The Rise of Casual Gaming: Flappy Bird and 2048

Are we taking casual gaming far too seriously? Writer Ashley Tay looks back at Flappy Bird and the current 2048 craze.

By Ashley Tay

GRAPHIC: TAN LIXING

The days of the Flappy Bird craze are thankfully over — we are no longer glued to our smartphones and trying to get a tiny bird icon to move through row after row of pipes.

The game was an overwhelming success; it ranked number one in the Apple App Store and Google’s Play store in February this year and was downloaded more than 50 million times.

Despite the wave of events that followed — the unexpected announcement of the game being pulled from app stores and the subsequent confirmation of it making a comeback, it seems like the novelty of the game is lost and players are on to the next big thing.

Soon after Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen pulled the game from app stores on 9 Feb, a new craze quickly took over its legacy. 2048, the next online gaming craze, has received more than 100 million plays since it was released on 9 Mar.

2048 is a simple puzzle game that requires users to pair tiles of the same number together such that they double up to form a bigger number. The goal is to attain a tile worth 2,048.

Although the game sounds simple enough, it is even simpler to get hooked. Once again, time is being consumed by another casual game.

Could there be an underlying trend behind this vicious cycle of getting hooked, losing interest and moving on to the next new game?

Forbes technological contributor Paul Tassi believes that the rise of casual gaming is a reflection of our increasingly attention-deficit generation.

He wrote in Forbes last month: “It’s worrisome that we live in a world that would rocket an almost entirely mindless game like this to insane levels of popularity. Forget video games; what does that say about society as a whole? Have we reached a level of boredom bordering on dangerous if we’re spending our time en masse on something so pointless?”

Mr Tassi’s statement is something worth reflecting on.

The rise of casual gaming could be an indication of our generation’s growing desire for instant gratification. We are constantly on our mobile phones, tapping away on public transport and during mealtimes. In our spare moments, many of us turn to time-fillers such as casual gaming for instant pleasure. It also doesn’t help that nomophobia, or the fear of being without our mobile phones, is on the rise.

Our desire for instant gratification has also created a hot market for mobile app and game developers. From creating apps that help deliver food to your doorstep to games that help you kill time, our generation has truly been transformed by the convenience of a tap.

And because we’re so used to getting what we want instantaneously, we lose out on patience and contentment.

Casual gaming is on the rise and it will be here to stay. There were Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Flappy Bird and 2048, it’s just a matter of time before the next big app game takes over the current reign of 2048. But don’t let these games have the final say in how we’re utilising your time.