Category Archives: Rant

How to make a bad iPhone game

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I’ve noticed a bad trend in iPhone games lately that is beginning to anger me. Extremely fun games are monetizing poorly.

Three games I have enjoyed the most use an in app purchase monetization model. This model allows the download of the game to be free; however, some items in the game must be purchased with real money. Most games with this model can be played without spending a dime. But it’s almost impossible for it to be enjoyable if you don’t.

I finally got fed up when I downloaded the new Jurassic Park game. This game is free to download and free to play with limited ads. The game works by the user accomplishing objectives and gaining rewards for it. Each objective is in realtime. Waiting on food to feed your dinosaurs can take 10 minutes to an hour. The game requires days or even weeks to accomplish somewhat simple task. This isn’t a game you can sit and play. More of a “I have a free minute to feed my Dino’s while I wait for my coffee to be made” game.

In order to play the game for more than 1 minute you must buy in game currency. This will allow you to build more buildings and buy more dinosaurs. I dropped $10 just for an extra few minutes of fun. After, I felt betrayed. Like my game experience should have dramatically changed after spending money. The game remained the same. Very boring and passive. I don’t want to play it anymore. I want to hate it. I’m disappointed because I almost liked it.

More and more games are like this. It seems like app developers are changing from making a great game that cost a few dollars to free games that are ruined by in app purchase. So many games are almost fun.

Something else that grinds my gears is the extreme dependence on the app users to advertise games and apps. Now apps are tightly integrated with Facebook and other social sites. This integrations is used because they want us to help push their game. Saw this a few times and was like, “oh smart. I’ll share with a few friends.” But now, I’m seeing games requiring me to share. I don’t like that. Don’t force me to annoy my friends and family.

I can spare $1 or more for a great iPhone game. I’m the audience developers should target. It seems like their target is the free market and hoping to trick a few dollars out of them. Allow me to buy your game or app without ads. Don’t force me to annoy my friends because you can’t market your app on your own. Let your games and apps work great without your need for money ruining it.

Above all else: Stop using tapjoy! It’s annoying.

Google Plus

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Google+Just joined Google Plus today. I was quite excited when I first joined, click every link I saw and went over just about every feature looking for what would make it stick out above all the rest.

I have said a lot lately that I’m getting sick of Facebook, I never liked MySpace, and I really wish there was something wonderful and great to take it’s place. I was hoping that Google Plus would be that “new” thing.

So far, I found that a lot of the features I do enjoy on Facebook are simply just mixtures of other Google features.

  • They made the images to work with Picasa
  • They require a full fledged video/audio chat window to appear for a simple chat
  • It’s difficult to comment on others photos
  • I don’t see a way to comment on someone else’s page?

Of course, an exact copy of Facebook would simply be another Facebook. However, I’d like to be able to login and know what is going on right away. It is a very simple system and looks very cool. I hope it takes off and everyone I know uses it. For now it’s just something I signed up for and played around with for a little bit. The invite structure is getting so full that anyone I would want to talk to on there can’t join yet. I guess it’s just a waiting game.

I also see some other issues with it. Because it’s merging with other Google products. Google Plus is making chat use gTalk to do simple chats, so during down time my clients etc will be able to see and chat with me openly. I think I saw a feature to only show people from a specific ”circle”; however, I’m not sure if it shows the rest of the people me as offline.

Being that it’s in beta means there is surely more to come. Google is constantly changing it’s other products for the better. I just fear that it might be a bit more confusing for those to grasp that don’t already use Google products.

Time will tell. I really hope it becomes something great!

Edit: See my other post about social networking!

Sometimes I wish I could copy myself

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I started doing web development as a hobby many years ago. Eventually, I started making it my life career. The advantages and disadvantages quickly came very clear as you can see in my Working from Home post.

Development was once a fun hobby to pass the time. Then it became a job. The free time to work on personal projects is gone. All the dreams I once had to develop sites and systems for fun is now overtaken by the need to finish up and obtain new clients.

I also have a great desire to learn new things. I would love to learn new programming languages and better skills my design skills. I would love to continue to grow with my passion rather than be held still by it.

I’ve decided to copy myself, I will have 3 versions of myself throughout the day. Most people do this but rarely notice. The easiest way to notice is simply see how people react around different groups of friends, a lot of people will change.

The 3 New Types of Me

Working me

I will always have a need to work. It is one of my favorite things to do. My only issue is what I’m working on. Never do I get to work on one of my own ideas.

I always add a little flavor to every project I get. I add extra features that the site owner might not have thought of. But at the end of the day I can only say I did that, I can’t say it’s mine. I need something to be mine.

Therefore, I will have a work me that will focus on clients and I will limit my hours per day to simply working. A real world job would take anywhere from 8 – 9 hours of your day to get something done – sometimes there is overtime.

I am now going to get myself on a set schedule and follow specific work hours. I have clients with different sleep schedules so determining the right time of day to make this happen is difficult. I may just say that as long as 8 – 9 hours of work is done in a day, I’ll be happy. But this removes the structure which is an issue. I will also try to take two days off a week rather than working all 7 days.

