Why frustrate players and 4 other stories you shouldn’t miss this week!

Week 12The Game Developers Conference (GDC) caught most of the media attention this week, but look no further to get the 5 most interesting links from the week that was.

1. Wooga uses frustration and hate to reach the top of the App Store (Pocket Gamer)At the GDC, Wooga’s Florian Steinhoff held a presentation on how and why game developers should make games that frustrate the users. According to Steinhoff, frustration and even hate can lead to better user engagement and retention. Read the article to get a full overview of his argument.
2. Google announces improvements to Google Play Games (The Next Web)Google took the GDC opportunity to announce new features and improvements for Google Play Games. New features include in-game gifts and cross-platform multiplayer support. Moreover, Google will take measures to improve game discovery in the Google Play Store by increasing the number of game categories to 16.
3. Mobile ad market grew 105% in 2013 (eMarketer)Leaving GDC for a moment, eMarketer published new figures from the mobile ad market this week. According to their numbers, the mobile ad market grew 105% last year and reached close to $18 billion in revenue. Unsurprisingly, Google and Facebook take up the majority of revenue with a combined 66% of the market.
4. Flurry’s retention matrix for Android (Flurry)For the purpose of guiding mobile game developers, Flurry made a retention matrix for games on Android based on results from 1,382 top titles. The guide includes a retention matrix based on game genre and frequency, as well as gender and age. Furthermore, Flurry analyzes the data and advises accordingly. For more information about retention and how it can be computed, take a look at this blog article by our own Thomas Sommer.
5. Why did Alibaba invest $215 million in Tango when no one in China uses Tango? (Tech In Asia)Another week, another over-the-top (OTT) mobile messaging announcement. This week it is about Tango, which is to receive $215 million from Chinese e- and m-commerce platform Alibaba. However, why is a Chinese e-commerce company investing in a mobile messaging app with almost no users in China? Tech In Asia takes a closer look in this article.