Thursday, July 30, 2020

How Angry Birds Started and Why It Got So Successful

How Angry Birds Started and Why It Got So Successful © Shutterstock.com | OlegDoroshinIn this article, we will look at 1) Angry Birds â€" an introduction, 2) how Angry Birds got so successful, 3) global impact, and 4) what enterprises can learn from Angry Birds.ANGRY BIRDS â€" AN INTRODUCTIONThis video game franchise was created by Rovio Entertainment, a Finnish computer game developer. The game was inspired by a sketch of stylized wingless birds. The first release was on the Apple iOS platform in December 2009 and by October 2010 the game had sold 12 million copies on the Apple app store. At this point, the game was developed for other smartphones including those on the Android, Symbian and Windows Systems. The game has also expanded to video game consoles and PCs.The game has seen phenomenal success in all its platforms for its addictive gameplay, comical style and low price to play. The large market for game related merchandise is also present with items featuring game characters. There are also multiple spin-off games and a TV ser ies with longer terms plan for a feature film.Total downloads for the game across all platforms for all editions total 2 billion. The game is the highest downloaded game series that employs a freemium model.  The British Prime Minister, David Cameron has admitted to having a slight addiction for the game as well as other famous people such as Dick Cheney, actor John Hamm and many more.GameplayOne main reason for the games immense popularity is its simple design. There are barely any instructions or complicated controls allowing people of all ages and technical prowess to easily play the game. The game screen features the antagonist pigs to the right while the angry birds are to the left. The pig are sheltered in structures made of wood, concrete, steel or ice. The birds have to be catapulted through the air to destroy the forts and squash the pigs.The game appears simple but there is science behind it. A bird on the right trajectory can wreak havoc on the pigs while a wrong one can lead to failure and the level restarting.History of Angry BirdsAngry Birds Games and Spin offsThe game has led to many different versions. These include Angry Birds (2009), Angry Birds Seasons (2010), Angry Birds Rio (2011), Angry Birds Friends (2012), Angry Birds Space (2012), Angry Birds Star Wars (2012), Angry Birds Start Wars II (2013), Angry Birds Go! (2013), Angry Birds Epic (2014), Angry Birds Transformers (2014), Angry Birds Fight (2013) and Angry Birds Under Pigstruction (2015).Spin Offs include Bad Piggies (2012), Angry Birds Stella (2014) and Angry Birds Stella POP! (2015).Angry Birds Statistics The game has been downloaded 2.5 billion times by 1.7 billion smartphone users globally. These users have thrown 600 billion birds collectively and earned 150 billion stars across all Angry Birds games. In comparison, the Milky Way only has 100 billion stars! By the end of 2011, 300 million minutes of the game were played daily.According to The Guardian, in 2013 Rovio’s growth s talled and revenues grew by only 2.5% year-on-year. The company reported revenues of €156m ( £128.4m) for 2013 compared to 2012s €152.2m â€" which represented more than double the €75.6m that Angry Birds made in 2011. 47% percent of this revenue came from the consumer products division which includes toys, books and other licensed products.Some other interesting infographics about the game can be seen here and here.HOW ANGRY BIRDS GOT SO SUCCESSFULThe creators of Angry Birds managed to formulate the perfect recipe for a casual game with everything in just the right quantities. According to Michael Chorost, there are four main reasons for the game’s popularity. Underlying these reasons is the delicious delay between the birds being launched and the results. This feeds our primal pleasure centers.The dopamine action in your brain makes you want to know, urgently, what will happen when you fire the bird. And its extremely easy to get yourself in a position of wanting, because t he game is so simple. It gives you intermittent but extremely satisfying rewards. So you pull the slingshot again and again and again. And again and  again  and  again  and AGAIN.Another opinion is by Raph Koster who believes that a primeval skill is re-awakened in humans through the central aiming mechanism.Its evolutionarily useful that the brain fastens on challenging problems that have to do with trajectories. Physics calculations like this were extremely valuable if you made your living with a spear.Some other reasons for the game’s success are described below.Simple Yet Engaging ConceptThis may seem like an obvious combination to aim for when developing a game. But it is not always translated practically. In Angry Birds, the developers have ensured that the game is easy to pick up for a new player and factors such as age or intelligence are not barriers to enjoying the game and even doing well as it. This means that none of the challenges presented by the game are impossible and can all be overcome with some time and effort. This makes for a relaxing and low stress game which can be played at any time for any period of time.This simplicity can also be a danger to the engagement level of a game. If a game is too simple in concept, then people may lose interest faster. But because the game is based on trajectories, there is a slightly different result every time. In addition, though people quickly develop a mental model of the game’s methodology, strategy and scoring, it remains engaging because there is carefully planned expansion of this mental model through increasing complexity as the game progresses with more birds and more complex structures to destroy.Cleverly Managed Response TimeGenerally, applications will attempt to provide users with a faster response time. This is a key requirement for many products such as google, email or instant messaging. However, in other types of applications, a more prudent use of response time can actually add dept h and quality to user engagement with an interface. In Angry Birds, this response time is utilized quite cleverly where the bird is released at a leisurely pace and its trajectory is marked and observable. The pigs and their structures take their time to fall apart or be destroyed completely. This slow pace allows users to correct their errors, study what they did right or wrong and plan their strategy. It also allows the game to remain relaxing rather than nerve racking.Short Term Memory ManagementHuman short term memory is exceedingly limited when compared to other aspects of our system of memory. This short term memory allows humans to recall a small number of items, behaviors or patterns for a short time frame allowing