• scaryjam823@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Anyone else remember the days of browsing the App Store, especially the free top 100? Checking to see what new apps were hitting the charts. Having pages and pages of mostly useless apps but some real memorable glorified flash games were thrown into the mix. Never having to worry about anything except how much fun will this game be compared to the other.

    Good times…good times… I haven’t browsed the App Store like that in probably a decade. I miss those days.

    • mrnathanrd@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I do. Fond memories of downloading new apps and toys every day. Sadly those days are long long gone.

    • snowe99@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Ehhhh most of the “free top 100” still had ads

      What I feel like doesn’t exist anymore is the ability to pay like $0.99 for an app like “Jelly Car” and have it hold or collective attention for months. Phone games evolved and we didn’t know how good we had it.

      • Finite_Looper@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        True, but I feel like back then an app with ads just had a banner at the bottom or something. Now “ads” means a full screen unskippable video every few minutes. No thanks.

        • slinkymello@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          It’s economics my friend; I would go back to the Econ sub, but it’s trash here. You make apps, right, then you try to find ways to monetize them, cut costs, maximize profits and you end up with poor quality. I suggest you go back to r/Idontknowshitabouteconomics. Capitalism stifles creativity due to profit maximization and market dynamics.

          • cavahoos@alien.topB
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            1 year ago

            Yes, because socialism and communism have always promoted creativity, amirite?

            There’s a reason why most technological innovation and the most successful companies come from the United States, not Europe or China

    • RetroGamer9@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I remember finding all sorts of cool, creative games since none of the big publishers were interested in the nascent App Store.

      Then some smaller publishers started porting older, well known games.

      Then big publishers started porting their older games.

      Then some really good more recent games like Grand Theft Auto and BioShock started to appear. There were still cool indie games, but little by little I noticed games were free and wanted me to buy chests and boxes of loot to keep playing.

      Then the games I liked and paid for once disappeared when iOS went 64bit and games weren’t updated. There were more games than ever, but they were either free to play or I paid for them but they were hardly updated and then an iOS update broken them.

      Then I started seeing cool games again, but I need Netflix or some other subscription service to play them.

      So now I just play games on my Switch.