TikTok Mobile Game Scams

[@andykingyt]

Try Rocket Money for free: RocketMoney.com/andyking

[@kingsgardens751]

at least it wasn’t raid shadow legends, because that would be ironic😂

[@treattrick8991]

Also a scam

[@LeCowzen]

I feel like mobile games and TikTok are the friends who say they hate each other but then are secretly hooking up

[@Levigrxce]

😹😹😹 goated comment

[@hearts4remi]

I honestly want to draw this now.

[@XDenyDefendDeposeX]

The The ​@@LevigrxceThe and and and

[@garyrobinson5655]

​@@XDenyDefendDeposeX meth isn't good for you bro

[@batterybroken]

Fr

[@adorablycutekitten5291]

a note about bitlife ads: they often show off features that you have to pay for without saying that they're paid features and honestly the game is super boring unless you spend money on the actually interesting stuff

[@OldObscureUnpopularGames]

It was pretty fun in the beginning of it's popularity, too. Pay walls ruin every game.

[@faiththeunknownbeing8126]

​@@OldObscureUnpopularGamesThat part. When it first came out it was fun! But then when I came back to it... All paywall

[@scarr_face]

@@OldObscureUnpopularGamesExactly. There’s not much for me to do in the game since everything is behind a paywall :/

[@kingofravens215]

I just wish they would have kept their promise with bitzenship because that was supposed to be an unlock for everything it wouldn’t have died out so fast if they just left that alone

[@julius_pepperwood]

@@kingofravens215agree

[@gingerseed123]

If I see one more ad for AFK Journey I am gonna have to check myself into an asylum

[@CeaselessMistseer]

It's actually kinda decent game play wise but the rest is crap

[@tacticalmisandrist]

Lmao just saw my first one of these before opening this video, wild

[@talynhastime9343]

It’s not a terrible game, but Christ the ads…

[@goingbingo]

Honestly it seems like a good game, but since they wont stop pushing the ads in my face, I'm just not gonna play it

[@montanarose4622]

Lilith Games is my mortal enemy. They publish one of my favourite mobile games, Dislyte, but they are such soul-sucking parasites that they ruin all good will.

[@woopvonwoop1133]

Every mobile ad is like this now with the fake streamer/tiktoker/cheap celeb on cameo and it's been driving me up a wall, it's cool that advertising laws don't count when it comes to the internet

[@aperson2140]

They don’t have to follow advertising law because their games are technically free to play

[@t_ylr]

The normal fake ads are already bad enough, but lampshading it and saying "but this one is real guys" is wild lol. Like just straight up lies and false advertising lol. I've never seen a "free" product that's more of a scam haha.

[@nipplecollector7818]

Idk I saw an ad that had the actual Johnny sins promoting it and I loved it

[@GODSLITTLEMEOWMEOW]

I only buy premium mobile games where there is no in app purchases, I'm not gonna waste real life money on a million micro transactions on things that are not real, and can be corrupted

[@nicoledoubleyou]

Yeah like Minecraft and terraria and don't starve and stardew valley​@@GODSLITTLEMEOWMEOW

[@iamoliviapossibly]

As someone who babysits regularly, the "mobile game voice" marketing strategy works wonders on kids. A lot of parents let their kids scroll through youtube shorts and these kids will genuinely stop and watch the mobile game ads. I've had kids ask me if I can call their mom so they can download a game they saw an ad for. It's annoying and stupid but clearly it's effective.

[@camillevoyage9727]

That is so dystopian omg

[@SunOfTheRoanKingdom]

This feels like the marketing successor to the 90s- early 2000s television ads that were slightly (or were) a scam. Except with mobile ads. Every generation of children has their cringey ads, I guess. 😂

[@Uncannykenny]

​@@SunOfTheRoanKingdomexactly,good point 😊

[@slendveny7191]

I remember being a kid and emailing my mom to see if I could get Clash Royale or something. That was peak.

[@randomtinypotatocried]

Still annoyed the Lily's Garden game wasn't following the ad lore

[@sassyscorpio5537]

The mobile game ads that I hate the most are those that are just straight up softcore "corn"

[@sky30p75]

SAME!!! It’s so gross for so many reasons. They market their games to children with fun colors and cartoony characters but the sounds are straight up moans more often than not. Plus despite the characters being cartoony they’re often insanely sexualized. That shit is definitely made by pedos tryna bait kids in. It leaves an icky taste in my mouth.

