all right today once again we're talking
about Mobile gaming because I started to
see a bunch of false advertising on
YouTube lately perpetrated by a bevy of
different game companies and apparently
nothing ever gets done about it actually
no it's far worse than that apparently
the mobile game industry is determined
to false advertise there's a rotating
trend of borderline falsified ads that
are created deliberately to be as close
to the line of Flatout false advertising
as possible even when they don't
actually need to do that AO mobile game
companies are belligerently intentional
about being as deceptive as possible to
their customers even when there is no
legitimate reason most people who watch
YouTube have probably seen some of those
ads there's a lot of them out there but
what people may not know is just how
bizarre the system actually is let's use
an example I'll start with something
less egregious in order to demonstrate
but rest assured it gets worse from
there this is Hero Wars according to
their store Page trailer and according
to the ads you see online plastered
everywhere it's a basic number matching
puzzle game of sorts that effectively
shows someone being really stupid and
failing in order to make you think wait
but I could do that that seems fun and
also pretty easy with me so far yes okay
good the game seems fine on the surface
but here's what the actual gam playay is
this is obviously very very different
and requires us to ask a simple question
why is a high-profile mobile game Hero
Wars is currently sitting at 100 million
downloads Plus on the Google Play Store
alone why is a very high-profile mobile
game relying on what appears to be false
advertising the answer to that is
actually very interesting on an industry
level but the basic version is that it's
not completely false advertising it's
only mostly false see the ad itself
doesn't show core gameplay nor does the
trailer the actual content you will be
playing and pay for is completely
different but the advertisements and the
trailer showcase a miname that actually
does exist inside the main application
when you download Hero Wars you get to
play a couple of levels of this number
puzzle game but pretty soon those levels
are gone and all you have is the normal
game this leads to a pretty obvious
downtrend in their customer reviews
which is very obvious on the Play Store
and wherever else you can download it
but it's a calculated loss for them
because they succeeded in getting a
bunch of downloads which ultimately
converts into paying users at least some
of them do that's a really tame example
of the phenomenon so how about we step
it up a notch this is xhero save animals
from dinosaur games this one isn't
nearly as popular only has about a
million downloads only a million that's
actually still pretty high but the
entire game according to the icon the
instore advertisements and gameplay
screenshots appears to be a puzzle
remove screws detach boards etc etc once
again those elements exist in the most
minimal capacity possible but after a
couple of levels it turns into something
completely different I don't have
gameplay for this one but we can just
scroll down and read the actual
description quote AFK and idle system
set your superheroes training while
you're away they will be more powerful
gain new skills when you get back the
battle will never stop even when you log
off end quote Yeah it's one of those
idle combat games which blew up I don't
know maybe a few years ago and took over
the mobile space Here's another example
from the same company epic Heroes save
animals with that same tagline save
animals yet again this one is also
dinosaur games obviously and has 10
million downloads on Android this time
but it's exactly the same thing customer
reviews obviously reflect that the
description does as well and it's
another bait and switch offering that
contains maybe 5 minutes of the
advertised gameplay before becoming
something else entirely here's another
one this time from glaciers
entertainment 100,000 downloads
basically the exact same advertising
technique but it's not a puzzle game
it's something to do with hero summoning
with blatant false advertising I could
go on and on and on and on but you
probably get the point this is where it
gets interesting obviously the industry
has a decisive Trend but why why is it
normal to create a tiny snippet of a
mini game and then just transparently
bait and switch the advertising with
enormous amounts of money when I say
enormous amounts of money I mean it
according to a report by apps flyer
gaming application ad spend has reached
nearly 27 billion doar in 2023 alone
accounting for rapid growth rate it's on
track to reach absurd figures in
subsequent years and one of the core
foundational elements of all of it is
false advertising why the explanation
for that is actually really simple yet
simultaneously kind of depressing mobile
games have discovered a new formula see
for most video games I'm talking
traditional AAA franchise offerings or
even Indie PC titles from small Studios
for most video games the advertising
formula works like this create a product
advertise the product and Target
customers who might be interested in
what the product actually is now to be
clear this can absolutely involve
deceptive practices think back to
something like Anthem or the division
and how those games were portrayed at
the likes of e3 those were particularly
egregious examples but you get the point
the basic Foundation still exists where
the product you make has to be
advertised for what it is rather than
something completely different you can't
make a third person looter shooter just
as an example and then play footage of
the Sims to get customers it just it
wouldn't work however in Mobile gaming
for some reason there's no easy way to
say this it does actually work see
instead of the normal system where you
create something and then Market that
thing to people who might like it for
what it is mobile games have shifted to
a completely new structure basically on
an industrywide level where they create
something then create a sliver a tin
sliver of something else and then Market
that something else to the stupidest
people they can find what happens well
most people realize it's fake and move
on but some of them get sucked in with
addictive practices flashy dopamine hits
and predatory monetization thereby
feeding money back into the system and
perpetuating a cycle where the mobile
market no longer makes games and markets
