You’ve seen them in the halls, during a little down time, and even snuck under their desks. Students tapping the screens of their phones, getting their little birds to flap through the obstacle course. Who would have thought that such a silly little game would be so popular?
The game was created by Vietnamese app designer, Dong Nguyen. Supposedly he pulled the game when he saw how addictive it was. He pulled it from app stores on February 9. Actually, the original name of the game was supposed to be “Flap Flap,” but there was already a game with that name in the app store, so the game we are all addicted to was called “Flappy Bird.”
App history was made when this game – only available for ten months, beginning in April, 2013 – flapped its way up the download charts from 1398th when it first appeared, to eighth most downloaded free app in the U.S. on January 22.
This free app earned $50,000 in ad revenue a day, when it became the number 1 free app in 53 countries. That is a lot of people tapping their screens. So what made this game so popular?
“The reason Flappy Bird is so popular is that it happens to be something different from mobile games today and is a really good game to compete against each other,” said Nguyen in an interview with The Verge on February 5.
“Most people played single player,” said Junior Luis Estrada. He added, “I think the multiplayer version cost more.”
If you were thinking of trying this game, don’t bother. The game has been removed by its creator and there is some mystery surrounding the reason it has been removed. Some people accused Nintendo of requesting that the game be removed, because it seriously looks like an old Mario game. Just like plagiarism in school, “ripped art” from a game is stealing. This seems unlikely because even Nintendo denied this claim, but it is a striking resemblance.
As most students understand, the more likely reason this game was removed is because of its addictive nature. Even the creator of this game was shocked at its addictiveness.
“Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed,” said Nyugen, in a Forbes interview. He added, “It’s gone forever.”
The good news is that if you have already downloaded this game, you own it. So don’t delete it off of your phone.
“I heard that an iPhone 5 is going for $1000 on eBay if it has Flappy Birds on it,” said junior Jorge Morodel.
Rather than spend all that money for a game that is gone, you may just want to try one of the many “Flappy Bird” clones that are being added to the Apple’s app store at a rate of 60 a day. That is nearly an app being added every 24 minutes!
Perhaps the safest and least frustrating route however is to just let this bird just flap away. With all the other frustrations of modern life, getting a little bird to flap through a frustrating obstacle course can be passed by.
By Sharief Masri
Tweet posted by Dong Nguyen on Feb. 8. Courtesy/Twitter/dongatory