[@realleon2328]

And its often incredibly fet!$histic at that. Hate it so much

[@onihaiena6152]

It's okay, you can say Hero Wars.

[@Firebrace]

Oof, it reminds me of the conversation I had in chat for the game I play (which is . . . One of the ones shown in the video for a short time, Isekai Slow Life, the anime Waifu one). The game tricks people into playing with three types of ads. - Softcore teases of anime girl pics - Restaurant Management game - Isekai live in another world game (The ones I saw) There aren't any ads but the microtransactions and money you can put into the game if you wish is insane. Those that came for the anime pictures will end up disappointed that the pictures aren't more risqué since they all are covered or hidden if they are spicy, and there really are not a lot of them or a number of them aren't even remotely anything suggestive like the advertisers claim. Those that came for the Restaurant management are disappointed because it straight up doesn't exist in the way you would assume. You click a button that refills on a timer and customers come. They pick up a random food, give rating points, and leave. If that food is picked enough times you can upgrade it to give more rating points. There are a few more things about it, but ultimately that is all it does. Push a button and customers come, compete within your server to have the most rating points. The ads I got were the closest to the real game. Start as being isekai'd (die and get reincarnated in another world) as a walking mushroom and earn money and upgrade your village to eventually evolve and upgrade yourself into a human. I read a ton of those cheese low grade stories all the time in Asian Light Novels, and I love them. So I was thinking I would follow the journey of my character in a similar way to those sorts of stories . . . But just like those stories, the plot derailed after some time and they clearly didn't know what to do. After a certain point the story is just, 'you still live as the peaceful town mayor after all the random roadblocks and issues you faced, to be continued'. The only reason I still play is because the people on that server are all generally really nice people just talking about their day in the global chat and encouraging each other, and the fact that I've made made it into the top leaderboards despite not paying a dime simply because I joined the day my server opened. I've played long enough that the even some of the whales have been getting bored and are leaving. As long as I get satisfaction out of how far I've come and the people I can talk to in the game, I will enjoy it honestly~

[@404GameAndMusicProducer]

It's disgusting

[@cookingwithsilence]

Can't all of these developers just come together and use all of this money and effort to just make one real game?

[@viscountrainbows2857]

Work ethic is a disturbingly scarce resource in modern game development and conception. I like to believe there are many developers out there that are simply doing this as sort of mercenary work, and not because they actually intended to, even though they totally are, ruining the game market by flooding it with cheap microtransaction laden trash.

[@vena.lunaris2908]

I mean they COULD...but that's so much effort. Why make a good game when you can make a thousand hellishly terrible games and STILL make money

[@cookingwithsilence]

​@@vena.lunaris2908because bad stuff is bad and good stuff is good. Tighten up.

[@Heyimconnor]

I just hate these ads because they play so horribly for no reason. It’s genuinely frustrating

[@bethwilkins9506]

My guess is that frustrating the viewer is the point. They want you to think "I can do better than that!" and then download the game.

[@viscountrainbows2857]

Yeah honestly I *know* it's a trick and more than likely, the gameplay is fake so I won't even get a shot at telling the ad it's a big dumdum but, it pokes me right in the Spite center of my brain.

[@user-twick]

That’s the point

[@ivanelgharbi5861]

Its a trick to make you furious and download to play it better.

[@wormy5935]

It's worth mentioning that the original Evony was a PC browser game that used clickbaity sexual ads to get people to play the game and then it turned out to be spyware.

[@1MaxVader1]

It also had those pull the pin ads.

[@viscountrainbows2857]

"You deserve an [nakey party] today!" Only OGs know.

[@404GameAndMusicProducer]

Crazy ain't these scam artists on a different level

[@Feynix4]

I actually used to play the OG Evony, way back in the day. It was nothing like these ads.

[@RinnMakesMusic]

Andy please help me overcome my crippling gambling addiction!

[@andykingyt]

99% of gamblers quit before they win big!!!

[@zacharyoliver5332]

Question mark.... that's all you had to do.

[@LSKennedy-r4s]

@@andykingyt You heard the man, its a good idea to give the deed to you're house.

[@SympleSymon]

​@@zacharyoliver5332Question Mark? He was asking Andy for help....

