3 HN users recommended this talk3 months2020–2026score 3.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN commenters recommend it as a hilarious account of mass-produced app store shovelware and cite it in threads on spam and low-quality content.
In this 2019 GDC talk, Alex Schwartz and Ziba Scott explain how they flooded the app stores with over 1,500 auto-generated slot machine games to find the lowest bar for success. They tour the dark side of the mobile app market.
“They procedurally generated 1,500+ different iterations on top of the same Unity-based slots shovelware using noun/adjective pairs.” (HN, 2021)
There was a GDC talk telling a a story where two bored indie game devs made an AI that churns out throwaway low-quality slot machine games as a joke, but actually earned much more money they they’ve expected (thousands of dollars per day). They jokingly told that the reason for high CPU numbers was their “anti-retention” model, where people get so bored by their game that they would literally click ads to escape into another game! That talk was hilarious, here’s the link: [this video]
Hilarious story of an AI-generated slot machine game empire earning from ads.
If you think that's bad, check out this GDC Talk: [this video] They procedurally generated 1,500+ different iterations on top of the same Unity-based slots shovelware using noun/adjective pairs. The general success they enjoyed is as sad as it is hilarious . For the record, the most enticing descriptor categories were: "3D", "Luxury", "Casino/Gambling", and "Sexy".
Funny GDC talk on procedurally generated slots shovelware and its success.
Sorry I was just being snarky with the trash app mentioned, I could've done without it I just had a talk [0, fun one] in the back of my head when writing. There must indeed be hundreds (dozens?) of companies which fall in a grey area that Apple wouldn't be inclined to ban straight up at first offense. 0: [this video]
A fun talk about low-quality apps in grey-area territory.
If the internet is dead, is there anything left that's "alive"? The mobile app stores are also filled with crap[0] and it seems that the ratio of spam content vs real content is getting close to infinity. [0]: [this video] - 1,500 Slot Machines Walk into a Bar: Adventures in Quantity Over Quality
Example of app store spam and low-quality content.
Here’s a talk about leaning into the garbage flow. And that was a decade ago. [this video] I can’t imagine the number being economically meaningful now.
Talk on leaning into mass-produced garbage content.
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