us to operate without the more complex process of bringing in the long term memory. The Angry Birds game design manipulates this short term memory in the most intuitive way by bending it to create better engagement with the game. This short term memory loss is cre ated in a way that it does not become a negative for the player but adds to the complexity of the game. One example of this in action is when the screen loads at the beginning of each game. The player sees a quick view of the pigs in their structure before panning back to the birds, driving the structure out of mind and removing the ability to strategize. The player will then move back to view the structure again, allowing the short term memory to recharge.MysteryThe element of mystery, big or small, has the ability to keep humans engaged. Whether this mystery is in art, advertising or a movie, we tend to find these mysterious details compelling. The game is full of these little mysteries such as the presence of small bananas in some levels, the shaking of pig abodes right before the level begins, why birds sometimes somersault when released and not every time and many more. These small questions are not enough to frustrate but enough to add another layer to the engagement of the ga me.Casual Play TimeAnother appeal of the game is that it can be played for as short or as long a time period as the user wants. This means that a quick game can be taken in while waiting in a line, during a lunch or tea break or while traveling in a taxi or bus. The game is meant to be played casually but with enough goals and objectives to keep even hardcore gamers involved.SatisfactionAll the visual and audio effects of the game come together to make a satisfying and enjoyable experience for any kind of player. The game play allows for satisfaction and achievement with every successful level, whether it is finished in one try or several dozen.Popularity Breeds more PopularityHuman curiosity makes us want to try out what is deeply engaging another person. With the initial buzz of the game on its release, more and more people wanted to try out this new sensation, thus leading to increased referrals and yet more interest.GLOBAL IMPACTAngry Birds is a true phenomenon, having entered t he lexicon of the current times. Its impact can be seen extensively in all aspects of modern entertainment and culture. Some of these examples are:Television FilmThe characters from the game have been mentioned in various TV shows around the world. These include Israeli comedy show Eretz Nehederet’s satirized version of Israeli-Palestinian peace attempts featuring the Angry Birds negotiating with the pigs. Other mentions include Conan, The Daily Show and Tosh.0 as well as 30 Rock. Fans of the game include British Prime Minister David Cameron, author Salma Rushdie, basketball star Kevin Durant and actor Jon Hamm. The game was also featured in film G.I Joe: Retaliation, TV series VEEP and referenced in a parody of The Hunger Games.AdvertisingThe characters have also been featured in advertisements for different products. These include a series for Microsoft’s search engine Bing, one for Nokia’s N8 phone, T-Mobile, Finnair as well as Rovio created promotional variants for other companies. These include Finnish snack company Fazer, Spanish pizza chain Telepizza, Japanese TV network Fuji TV, Cheetos and Coca Cola.SportsFormula 1 driver Heikki Kovalinen was sponsored by Rovio in 2012 and wore an Angry Birds helmet and a promotional web-based version of the game was released in his honor. Another driver, Kimi Raikkonen also has an Angry Birds Space logo on his cap. For the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix, Rovio teamed up with the Lotus team to affix its logo on top of each Lotus Renault F1 car.An angry hockey player bird, HockeyBird was unveiled as the official mascot for the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships designed by Toni Kysenius and Rovio.Video GamesThe game has inspired knock-off and parody games which use the same basic mechanics as the original. Some of these include Angry Turds, where monkeys throw feces at hunters. Yet another is Chicks’n’Vixens where the birds and pigs are chickens and foxes. This game was released on the Windows phone platform a s a challenge to Rovio, who had not released the game for the platform.WHAT ENTERPRISES CAN LEARN FROM ANGRY BIRDSThis app can help enterprises learn about how to handle large amounts of critical data. According to Andy Gross of Basho, there is a connection between a mobile gaming app and an effective, strong enterprise infrastructure. This connection is the huge amounts of critical data as well the constant pressure to meet customer expectations.Data Customer Expectation Handling at RovioThe creators of the game have to handle more data than many enterprises do. By 2013, the game had been downloaded 2 billion times with 263 million monthly users. All these users bring in considerable data such as personal information and player stats among others. To manage customer expectations, companies such as Rovio manage critical data by keeping a focus on the key factors that have an effect on business revenue and user experiences. In this case, these are game performance and availability. This means that the game needs to be available all the time with no downtime and that users can access their data such as scores and stats at all time without any loss of data or errors. These learnings can be translated to enterprises easily.Catering to high user expectations   To ensure a perfect user experience, companies such as Rovio, Amazon and Facebook have put in place distributed systems to guarantee availability, zero data loss and zero downtime. This is possible only through distributed databases.Flexible Storage   The Rovio databases have a schemaless design as well as no restrictions on data formats. This allows all critical user data to be easily stores, managed and delivered with no unified format required.Low Latency Design  In a distributed system, data is replicated on different multiple nodes to provide a higher tolerance for hardware failure and allows the system to continue to function with no loss of critical data.Global Data Locality   A multi-datacenter repl ication makes sure that data is present close to users in order to ensure optimal performance anywhere in the world.Scalability to Manage Growth   As more users enter the fray, more data is brought in the need to scale becomes crucial to success. The Rovio infrastructure allows them to add and remove nodes and scale from tens to hundreds of servers to meet customer demand.Companies therefore, need to learn to not only capture big data but also leverage it to improve the bottom line.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