[@zacharyoliver5332]

@SympleSymon good job... so you agree he is asking something. How when a sentence is asking something, how does it end? I just gave it away! It's a question mark.

[@scottyb8392]

these apps play for so long on Grindr that it is now common practice to just close and restart the app whenever they pop up because it's quicker for the app to load then the time it takes to close the ads

[@mudsywudsy]

GRINDR??

[@CeaselessMistseer]

Excuse me why are there ads on the gay dating app

[@everfluctuating]

@@CeaselessMistseer gotta make money somehow and i doubt guys are gonna pay to cruise

[@heatherdukeswifeandgirlfriend]

we all know that gay men love mobile games

[@Eddysig]

I do that sh*t all the time for ads on various things lmao so happy I'm not alone

[@DomovoiJr]

Whenever you see a marketing strategy you don’t understand, 99% of the time it’s because you are not the target audience, and these days it’s because literally all of these are unofficially being marketed to kids/preteens. That’s the secret of the “mobile game voice”: it’s the exact same tone as children’s tv trying to keep their attention.

[@momchi98]

I know kids need much less effort than adults require for games, but how are they even making good money if almost ALL of their target audience are people who do not make any money and instead rely on parents IN THIS ECONOMY? Like do they seriously get by on stupid parents who either give in to their child's tantrums or who just let their credit cards lie around so children can easily use them?

[@gemwolfz2860]

@@momchi98 the games are, themselves, packed with ever more ads, which they get paid to show

[@momchi98]

@@gemwolfz2860 Oh, right, makes sense.

[@corsaircarl9582]

What really grinds my gears is kids know who their favorite streamers are, so they aren't gonna fall for some rando 'playing the game' that doesn't look like any of their usuals.

[@kaiandersen155]

I audibly groan every time I get a stupid ad like this on block blast. LET ME GET MY PALM TREE COLORED IN PEACE

[@Neeners91]

OMG RIGHT??? I just wanna color a picture 😭

[@bubbashrimp]

REAL i just want to color lol

[@anastasiajones3229]

I wanna mention a GOOD mobile game. A dark Room. Its 100% text based, and a mystery. Its free, small, and a wonderful example of story telling. You have to go out and explore the world, and build a settlement as you go. Because its text only, with only a few buttons, its super easy to navigate.

[@viscountrainbows2857]

Night Of The Full Moon, and also Caves. They both have roguelike elements but the former is a card based combat, where Caves is a dungeon crawler with turn based action. Both are fun, the former is $55 currently to buy all the story modes, extras and such, and also get rid of ads that pop up when you die. And you will die a lot. Caves only has ads when you go into deeper dungeons or teleport back to your homeworld, which are highly infrequent events. Other than that, very few mobile games I could recommend in good conscience. I do like somewhat grind oriented games that still give you more than a single trickle of progress but, that does not excuse the borderline extortion that is exercised by the larger market

[@probablyalive1474]

CIFI if you like incremental games

[@AquaBenten]

I like Match Land for match 3 (or more) type of game. You get little guys and its super easy to never do any in app purchases. The only ads you get are when you want more energy, so you can theoretically never see an ad.

[@kingdingaling3376]

King tongue is good and the music has stuck with me for years

[@gooeydude574]

There’s a puzzle game called Atomas, where combine elements to try to get a high score and highest element. Its fun once you figure out how it works, at least I think it is

[@quinnnichols6571]

Andy you had the chance to do the funniest thing possible and have your sponsorship be for a mobile game

[@Galactic_Orca]

I'm, like, 80% sure most adds nowadays are written and, at times, voice acted & created by A.I

[@wouldntyouliketoknowwesath7789]

Most infurating mobile game ads i get are the ones with the woman and her child freezing/starving and its some bs like "give them food? A fire? Or a wrench" and the person always gives the wrong option, you see them cry, and then it says "can YOU save them?!?!! 1000 levels!!" And it makes me so angry. I have no idea why. Makes me think "ok starve then."

[@LunaRemaArt]

I swear I think these ads can’t get weirder but they do. The makeover game ads are a fever dream. One in particular had the character you make over on her knees and her boyfriend has one leg held up to hair dry her very very long leg hair. I’m talking extension length. You can’t forget the smell lines from her foot too. I can’t remember the rest but that screen shot will live on in my phone.

