Kim Kardashian: Hollywood

About four months ago Glu Mobile released a Kim Kardashian game called Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. In this game players begin as an inspiring star and work their way up to become an A list celebrity with the help of Kim Kardashian. In the game users have their own manager and they also have a publicists. Just like in the real world there are paparazzi, celebrity parties and you can even get married. Here is a trailer of the game:

I have been wanting to download the free app for a while now so I finally did on Friday and I wish I hadn't. I am completely addicted to the game, which is horrible for me because before the game I hardly had any time and now I have less. The creators of this app are extremely smart, the game is designed so that every action you do requires energy and when you run out of energy you have two options wait about 30 minutes for your energy to refill or go on the star shop and purchase stars to convert them into energy. In the beginning of the game they let you play for a little while giving you energy and stars but after you have played for a few minutes your energy starts to decrease and you can only find money and other irrelevant stuff on the objects you can click to get free stuff. The player is forced into having to buy money and stars to convert them into energy so that you can keep playing and buy things you need, if not getting out of the E list will take forever.

I don't ever spend money on games but for this game I decided I wanted to get more stars because I wanted to keep playing. I bought the $4.99 package which gives you 50 stars which get converted into 40 energy. The $5 I spent vanished in like 3 minutes, I was extremely upset. The developers leave an active user no choice but to have to buy energy and this is why they are so smart. Analyst forecast that the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood app will bring in about $200 million by the end of this year according to reports by Bloomberg.

Although money is important, I feel like Glu mobile should focus more on the experience of the game rather than only on making money. By experience I mean not just looking at the users as dollar signs but allowing the users to be able to enjoy the game without having to spend so much. When you go on the star shop their are not many opportunities for players to watch ads for stars or do other things that don't necessarily involve out of pocket costs. I think that Glu mobile should add more opportunities that way we users don't feel like we have to pay so much in order to succeed  that would enhance the experience immensely.