Story by Joe Fahey
By now, if you don’t have the time-waster known as Flappy Bird, you have at least heard of it from friends.
The app had become extremely popular over the past few months and has been blowing up everyone’s social media.
People play it everywhere, and the seemingly simplistic gameplay coupled with the difficulty of actually getting anywhere in the game has made it extremely addictive.
Some students find it frustrating but still play it, constantly trying to beat their last high score.
Rachel Berggren, a first-year advertising major, warns anyone who does not have the app saying, “Don’t do it. It will ruin your life.”
For anyone who doesn’t have the game already, though, the creator Dong Nguyen has pulled the game, and it is no longer available.
He posted on Twitter that he “cannot take this anymore,” referring to the sudden publicity he received.
There are many theories surrounding his reason for taking the app down.
Some believe that he is being forced by legal means to take the game down because of its suspicious ascension to the top, seemingly overnight.
Multiple tech sites have reported that the Apple ratings and reviews on Flappy Bird were somehow boosted through the use of bots or a group of people in order to make it more popular.
Nguyen said in an interview with a game developer site, Chocolate Labs Apps, that he “didn’t use any promotion methods,” and the sudden popularity of the game seems just to be a simple phenomenon of social media, namely Twitter.
Another interesting theory is that Nguyen is getting legal pressure because of its similarities to other games, such as the green pipes featured in the popular Mario Bros. series.
However, he has posted on Twitter, “It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore.”
The more likely scenario is that he simply could not handle the huge popularity of the game.
He has probably received a lot of feedback from hostile fans of the game, as the game is extremely addictive and difficult at the same time.
“There’s probably a way to filter those emails out. I mean, not everyone on the Internet is going to like you,” said Jon Lueth, a first-year English and politics double major.
Nguyen gave an interview with Forbes and said “Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed, but it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone forever.”
He gave up the potential revenue to do what he thought was the right thing.
Some say he made the wrong move, as he could have made a lot of money.
He was making $50,000 a day from the ad revenue.
“I understand where he’s coming from,” said Paul Koltz, a first-year business major.
If you do not have Flappy Bird and want it you can always buy an iPhone on eBay with the app on it as people are reportedly selling for a high price.
If you can’t afford to buy a whole new phone for one app you can always download one of the thousands of clones that feature the same basic gameplay with a different character on the app store that have popped up over the past few weeks.