[@SympleSymon]

Yeah, but was she covered in constantly running slime/poop? That's how you know the game's a winner

[@carrlyrussell3372]

And here’s the greatest thing about that, of course the game has nothing to do with any of that. The game is so normal and actually has cute little story lines sometimes. I’m like 99% sure the people who make the ads are not the same people who make the game bc there’s no way.

[@xbluebirdx]

​@@SympleSymon Or in flies and has a green cloud over her to show she's stinky

[@amorxburbuja]

As an ancient internet person, it's amazing that Evony is still scamming people like, 15 years after I saw my first Evony ad.

[@mellow_mallow]

It's been going for that long? Incredible. I know I've been seeing it for at least a few years lol

[@amorxburbuja]

@@mellow_mallow yep. Back in my old Newgrounds days before Adblock was a thing, I was tormented by the "come save my my lord" banner ads everywhere.

[@Curdled.milk1]

The thing is these ads do work, on children on tiktok they will download the game when older people see how its a scam

[@koolnqueer98]

​@UTTP-142Your profile was literally made today. Ok bot

[@miggle2784]

@@koolnqueer98Now that you’ve replied to the bot, it’s far easier to click on their username and look at their profile, which is exactly what they are designed to do. Good job.

[@zalyspeace]

16:57 the clark kent effect is real. i would have never recognized you on the street without your glasses. until you start yapping, of course.

[@rossini138]

One of the very few features I love about new Twitter is the community notes. Every ad for a mobile game has a community note below it saying “Ad does not match actual gameplay”. It’s amazing

[@cranberri_stickz]

i love community notes. i do not go on twitter but someone said "scientists have constructed a 3d model of mary, the mother of jesus christ." 🔵community notes has added something to this post that is a model of ariana grande. **sketchfab link**

[@sunbunnow]

5:44 My kid has one of those Nerf mini guns and they are so annoying. You have to fill the band up and it takes FOREVER. Also it gets jammed if you don’t put them in just right.

[@PhantomHalf]

Kicking your mom out because she didn’t pay you rent on mother’s day is insane

[@DPadGamer]

Speaking of mobile games... have you seen the "games" on KZbin? Like, actual playable games that sometimes occur as its own shelf on the front page. They're so bad I'm surprised KZbin even bothered with the feature.

[@viscountrainbows2857]

I remember when KZbin had Snake for buffering and you could continue playing along with the video and retry as many times as the dots showed up. I haven't thought of that in years; wonder if it still works on PC machines

[@williamepler2901]

You can say hero wars its okay, it can't reach us here

[@mausfanger96]

I keep getting that afk journey ad the one with the streamer to the point that it's so annoying. i was curious who the streamer is and tried to do a reverse image search of that streamer but it shows the same ad. So im 100% convinced that they just hire fake streamers/actors for their ads

[@corsaircarl9582]

And kids these days recognize their favorite streamers, so this wouldn't work unless the kids actually do not recognize faces.

[@DJVevyVevs]

The devs of Katamari Damacy actually made a joke game parodying those game ads where it's actually just a mini game collection of the games you would see on the ads

[@viscountrainbows2857]

That sounds amazing and I would unironically spend money on that. What's the name of it, in case my Googling fails or just for posterity?

[@einstein951]

And they made a sequel!

[@Rad-Dude63andathird]

​@@einstein951 I was about to pick them both up, but then I saw they plan to combine them both into a single title, so I'm waiting for that. Didn't know it was the Katamari folks though, that's awesome.

[@Rad-Dude63andathird]

Also I love that the short version of the title is literally "Those Games" XD

[@rmmatsus]

I was really hoping you were going to talk about those bonkers solitaire game ads where they show people in a coffee shop paying for their meal by playing the game and no longer care about money. My favorite ones are where everyone in the ad seems to have a different accent entirely.

[@thebigksmoosey]

They used to show this game were you were a low level mobster, saving a girl, becoming the boss (literally higher level) and somehow also fought zombies?! It presented like a choose your own adventure game, but was drawn in almost a comic book style. I fought the urge to throw my phone everybtime I saw the ad

[@ImTheCrew]

19:21 I think they do this, to agitate the viewer, and make them think, “I can do this” or “I can do this better” sometimes when I see those purposefully losing ads, it makes me want to download just to see what happens when you pick the better choices. If that makes sense

[@kagarisa1426]

One thing about mobile games that make me laugh is how drastically different the ads for genshin and star rail are. Genshin ads feel like those, "omg you gotta have 10 bazillion power to enter this club."