For now, I’m going to say from 7am – 4pm I will be working on clients. Nothing more or less. Well, at least some time for lunch.

This will allow me a time to say no to the other two versions of me: playing and social.

Playing me

Everyone needs some “me” time. Time to do a hobby, read, or just watch paint dry. Without time alone, one never truly gets to understand themselves. I’ve decided to give myself 2 -3 hours a day for myself. I can read, play a game, or work on a personal project. Which ever I choose is my own decision. I just need to make sure I allow time each day to make myself happy and to grow without guilt.

This “me” time will be either after I’m done working or socializing. Just as long as I get some time to grow before I rest.

Social me

I have a lot of friends with very busy lives. I get invited to do multiple things a day and usually do very few of them, one if I’m lucky. People think since I work from home I have the ability to drop what I’m doing and just go have fun for the rest of the day. And this is very wrong.

They have the promise of a check on Friday, I only get paid when I get stuff done. Each day is a mini goal to finish something. I can’t just let time pass by because someone calls.

However, I can’t be a hermit and live in my office alone for the rest of my life. As I stated in my last two versions of me, I will have about 9 hours of work a day, and 3 hours of “me” time. This leaves about 4 – 5 hours of social fun. Weekends of course are a different story. There needs to be a cut off from work and play. Weekends will be for trips and more long term fun.

Conclusion

I need more structure in my life. I need to grow and have fun without guilt. Once I get a routine going everything should be cake. Productivity should go up. I can no longer just work until I almost fall asleep in my chair. I need a break and some fun.

I know this won’t be a one day change to get this all into place. Nothing of structure is overnight. But I’m going to start a countdown timer while I work to make sure I stay in my range. I’ll say no to social events until the timer is up. I’ll make sure I get some time each day to clear my head. I’ll make sure I set time aside for friends and family.

If I follow this simple yet complex structure, I think life will start to get a little more enjoyable. And who knows… one of my great side project ideas might end up becoming my new full time career.

Do you remember when….

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Do you remember when the internet was fun? When finding new sites exciting? I’m sure you don’t.

It seems now that the internet is just as common as having a home phone. The thrill of having internet access is gone. Sites like facebook and Myspace took the trills away by making everything so… normal.

I have friends that are living in a shitty home, eating crappy food, have cars that hardly run, but still have the money to pay for their monthly internet access. Now people assume another has access to the world wide web. Before, it was a real question to ask if someone has the internet, an email, or a facebook. Today, the desire to get plugged in is gone.

During the days of excitement, websites didn’t look good – some didn’t even run that well. However, the sites at the time were worth visiting. Not everyone was trying to sell you something or make a buck off your visit. A website was built to inform or simply because the owner loved creating, updating, and sharing the information they provided.

Very few sites are even fun anymore. Just about every site has advertisements on it, or is for paid use only. May hold the dream of making money online, the excitement of simply owning your own page is gone.

This really hit home with me one GeoCities was taken off the web. When simple user created pages were considered out of date and useless. Found useless simply because the excitement of creating a page of your own to simply do it or share something is gone. Now, people pay thousands of dollars in the hopes of making it back with interest.

I miss a fun internet, I miss an internet that didn’t want more from me than I wanted from it. I miss an internet where information was free and chasing it down was half the fun.

Of coures, I might be bias simply because I make a living working on the internet. When I’m on the web it’s because I’m building a site or doing research to create one. Time to surf is time to work for me. Or, I’m completely right; the internet is no longer exciting.

Figuring out this blog

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I created this blog to help clear my head and get ideas out. I suppose I never suspected it to obtain visitation. I’ve come to that realization when I started creating private post that I wished for the masses not to see.

I may write about a client or a project. A private family event. Some private thoughts of my own. Never, did I suspect anyone to find or read this blog. Not until I made a single post.

I made a that damn post about snow. Now I get 100 visitors a day to this blog. I stopped writing, I no longer found it private. I fear my association I created pretty evident with my business site will ruin a reputation. My freedom on the internet is ruined with my desire to create an income from it.

This bothered me greatly until I noticed what actual famous internet users are doing on the web. They no longer do the “dumb” things I’m no longer able to do. The days of creating a blog about emotions and posting pictures of drunken parties are gone. I now must be smart on the net. I’m forced to be smart. It’s not so bad after all.

This is a stepping stone for me in a better future. Leading internet celebrities promote their enjoyment and show their knowledge through their blogs. I will follow their lead. Now, I will try to create post of interest for the masses, rather than creating a private site for my personal enjoyment. Now that I have readers (well kinda) I will give them something worth reading…. at least I hope so.

Time to figure out what I’m passionate about, I suppose the topics will come to me like they do for those who matter.

I plan to follow in the foot steps of those who have made this internet great. I plan take my own path once I see fit. I plan to give back all that I have taken.

Make a free WordPress plugin

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Make a free WordPress plugin and everyone expects free support for everything WordPress.

I understand that most users that use WordPress don’t know what they’re doing and refuse to spend money to figure it out. I’m not going to be the one that teaches them all, there are plenty of tutorials. Just frustrating getting emails and forum post with people asking for free help with little benefit to me.