Candy Crush

This blog is basically dead but it behooves to write about the economics of a pretty stupid (and addictive) game called Candy Crush.

The idea is simple:

1. You have a few lives.
2. The game is pretty difficult or gets so at specific levels.
3. You can either get more lives by getting "timed out" or "paying for more lives".

(It's a little more complex but this axiom system will work as a first-approximation.)

The idea seems to be that:

1. The game is addictive. (TRUE.)
2. People are stupid. (TRUE.)
3. Some people will "pay" rather than "sit out the timeout".

Remember the firm that makes this only gets paid if Rule [3] is true. Otherwise, they get paid jack diddly-squat for doing all this work and that's not much fun in the real world.

The logical conclusion is that if someone gets too frustrated they will stop playing which brings us to:

1. If they stop playing, you don't get a single fuckin' penny.

Which brings us to the equally logical conclusion:

1. If you sit out long-enough, they will dumb down the game so you can get to the next level.

Once you figure this out, the game is not that interesting any more.

Incidentally, this is what Las Vegas slot-machines do. They are designed to be frustrating but not "too frustrating". They will give you a payout precisely when you are about to walk away forever. Turns out humans are pretty much designed the same way.

We really can't handle the laws of REAL probability which can be endlessly frustrating. Even after extensive training and endless rounds of losses, we are still human and handling tons of losses in a row is hard on the human psyche.

So is the game bogus? YEP.

Are most humans retards? YEP.

Oh well! The game was fun while it lasted.