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Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

nobsgames.stavros.io

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Re: Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

#11

Post by PenguinCoder »

StavrosK wrote: post #10
aphit wrote: post #9

Any reason why the Genre filter field is a text input rather than a dropdown? I went to look at the Genres available to see which ones I might like but the only way I can see to do this is by scrolling through the pages to look at the available options.

Yes, Apple games can belong in multiple genres and it was easier to do it this way, but I'm probably going to make it a dropdown since it's more usable.

Possibly make it a tag selector for easy multiple selection. You could then leave it a text input that sort of auto completes a tag name and adds it to the search filter

Re: Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

#12

Post by tomclive »

Great idea. I really enjoyed Angry Birds when it first came out and when my children asked about to install it on their devices I said this was fine. I couldn't find the original Angry Birds so installed Angry Birds 2. What an awful convoluted mess it was. Instead of a simple, fun physics-based game it's full of lives, spells, bad level design and in-app purchases.

Re: Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

#13

Post by Nothorized »

I recently changed my relation with video games. I used to play a lot of FIFA (or Football Manager), which are games who are just here to entertain yourself, but there is no backstory at all. Now I see video games as reading a book, or watching a great movie: focus on the story, the art design, the sound design, and the experience in general.

I still play a bit of FIFA, but I reserve it to my social time (even though I find that FIFA create a lot of tensions, while Mario Kart is funnier to play, and the level to be competent is lower).

The problem with most of IAP games are that they are in the same category than FIFA or FM. There is little backstory. While paying upfront for a game (on mobile, a dozen of great games exists, and you can play some of them during short period of time like Limbo...) create a sense of connection with the game, because you invest money in it, and you are ready to really invest time in it. On the opposite, IAP are games where the goal is to make you play as much as possible, to pay as much as possible.

Re: Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

#14

Post by mattcdrake »

Thanks for making this, really. Phone games seem to be a sort of gateway drug for video games and it's a shame that most of them are so laden with microtransactions and attention-hacks. Anything that can steer people away from heroin-adjacent mobile games toward games with substance is a great product in my book. Nice job.

Re: Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

#16

Post by me_me_me »

franga2000 wrote: post #5

Haven't had time to look through the list, but this is exactly what I've been looking for. While I don't play mobile games myself, my (older) relatives do a lot, but since something like the 10th time a scam ad almost got my grandmother to lose 300€, I no longer install anything with ads on their devices. It took me almost an hour to find a bullshit-free solitaire game in the Play Store. It took exactly 3 seconds her…

The curated list by android team used to be my goto to find some games, but it deteriorated into useless list.

All other top playstore list are garbage too. Finding anything good that isn't crippled by predatory practices is downright impossible. I don't mind paying for mobile games but this isn't as profitable as hook-line-sinker micro transaction model.

I will give this list a go back home.

Re: Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

#17

Post by StavrosK »

chrisBob wrote: post #15

Do you have a way to filter duplicates? I just took a look at the iOS list and there are a few games that are on all 3 of the first 3 pages. I love the idea, and will use this to help find games for our family iPad.

Hmm, there should be no duplicates, something is iffy. Do you know which games?

Re: Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

#18

Post by StavrosK »

mattcdrake wrote: post #14

Thanks for making this, really. Phone games seem to be a sort of gateway drug for video games and it's a shame that most of them are so laden with microtransactions and attention-hacks. Anything that can steer people away from heroin-adjacent mobile games toward games with substance is a great product in my book. Nice job.

Thank you! I got fed up and made this the other day, after playing Head Ball 2 which is basically "Crack cocaine: the mobile game" in how predatory and insidious it is.

Re: Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

#19

Post by StavrosK »

Nothorized wrote: post #13

I recently changed my relation with video games. I used to play a lot of FIFA (or Football Manager), which are games who are just here to entertain yourself, but there is no backstory at all. Now I see video games as reading a book, or watching a great movie: focus on the story, the art design, the sound design, and the experience in general. I still play a bit of FIFA, but I reserve it to my social time (even though…

There are different kinds of IAP, some are free demos and you unlock the full game with an IAP, some let you buy extra content in the form of DLC, some remove ads, and some just want to get thousands of dollars out of you. I call the latter "bullshit" to differentiate from the former, which are OK to me.

Re: Show HN: Tired of mobile games with IAP and ads, I made No-Bullshit Games

#20

Post by StavrosK »

PenguinCoder wrote: post #11
StavrosK wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Apple games can belong in multiple genres and it was easier to do it this way, but I'm probably going to make it a dropdown since it's more usable.

Possibly make it a tag selector for easy multiple selection. You could then leave it a text input that sort of auto completes a tag name and adds it to the search filter

That's a good idea, but then I worry that it would narrow the results too much. Not that big a deal, since you can just remove a tag again, but I'll have to play around with it and see.
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