[@Thorny_858]

I keep getting star rail ads on genshin videos but never genshin ads which is weird because I don't have genshin on my phone lol (pc player)

[@spontaneouslycombusted7664]

I was going to download hsr, but I didn't after i got this one where it was like.... "omg is this waifu heaven?,?!🤯🤯🤯🤯" "yes it is" "aughhhhh" like. Wtf. Losing it. Huh.

[@mosstits]

It's because the majority of Genshin's fanbase is made up of casual players, most of which don't play much games at all. Since their target audience is for casuals, they will get the more generic bad ads. Meanwhile, HSR specifically targets a more specific gaming audience. You can also kinda see this in their subreddits. HSR's subreddit is more... uh, stereotypically reddit if that makes sense lol.

[@CallofFreaky]

Only ads I’ve got for either of those is that one KZbinr’s video they payed him to make about a loser nerd being transferred into star rail and 5 second ads showcasing genshin characters

[@HazZzel-]

As an HSR player those ads are so bad wtf is the marketing team

[@kipk7043]

i'm going to start saying "awesome, i've finally come out of the fog!" on a daily basis

[@flangboot]

My gf worked with a company that did online marketing and one of the things she mentioned is that they purposely show the games being played incorrectly/poor optimization to get people to have an emotional reaction so they'll play the game

[@SympleSymon]

And when you figure that out, they all become painfully obvious to the point I'm going "Oh, you didn't even try and make it seem possible this time, so why should I bother?"

[@phil1500]

@@SympleSymon I think the reason these games are still successful and the fact that we still see these ads suggests the majority of the mobile game market doesn't think they're doing it on purpose.

[@sleepygeekyandreadytodream...y]

I think it has the opposite effect on me. I see those 'oh no im so bad at the game can you do better ' I get upset and be like probably but I don't want to now

[@nancybetters6243]

They are only successful because children download these games on their IPads and parent’s phones.

[@mosstits]

It's not just game ads, other products do similar things. Bad and obnoxious gameplay can be annoyingly memorable, and being memorable is one of the main goals for advertising.

[@stanleyjosten]

I love all the ads that try to convince you there's sex in them, as if Google play would let them do that.

[@as1ya.]

some ads r literally part of these games now like u can’t even finish a helix jump level without turning ur wifi off anymore 😭😭

[@Jogjosmowwdkfs]

Oh some apps don’t work unless your WiFi is on so they can do ads

[@NovaBlueNova]

I worked for a game testing outsource company and had to test games for one of these companies and holy shit literally everyone hated it because they would just ignore every bug we reported and still release the game. They did it as a formality

[@Lostfloortile]

They also have the most disturbing ads, and then it’s a redecorate a house game

[@joeconti2396]

You just reminded me of some of the vile shit I've seen on Vinesauce Commercial Chaos.

[@thanosattorneyatlaw4062]

That one Whiteout Survival ad with the circular base and giant fire was trying to capitalize off a game called Frostpunk, an actually good PC game.

[@rustikle5007]

These games aren't about having fun, they're about getting you addicted so you'll watch more ads and/or do in-app purchases, and be susceptible to other apps they make. Just like mobile gambling, all it exists for is to soak up as much money as possible for the studios / casinos / companies behind them.

[@andievalentin]

i will probably never understand these advertising strategies (and im a final year communications major, i know a thing or two about advertising) because there is this mobile game i genuinely like, "project makeover". they are *notorious* for those weird clickbait ads. the add will be like "oh no i have a date in 2 minutes and i look like i spent the last 5 years living in a swamp! what will i do?" and the "player" like shaves her head and picks inappropriate clothing for the event. the real game is nothing like that, its a match three type of game where you work on a makeover show helping contestants with their homes, their fashion and looks. its fun, pretty and sometimes very wholesome. so i do not understand why they make those clickbait fake ads when they have a genuinely good game??

[@m4yr4i]

Definition of ragebait. Anger is better drive to play a mobile game than genuine interest.

[@jerseyjess7826]

I remember reading/hearing somewhere that the largest demographic for gaming is middle age women. By far. And it's primarily due to mobile games. I know some people would say that's not gaming but video/computer/mobile games all fall into the video game category so yeah... a Mother's Day special doesn't surprise me at all.