them to customers instead they make a
fragmented miname inside a vehicle
product and Market that it's actually
legitimately an industrywide Trend and I
I can show you precisely why remember
that weird tagline save animals yeah
that was for X hero and epic Heroes by
dinosaur games but what you'll find is
that the tagline save animals is from an
entirely different set of fake ads where
you would draw this little thing around
a doge icon and save it from a bunch of
bees who were going to sting it they had
wacky music and it was everywhere for a
while because the fake advertisements
are an industrywide Trend want proof
this is hero Clash from glaciers game
which is still using that same fake ad
campaign that a different company was
using before them based on a sliver mini
game this is what the actual game looks
like but as I said the point here isn't
to make something creative and find the
Right audience who might be interested
the goal is to make something as
predatory as possible and then find the
dumbest people you can and serve them
ads for a splinter fragment of a game
that you made purely so you could
deliberately false advertise the
interesting thing is that one of the
industry's biggest culprits here play
rck actually had a ruling against them
by the ASA the advertising standards
Authority in the UK it wasn't a big
decision mind you but I think like seven
people submitted complaints and the ads
got struck down because they were beyond
the pale and showcased gameplay that was
only playable 10 times maybe ever in a
game with nearly 6,000 levels in
response Play rcks Just increased the
number of playable levels for the Min
game slightly and move them closer to
the beginning of the game but this
perfectly demonstrates my point mobile
game developers are intentionally
misleading Their audience they know what
the audience wants to play but
deliberately refuse to actually make
that product only making enough of it so
that their ad campaigns won't be
suspended from the Play Store they then
trick Their audience into engaging with
that game because odds are some of these
idiots will ultimately spend money and
they can pursue a brand new technique or
they just make a central payment funnel
of sorts and then conjure up a rotating
set of addictive advertisements for a
product that basically doesn't exist in
order to populate the central payment
funnel most of the biggest names in the
entire industry now do this top war
Garden Scapes puzzles and survival and
some offenders are more egregious than
others obviously but the hilarious thing
is that these ads end up spreading like
a disease across the industry evidence
being something like the save animals
Trend where other companies were picking
it up even though it wasn't them that
came up with it or it had nothing to do
with their game one company finds a
thing that works and suddenly half of
the top downloaded apps in the Play
Store are all save the Doge games which
only have five levels of that puzzle
system and then become something
entirely different the crazy thing is
that this probably won't change one of
the most successful examples of this
practice in the past couple of years at
least is called Royal match and the
figures that we see publicly are
astronomical the thing is All Those ads
where you save the king yeah that
content doesn't exist in the game and
yes it's not nearly as bad as some of
the other culprits out there in the
industry but it's a central pillar
behind why the mobile game industry is
actually built on Deception now and no
one does anything about it the deception
Works in order for agencies like the FTC
to seriously consider action there has
to be harm to customers but the sneaky
formula that mobile developers have
pioneered is one where the app itself is
free and the gameplay technically does
exist in the application so where's the
harm any reasonable viewer won't be
harmed right they will see and uninstall
and there's disclosures so who cares but
these companies aren't targeting the
reasonable customers they are targeting
the people with addictive personalities
who get easily sucked in from a
deceptive ad to a predatory product
what's truly insane when you think about
it like big picture is that the mobile
game industry has basically evolved from
being product driven to purely
advertising you don't have to make new
games in order to get downloads you just
have to make new mini games inside and
then advertise those cut costs on the
dev side increase profit reroute the
money back into more and more addictive
or deceptive ads and new stabs at an
addictive mini game right a SLI product
inside the main product and go until you
find a hit rinse repeat if you get
caught just up the amount of levels that
you allow players to experience the
miname that you got caught for false
advertising and keep going because the
system works and it showcases perfectly
how far the mobile game industry has
fallen sure it could have been cool
maybe in some alternate version of
reality but in the world today mobile
games have become some of the most
deliberately deceptive products in the
entire software market and the trend is
only getting worse hilariously there's a
hefty amount of high value fines that
could theoretically be handed out by
Regulatory Agencies if they wanted to
put in the leg work these companies have
no shortage of cash on hand right
they're just like a pinata waiting to be
whacked and they deliberately skirt the
line as close as humanly possible with
like every single Campaign which means
there are probably quite a few
Publishers that could be slapped with a
penalty a big one especially considering
the sheer volume of AD spending that
they throw at platforms like YouTube but
sadly that doesn't seem to be happening
and it also seems like the lack of
immediate financial consequences for end
users on a basic installation makes the
FTC hesitant to get involved because
they don't really have a really strong
framework regardless it seemed like a
good topic to discuss and I wanted to
make a video because I've been seeing
these ads everywhere lately and clearly
a lot of people are frustrated I mean
there's even like a change.org petition
and obviously that's going nowhere but
man people have seen this and they're
frustrated with it with good reason
anyway that's it if you want to support
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there and stop rambling as always thank
you all for watching and have a nice
night
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