Okay, so take the modern version of this example: Bejeweled. Far as I can tell, it has sold a *lot* of copies (enough so that places like Staples now stock it), and still seems to be selling well in a variety of platforms. It doesn't cost $40 like most FPSes do, but the FPSes aren't selling copies to the mammoth cellphone market.
Frankly, it's the first game that came to my mind at the start of the essay; I was surprised you didn't mention it. It's hard to put a finger on precisely what makes an abstract game of this sort addictive enough to become Evergreen, but from Tetris to Dr. Mario to Bejeweled it seems to work well when you can pull it off.
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Date: 2006-01-24 11:29 pm (UTC)Frankly, it's the first game that came to my mind at the start of the essay; I was surprised you didn't mention it. It's hard to put a finger on precisely what makes an abstract game of this sort addictive enough to become Evergreen, but from Tetris to Dr. Mario to Bejeweled it seems to work well when you can pull it off.