The Mystery Of ‘Flappy Bird’

Everyone knows of the newest game app; Flappy Bird. Not because it’s a fun or entertaining game, but because it is the most annoying yet addictive game ever played. The game only needs you to do one thing; tap. You must keep your bird flying while avoiding the long tubes. Yes, it doesn’t sound interesting or original yet it puts people on an ongoing loop to get a better score, causing people to show strange behaviors and anger towards their phones.

The app was created by Dong Nguyen who never thought the app would be so famous worldwide. The app came out in May 2013 but truly gained attention around the beginning of 2014 and was first place in 107 countries. The sudden fame Flappy Bird got caused Nguyen to feel uncomfortable. He started receiving adverse and angry comments and couldn’t handle all the attention. So around February 8 he tweeted out, “I am sorry ‘Flappy Bird’ users, 22 hours from now, I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down. I cannot take this anymore.”

And just like that the app was removed.

We went around and asked people who played what they thought of the app being removed. 2/5 people thought it was a good thing since it would have annoyed many more. But others thought that removing it was ridiculous: Student, Nazlican Mermertas says, ” If you don’t want to play it, just don’t download it” while Aci School teacher, Nur Pasalioglu says, “Deleting won’t change anything, there will always be something you will get addicted to.” There are many different opinions to this but one thing that is certain is that the game is very addictive.

When players were asked if they liked the game, many said ‘’No’’, but when asked if they played it anyhow, each one of them laughed and said ‘’Yes’’ . When asked why they played it, 60% wasn’t actually sure. One confesses, “The game is so simple, and when you fail you feel like you must score better since it’s such an easy game.”

So is this what makes it addictive? Is it not wanting to fail that makes it so frustrating?

Unfortunately, Flappy Bird’s way of pulling people in and driving them crazy will remain a mystery.

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