The Fight Against Mankato State Application Essay Topics

<h1> The Fight Against Mankato State Application Essay Topics </h1> <h2>What Is So Fascinating About Mankato State Application Essay Topics? </h2> <p>Bridget's paper is very solid, however there keep on being a couple easily overlooked details that could be improved. In case you're not kidding about UPenn, you should realize that it was established by Benjamin Franklin. </p> <p>Attempt to close with an outline of the manner in which the disappointment improved the way wherein you manage comparable circumstances now. Subjects like passing and separation are preventative as they can be exceedingly difficult to compose about.</p> <p>Needless to state, it's imperative to settle on a subject which suits you. Figure out which subject is generally proper for the story you need to tell. Others will give you a wide point that despite everything takes into account a great deal of opportunity. By one way or another, it's considerably increasingly hard to settle on an exposition point, as you need to comply with intelligent or account style, and you have zero determination. </p> <p>If you find an interesting thought in your thoroughly free composing text, yet you're not sure about the point yet, consider doing everything over once more. While composing an individual story, you should focus on just one experience. You don't have to get a story that is one out of many. At the point when you find that subject, it's tied in with composing and rewriting.</p> <h2> The History of Mankato State Application Essay Topics Refuted</h2> <p>While the Fall 2018 application won't be live until August 2017, we trust you will get the opportunity to consider your reactions. Understudies don't have to expound on a major defining moment in their exposition, Soule states. Try not to expound on the entirety of your scholastic achievements and extracurricular interests. </p> <p>There are 3 particular structures to create an individual account. Before you can present your application, you should accumulate your materials. You never comprehend what pieces may be required to finish the whole riddle. Clarify the vehicle association better. </p> <h2> What You Should Do to Find Out About Mankato State Application Essay Topics Before You're Left Behind </h2> <p>You may wish to incorporate an additional exposition on the off chance that you accept that the school application structures don't offer adequate opportunity to pass on significant data with respect to yourself or your achievements. DO show your comprehension of the school. The letter of suggestion must be submitted along with the on-line application. Fine, however you should be prepared to compose whatever you really want to compose from a school that probably won't be your first alternative.</p> <p>College confirmations articles aren't advanced science, yet there are a scope of steps that understudies may take to collect the most precise and convincing expositions that will help their chances of picking up admission to their top-decision universities. At precisely the same time, you're dazzle the school affirmations people significantly if it's conceivable to introduce your ability to gain from your disappointments and mix-ups. There are some continuous errors made by school candidates when endeavoring to deliver their school confirmation paper a decent one. When picking a school network, you're choosing an area where you accept that you could live, learn, and thrive. </p> <p>Suggested article themes are accessible inside the on-line application. The papers are a piece of the absolute image of the understudy. The games exposition is unsurprising and should be maintained a strategic distance from, assuming there is any chance of this happening. Composing school papers is among the most troublesome features of the school application method, and it's additionally among the most significant. </p> <p>Colleges wish to get the chance to study you. Understudies may alternatively choose to partake in the Learning Community Program. They should adhere to the standard individual paper group. Such a large number of understudies accept that they comprehend what universities need from a candidate, and this may have a major impact over their expositions. </p> <p>Alongside with a breathtaking notoriety, it supplies a wide extent of exercises that are intended to plan genuine experts, much the same as I wish to turn into. Some instructive specialists give test prep or you may propose other qualified people. Clarify your duties, and you will be the kind of understudy schools find gigantically appealing. What most of understudies focusing on acknowledgment in their optimal schools are stressed over is the most ideal approach to build up a powerful confirmation article that will offer ascent to an all the more persuading application. </p>

