay 10€ to get back the original version of Angry Birds that I bought in 2010 or so, but that version is gone for good.
There are some games that aren't full of crap. Monument Valley, Alto's Adventure, Pinout, Blyss, Canabalt, Glider, Paw Patrol, Duplo Trains are some ad-free games that I can recommend.
I'd love to have some kind of curated list of ad-free games. The games that Apple promotes / features in the store are usually less obnoxious, but I'm not sure if there's a way to search for them.
Since Apple has removed the affiliate payments for apps, I don't think there's an easily monetisable way to build a recommendation website for ad-free games, but it may be possible to build it as a volunteer effort?