That's right, I am talking about those Angry Birds. The video game of the year Angry Birds. The Time Magazine Birds of the Year Angry Birds. The only game in town Angry Birds. The same Angry Birds that are supplementing the geometry and physics education that's been cut from my daughters' curriculum at kindergarten. I mean I can simply play it or I can attach a welter of meaning to every bird I launch. It's bird vs pig and of course most recently, in fantastic orwellian cartoon fashion, the we're all in this together Cameron-Clegg-Cable pigs were eating the eggs of the poor upset students birds who were fighting back as best they know how.
Those Angry Birds are so scary for Daily Mail readers. Mind you, if the Mail reported it with a semblance of accuracy, their readers would be scared of the Cameron-Clegg-Cable pigs too.
The Angry Birds are the greatest example yet of a freemium product providing meaningful/meaningless fun initially and possibly perpetually, but also offering so much more for a tiny investment. My other favorites are far from mundane but prosaic no less, tools I recommend and use most every day - DropBox and MailChimp. Not exactly laugh riots those two.
What is dulling about some of the free to try games designed for smartphone platforms is the surreptitious - to a three year old, the age many games seem to be designed for - eye catching buttons that take you to paid for levels. C'mon game designers suits, buying up should be a very deliberate act. Suddenly talking tom cat is such a bore and he was #1. In our house.
Cat eating Birds. And Still they're Angry.