Saturday, July 11, 2020

Middle Ages Essay Writing Prompt

<h1>Middle Ages Essay Writing Prompt</h1><p>Middle Ages articles are among the most moving papers to write ever. The explanation behind this is the Middle Ages spoke to when the Medieval perspective on an article was an inflexible structure of language. Be that as it may, the Middle Ages spoke to an improvement period for the medieval perspective and brought forth the Essay in a certain form.</p><p></p><p>An paper in the Middle Ages was carefully an artistic work, a questioning, a proper proclamation of assessment, a questioning against a specific perspective. It resembled some other political articulation: you compose what you think. This implies the reason for the article was to assault the contentions of your rival, in a way a broadside.</p><p></p><p>Essays in the Middle Ages were long and included a lot of jargon, argumentation, and non-serious inquiry. A Middle Ages paper was created from the idea of the early ver se, and a shorter adaptation of the Essay that was initially made in Latin. This appears to have been the main composing that endeavored to define a convincing contention utilizing such apparatuses as models and emblematic composition. And furthermore to utilize the subject of the Essay as a topic for examination, which comprised of making countless correlations between the medieval reports and the cutting edge records of the day.</p><p></p><p>And then the type of the Essay advanced, through the impact of the composed Medieval Roman letters, and the presentation of a more extensive scope of expository gadgets. Be that as it may, the specific subtleties of this advancement are as yet hard to comprehend.</p><p></p><p>The Essay was maybe the main conventional work of English Literature, since it couldn't be said to have begun outside the place where there is England. Almost certainly, the utilization of the Essay was affected by the writi ng of the three cantons of the Holy Roman Empire, specifically by crafted by the principled scholar Johannes Oecolampadius, which was discovered written as a short treatise. It is likewise plausible that Essay started life as an organization of contention, however that is the place its uniqueness closes. In spite of the fact that the structure of the Essay varied somewhat from that of prior medieval writing, and the way where it utilized the subject of the Essay as a topic for investigation was at that point in existence.</p><p></p><p>Because of the topic of the Middle Ages, Essay composing was commonly long, with bunches of argumentation and equal structure. The principle contrasts in the structure of the Middle Ages Essay was that it was regularly created in full sentences, and there was no verbal talk, and less facetious inquiry. The Essay in the Middle Ages was created in the medieval period from an alternate perspective thus likewise achieved another com ponent of complexity.</p><p></p><p>The Middle Ages, at that point, was a period of discussion, and there was an alternate structure of composing and structure of thought to everything else previously. The type of the Essay created with a response to this, and afterward turned into a different composing structure for the Middle Ages. Maybe it won't be excessively far-got to state that it was the Middle Ages Essay that advanced and created to become what it is today. On the off chance that you enjoyed this article, if it's not too much trouble don't hesitate to look at the remainder of the free articles in the left sidebar, or on the off chance that you like, click on the picture beneath to be taken to my blog.</p>