The flappy bird that fell

Flappy bird was a fast and interesting little sensation that caught on out of no where. It was a free game where you had to get a bird through some open spaced in between pipes, and keep him up and going. You got a score based on how many in a row you got, and that was it. Nothing really wrong with that, it was a fun little thing to play for free on your phone or ipod if that was your kind of game. Suddenly though... the maker is removing the game. That struck out as a weird decision and at a time when the game was just hitting net wide popularity with memes, reviews, and community chatter. Now usually I don't care much about this sort of thing because the game isn't for me, it wasn't on a platform I like, and as usual the stuff that gathers craze just isn't for me. However even with all that said, this topic still feels a bit special in how it was done and also some of the extra talk surrounding it. For starters when the reason was finally given, it was about how the maker simply wanted things to be simple again, and that's quite a different sort of topic from the usual drama in gaming.

It is not a common day thing in the gaming industry that the same guy who plays with basic designs on an over-saturated phone market that is still struggling to be taken seriously, is the same guy that becomes the new craze over night and starts earning buckets of money off a free game. He didn't intend to do anything serious or earn special paychecks from it, he simply made it for the fun of it and wanted someone to be entertained for a bit. People were just supposed to play it for a couple seconds, put it away, and move on with their lives while he toyed with more basic development. Suddenly he's earning excessive money he doesn't exactly care much for, he is receiving death threats from people that take the game too seriously, and he's being thrown into the spot light for his app trending. A lot of people just aren't made for that, and its as simple as that. Most might think of it as ridiculous, but contrary to popular belief not everybody is in it for the money nor do they even want it even if it were being thrown at them, and its especially more stressing when you've got hate mail. Some just wont a modest amount to get by on life and enjoy things. It got a bit stressful and screwed up as he was being pulled aside by media in his local community, being threatened, being told he was hated for "ruining" people's lives, he was being accused of theft, and rumored to have been harassed face to face with people. To add salt to the wound, he was even life threatened when he tried to make the drama a thing of the past and remove it. Meanwhile several other tweets seemed to be glad the game was being removed as if they benefited from having one less game out there and could care less if they were insulting someone's work by being relieved at its removal.

Now don't get me wrong, I usually despise the idea that the solution to the problem may keep people out of having fun. He was going to pull his game down, and that's awful and he let some idiots spoil it for everyone. However.... there are a couple of major details that keep this from being that sort of tragedy. For starters flappy bird isn't anything even remotely new. Everything from very design to even the actual art assets are nothing new. Even if you couldn't find a game that came before that though, don't worry.... Flappy bird was literally remade in an hour after news hit that it was being taken down. Sure the new textures look a bit off, but its honestly everything within a really simple game. I'm not trying to brag, but heck I actually made a more complex game in flash before myself back in high school (though without the mario-like assets my games looked way crappier). This thing isn't that complex. The next defense for this "pull it from the store" move is that what I was stating before about a bad pull move mostly applies to a company just being jerks. If the company gets so scared they're pulling their game, something is either terribly wrong with the game or they made a really stupid move to pull a big game. Meanwhile this is one guy, with a simple life, and a simple view who did not intend to do game design as anything more than a little side hobby and to give something to people. He didn't take it seriously, nor should he if his heart wasn't that into it... and now he's being attacked over it and singled out about it. Its no wonder it was time to pull the plug. If 10 or more guys worked into a cool project that caught headlines and they just decided to rip it out of the consumer's hands because of publicity they disagreed with, that's awful. However what we're actually looking at here is some infant concept of a game that got out of control and has lead to a single man getting bullied and losing sleep, time, and happiness over it. I cannot find a single reason at all for him to keep the game up given his situation.

Next question is how the heck am I supposed to see this topic apart from what I've already said... on one hand its awesome to hear of a modest man just trying to entertain himself and others in a calm life. On the other hand its the latest in showing the darker side of an entertainment hobby: those who can't handle the entertainment part. Its just awful that we have people so venomous and hateful that they're willing to go around hating on such a simple and joyful hobby like this and the people that make the games for it, and the ironic bit is that its from the gamers themselves. It actually makes those violent game protestors look good by comparison, because at least they have more of an excuse as to why they're so stupid and ignorant. Meanwhile the gamers that go around sending death threats to a guy over flappy bird.... seriously guys? Just..... no. People like the one blaming flappy bird on their horrible addictive cases, sending out death threats to keep around a dime a dozen "helicopter" clone, and making a simple man's life a miserable hell are the guys that don't deserve their phones and ipods to begin with. It honestly surprises me they're competent enough to find the address bar to use the web if they're that stupid, that cold, and that toxic to the rest of this world. The only thing that just might be a little worse than them is the other fun little mobile disaster this is competing with.... dungeon keeper. No I take that back, Obsessive toxic internet haters all gathering to pressure a passive guy that gave them a free game are far worse than some typical "mobile game" scam that you can just ignore.

With that being said I hope this was a good lesson to the game creator as well. Truth is you just need thick skin to get by in this world as an entertainer. Its sad but true.... and again its sad that it has to be that way. Its one of the things that life would simply be better without.... in addition to parasites, but then again that might be the same thing. Still pulling games shouldn't become a habit or anything. You've got to be able to take in hate and tolerate a bit of publicity. Now with all that said and done, I hope we can move beyond this issue and hope it doesn't happen again anytime soon. Thankfully news on this case is dying down more giving the guy more of what he wanted: peace.