[@ShadowWolfe]

"I'm trying to figure out why these companies think this is an effective marketing strategy" I'm wondering why the people would go through with doing these ads in the first place. With this, I have the same question for something like Hall of Fame athletes being in enhancement commercials: Are they really THAT desperate for money?

[@rudykvn7260]

12:47 can confirm, my mom actually is obsessed with evony!! it’s scary. she has spent over 2k dollars on it and plays it instead of working. she is THE mother demographic…..!

[@RainbowFlowerCrow]

2K dollars American, or another country? Guyana maybe? That's a lot of money!

[@l0rf]

And then there's the Honkai ad that's 6 seconds long. For three seconds, they play a French song, then it's 3 seconds of silence. It's so weird and feels like an accident, like they uploaded one of the early wips instead of the finished ad campaign.

[@almostfamous39]

Evony.....from cheesy browser based false game ads to mobile...now that's longevity!

[@darkwebgirl]

Whiteout Survival is a real game...my mom is addicted to it...she plays it all day at her desk at work, she spends money on it, some people in their discord group spend hundreds of dollars routinely on that game...

[@1MaxVader1]

I deeply hope this is just bait, and not true...If it is true, I'm terribly sorry for your loss.

[@darkwebgirl]

@1MaxVader1 it's not bait but my mom only buys the 99c packages. Also, I was wrong by saying hundreds. The people in her discord group pay tens of thousands, the people who win the game and have better districts, spend hundreds of thousands. You can google it, it's a whole insane community.

[@ihave31wangs]

They baited me with that gameplay but I ended up loving the game and now play it every day lol

[@nobodyshekatonchires]

The only time ive clicked on an ad for a mobile game is when i accidentally drop my phone

[@glassretina]

My adhd stricken boyfriend is OBSESSED with white out survival bc every time he seen an ad he hyper focused on it until he ended up just downloading it and he will actively SPEND MONEY on it. It’s so fascinating.

[@SympleSymon]

Andy: *finishes his sponsor read* KZbin Ad: _Don't click away! New mobile game Wuthering Bullshit is offering a free prize!_ ... it's poetry or some shit

[@mayonnaise-sammich]

Wuthering Heights?

[@SympleSymon]

@sadgirl2.0 I can only imagine it's loosely based on it, somehow... it's called Wuthering Waves, it's not out yet

[@mayonnaise-sammich]

@@SympleSymon oh, I've never gotten ads for it, now I have to check it out You've done the advertising for them 😭

[@dallaStar.]

ty for keeping us fed andy

[@ameliajeffs3277]

theres also the ones like royal match where they show a cartoon character just straight up dying on screen and you have to do a rly basic puzzle to save them

[@Quaila]

Uhhhh wtf at 19:30 "Appearance" options include "Gorgeous", "Ordinary", "DARK SKINNED" and "PALE AND NEAT" ........

[@612sav]

I feel like the point of these ads is that the people in the ads always are so bad at the game and when you watch you get frustrated because you feel like you would be so much better at it so it makes you want to play it. At least that’s the only thing that makes sense to me.

[@yellobb3848]

I remember getting a mobile game ad years ago that I was not interested in at all. Ended up downloading the game months later out of sheer curiosity and the actual game was far more interesting than the ad lmao

[@FrenkTheJoy]

The worst mobile game ad is for one of those makeover games. The entire ad is like "remove the blackheads from this person" and she's just COVERED in them. Giant gaping black holes on her face, her shoulder, her feet. I don't have that trypophobia thing where you're terrified of sponge holes or whatever but I have to cover the screen whenever I have the misfortune of that ad popping up. It's disgusting and makes me feel ill. And apparently the actual game is just a regular-ass makeover game that doesn't even involve removing oozing sores and blackheads from people??

[@DavidBunnyan]

Last War actually surprised me by how similar it is to the ads... Still don't understand why they couldn't have just shown the game for the sake of being genuine.

[@TheChronova]

21:22 "the biggest enemy here is money, these companies *just want money* " congrats on summing up the woes of late stage capitalism

[@Mostly_Roblox]

These ads always show fake gameplay because the ads show gameplay people would be more likely to click on, and they don't actually use that fake gameplay because the thing they show in the ads is usually way less monetizable

[@bleh3.2]

"Why do these companies think these tactics are gonna work??" *plays the game* "I mean c'mon who's falling for this?!"

