AVGM (retrospective)

So its been a few weeks so i felt enough time has passed to talk a little about AVGM.


AVGM was a joke, no one was actually meant to play it at all. The flicking of a light switch to unlock stuff or "level up" is an example of what Tyler and i view as Abusive Video Game Manipulation (what the game stands for :P).

Its a tactic that's used in all MMORPGS, its a horrible and abusive way to get people hook on your game and an incredibly lame thing to do. The upsides of this tactic are obvious, its easy to get people hooked on your game and pay for it, and as long as you string them along with more expansions of the same situation you can basically bleed people dry while giving them nothing in return.

Now don't get me wrong, i understand its fun to play with people online, ive played battlefield 2 for years, but its strange to me that so many people fall into the horrible design of MMORPGS even knowing what they are doing the whole time. The level grind is a horrible and boring thing.. and what do you get from it? a more powerful character you can PK with? why not just play an online multiplayer game where everyone starts out at the same level? why should someone with less of a life then you have an equipment advantage? why are people ok with being rewarded with meaningless and empty digital icons for time spent clicking a button?

well its a simple and easy formula, and here's the break down of AVGM.

AVGM has 41 unlockable items that appear on screen and you click a button, the more items on screen the more clicks it takes for the next item to appear. Once all 41 items are unlocked they start to become colored, nothing else happens.

To finish the game you have to sit there and click the button 10,000 times. and here are the stats on how many people did this.

http://www.mochibot.com/shared/shared_trafficreport.html?key=cf99275a4769339e539571558d174da8

As of feb. 20th, 337 people have clicked AVGM 10,000 times each.
The whole thing gets even more pathetic when you know that only 8,000 people played it. That's what? 5% of people who played AVGM sat through 10,000 clicks....

Granted quite a few used auto clickers to finish it.. but the point is they still went out of their way to download an auto clicker to do so.

Its funny how small digital rewards can keep people playing something for hours, then again ill be buying Diablo 3 when it comes out, so who am i to talk.

just thought some of you might find this interesting :)

PLAY AVGM NOW!
(or just go outside for a change)
-Edmund