[@kjdubs5877]

The mobile game ads i hate most are for Hero Wars. Ads that don’t match the game, weird, sexual or clickbaity scenes, straight out of the dark side of YT Kids...

[@Leafpool2]

Also some of these give off "script written by ai" maybe I'm wrong but the wording some of the ads use gives off that vibe. Some secret third layer of sinister-ness to all this

[@Dancerama6]

I hate the royal match ads. Like one had the guy from suits doing a cameo on his way out for a jog or something it was so stupid.

[@MaXxOwnagesMel]

for anyone interested there is a game on steam called "YEAH! YOU WANT "THOSE GAMES," RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET'S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM!" that is just all of these crappy phone games made into one big game, the reason people don't make those games is because you can't throw predatory microtransactions into them.

[@Jitterbug_8]

this is why i can't take any ads seriously anymore

[@NotBlazeYT]

Seeing Andy without his glasses made me want to get eaten by a polar bear in white out survival

[@Mud-Brain]

"Pocket Champs" is just a ripoff of the Sonic Adventure 2 Chao Garden racing minigame, and now I just want a chao garden on mobile please sega PLEASE

[@viscountrainbows2857]

A whole dedicated Chao Garden game would literally make so many people happy. So yeah the higher ups don't wanna do it.

[@chiefofthesky]

that would be peak, i’d play it for SURE

[@Mskittenlover12]

Project Makeover ads. Those are the ones I hate the most. First of all, gameplay is most definitely misleading. I don't have to play the game to know that. But the ads are disgusting in EVERY way. Not to mention extremely misogynistic. I absolutely cannot stand them.

[@perfessorclown5543]

I remember when Evony was a shady site where you played some crappy base-building game on your computer, which likely had malware at this point 😂

[@connorwright1420]

The thing about last war is it gets so much more involved the more you play - you build like a whole village, with barracks and hospitals and places where you collect raw materials to upgrade said buildings (it's all very point and click but so are all games nowadays), and you collect different characters who are then on the crew you use to fight the monsters (levels vary on whether the monsters run toward you or you run at the monsters, I think the former is more common). But there's like a community aspect as well, you join into like giant alliances with other players and go against other teams and hoards of monsters. The thing about this is that SO many of the 'people' on the game are bots, repeating the same 'hey there' messages again and again, no matter what or chat or alliance you join, eventually it'll be overrun. A funny thing that happened when I had a span of playing it for a couple days is that there's a world chat but also a local chat - in my case this would be UK or English (language wise I mean), but there was one instance where a bunch of people were on who were saying that the chat was meant to be something else (I forget the specifics but they were expecting a different language, I think it was Czech or something), then multiple others came on saying no it was meant to be their language. All this can lead to the assumption that the developers just put a bunch of countries' chats into one, hoping no one would notice and that timezones would mean no one was on at the same time (this did not work). The game isn't really that bad, but it was a bit too easy. You get so many welcome gifts and so many rewards from each level that you have too many characters to choose from and all are way too overpowered. The only thing you ever have to grind with is waiting for buildings to finish building or upgrading (and even this can be sped up using some of the like million fast forward items you get on joining, or by joining an alliance and getting them to help speed it up (similar to what would happen on the fb game cityville)).

[@devonzimmi]

An advertising gimmick often used is to show gameplay that's really bad to get the person watching the AD go "I can do better."

[@alexallen9305]

8:12 it’s all to get the small ammount of people that will spend thousands on the micro transactions to download the game. They know that the vast majority of people who will download app will spend two seconds on it and delete it, however there’s people that will spend a ton of money on these stupid things and it’s to bait those people into playing it.

[@Bored_Barbarian]

11:52 Evony is just clash of clans from dollar tree, effectively. Was fun years ago, but nah never went back after I lost most of my cities. Way too predatory micro transaction heavy.

[@ridleylegassy]

15:29 holy shit they just stole the sound effect from Crash Bandicoot. You can hear the gem collect sound followed by the choir

[@mostamazingrace]

I HATE Project Makeover ads. They are the worst. I hate seeing the gross/sick/stinky women, and I hate when they're shown getting a makeover to make them grosser/sicker/stinkier.

[@UnGEr911]

The fun thing about TikTok ads is that these people almost are never paid to play, they use footage from the company and are entered into a contest to see who has the best ad, the winner generally gets about $1,000 and by entering into the contest the company gets to use whoever’s ad without paying them

[@LilaTheMoo]

I remember a few years ago getting an ad for a game that just straight up used footage from Breath of the Wild to advertise their game that in no way resembled the game they were advertising. I wish I could remember what it was, but I assure you that it wasn't Genshin Impact.

[@TheBucktooth22]

Ironically evony used to be a game you played online not a moble game, it was very boring settlement building game similar to civ, you had to build your empire and fight/conquer gather mats etc then they started making mobile ads for this bastard offshoot then they closed the original game to double down on this mobile version

[@Kswitchem]

There's a game on Switch called "Yeah You Want Those Games Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them!" That was essentially made in response to fake mobile game ads. It includes a variety of mini games based on one's seen in the ads.

[@mattm8870]

Its on steam as well.

[@Abbyrogers3214]

unity actually has a tutorial on how to make the runner games, might be why they're so popular

[@amydaskilewicz9076]

I’m always so flummoxed by ads for games that say you can make money. Like, I get that they’re casino apps, but don’t they have to disclose that it’s gambling?

[@liichkiing]

I miss when fake mobile game ads were like that one boring pokemon clone that made all of their ads look like some melodramatic gory horror take on pokemon and also, like, omori esque? now we just have this. Shameful.

[@Ash00114]

that second one, Evony has been around for ages, it used to be a city builder sorta thing with a ton of microtransactions

[@Joy_-bp9wt]

Oh my god please look up the ads for a tycoon game that's pretending to be like a creeypasta boyfriend simulator (I think!?) cause they won't stop showing up on my feed and the lore seems actually insane

[@michelg3811]

The “$6,400 subsidy” ads are the worst for me. I know it’s not a game but oh man are they dumb!

[@axuwu6939]

I can’t believe Dragalia Lost, a genuine masterpiece of a mobile game, died partially due to lack of advertisement, while the games that get advertised to death are THIS.

[@voidcat8333]

You play a couple rpg gacha apps cause you're bored and suddenly all the ads you get are overwhelming sexualized women who would have incredible amounts of back pain. Send help.

[@sigasaurusrex]

dude seeing that evony- who at least at one point advertised on CABLE- is advertising this game now is crazy... well before this all the ads i got were the like bar-sliding puzzle ones so i want to understand what the fuck happened

[@moonmannd7501]

It's interesting how many of the mobile games people really remember the most fondly are the ones in the early days of the touchscreen. Where although they're all incredibly gimmicky because they're built around displaying the screen & tilting, because of that they all have simple, satisfying, fun gameplay loops. Now games and apps are only actually made *for phones* in terms of mass market appeal bc everyone has one rather than any actual gameplay possibilities. (They're also remembered well because nostalgia, that definitely hurts my point however much but I do think I have a point.)

[@trensitasfresitas]

Hurrah my favorite online niche commentary celebrity Andy King has posted #yass #first #pastelitosareyummy

[@im-just-kate]

the ad i got before this was an ad for clash of clans - they're onto me

[@hehehehehe9230]

The game evony used to advertise itself as a puzzle game with the same type of ads. They switched fake gameplay once everyone caught on

[@ElizaK.]

"Yes Andy" we all say in unison

[@laurelsmith5960]

BABE WAKE UP ANDY JUST POSTED

[@wirb3859]

Ironic this video is showing up in my recommended now that Last War signed on Antony Starr aka Homelander from The Boys to do these fake ads

[@viy2959]

One thing that’s also amusing to me is that even the games that I consider good or fun have inaccurate ads that don’t display the content well. I assume because the company contracts their ads out…

[@thedinkster2163]

Any one remember when they announced Diablo Immortal will only be mobile? Then decided, nah and made it for PC too?

[@ivy.has.been.poisoned7652]

my glorious king andy, thank you for keeping us peasants fed

[@MaggotInfested]

My least favorite ad is a dress-up game ad that uses art of Amanda The Adventurer with huge knockers blindly picking clothes and then they pop off and her rack is covered by 2 patreon censors which doesnt even make sense because theres no patreon to promote. For those who dont know, In the game, Amanda is canonically a CHILD like TODDLER CHILD :3