Why Gamers Stay Away
More than once has been asked: Where are the gamers on Steemit. Plenty of games, no players. You’d think that with so many Steemians, the number of active gamers should easily be around 500 to 1,000. The opposite is true. What sort of games are there? To be perfectly honest, not much springs to mind apart from the one game I’ve been playing so far, which was designed by @alexmove and isn’t even finished. Apart from that, I can think of bingo (@xpilar), Ludo and a few retro games I tried out quite a while ago (introduced on Steemit by @italygame).
I’ll put aside the risk of addiction and gambling for now, as that’s not what this is about.
Over the past few years, we’ve discussed on more than one occasion what sort of games would be appealing to play on this platform.
If we look at the players, there are two types:
- The sort of players who like to do something on their own for relaxation or, who knows, perhaps even for the thrill – both of which serve as a distraction
- players who like to be competitive and take on others, with the aim of winning (and, if the opportunity arises, even cheating).
And then, of course, there are people who would very much like to earn some money by playing a game. After all, they’re investing their time, and anyone who comes to this platform is simply here to earn money and clearly not to socialise; otherwise, there would be more comments posted.
Games in general
They may well stand out on Steemit because of the reports that are posted automatically (sometimes after payment or once enough points have been earned), and many of them are absolutely uninteresting. Very little is said about the game itself, or what exactly the player finds so enjoyable about it. Presumably it’s the rewards, or the simplicity, or both. Over the past few weeks, I’ve asked players a number of times what they liked about it, and actually none of them could really say; the only thing that came out was that ‘it’s easy to play and you should just give it a go, then you’ll know how it works’. If this is how the average player plays, or what the average player is like, then I do have my doubts about developing games on this platform to attract investors. Firstly, I think the average investor has better things to do than play games; secondly, I don’t think the current advertising for games is particularly appealing enough to encourage you to get involved as an investor.
I came across the cur8 link again and clicked on a few games just to see what is available.
Rainbow Rush
I’ve no idea what this game is about, it just won’t load for me. It doesn’t matter how long I wait or how many times I try; I’ve even restarted my phone. So that means this game is a big NO.
When I want to play a game, it has to work, and I don’t fancy sitting around for hours hoping it might eventually load or start up. The only thing I could see was a leaderboard, apparently there are people who can play it or have played it at some point.
Space Shooter
This is some sort of retro game. It could be a good game if it worked properly, but it doesn’t. There are two buttons: the one on the left is for moving your rocket a little to the left or right, or perhaps up and down, and the one on the right is for firing. With a bit of luck, you might get a bit extra munitions.
That button for steering the rocket doesn’t work with me; if you’re lucky, it might work once, and then you’ll end up stuck in the bottom corner, or in the bottom centre, or on the left, just don’t go right at the bottom or right at the top. It's game over if you try to move. The controls leave a lot to be desired, and it doesn’t really matter whether it’s down to the buttons, my phone or the internet connection, a game simply has to be playable, and this one clearly isn’t.
Steering with two hands on a phone is an option, but even that doesn’t help much. So my strategy was to stand somewhere in the bottom left, the corner works best, or slightly to the left of centre, and then just fire at whatever I can hit. Naturally, that doesn’t get you very far, and it also means boredom sets in very quickly. If there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s a game that bores you to death.
It misses the charm of 'Duck Hunt' and the extras (using your brains + memory) of 'Wolfenstein'.
Sky Tower
It takes just a moment to work out how to play this game. It’s quite simple: a square appears, followed by another, and the aim is to stack them exactly on top of each other by tapping your screen at just the right moment. If you do this too early or too late, a piece of the square breaks off and the tower becomes narrower on one side. The aim is to make it as tall as possible.
The game is easy to follow, doesn't look special, it’s quite nice though that, as you build higher, it actually gets darker at the top.
As I said, the game is quite nice, but the way I play it my hand clearly gets in the way and I can’t see the blocks. I hold the phone with one hand and tap the block with the thumb of my other hand. I reckon this is also the only way to tap the blocks quickly enough, and actually at a certain pace, because these blocks also appear at a certain pace.
If you don’t let yourself get distracted, you can get quite far, provided the tower is in the right position, and, of course, you don’t cover the blocks with your hand, because then it becomes a matter of guessing when to tap.
Is it a game you can play for long periods? No, I don’t think so. I can’t even keep at it for 10 minutes, and by then I’d already got quite a few levels further, so this is actually just a bit of a bore. Perhaps it would be a bit more fun if the pace were a little slower, one has to focus and there is no room to think of something else
Blocky Road
The only advantage this game has over ‘Rainbow Rush’ is that it loads and that little block looks quite cute, at least, if you manage to turn it round.
So that little block, some sort of LEGO or Minecraft figure, has to cross the road, cross the water and cross the railway tracks without drowning or being hit by a car or a train.
Even if that little block is on a boat (is it a road or just floating rubbish?), you don’t have two seconds to think before you jump on to the next section, because you’ll be flung into the water before you know it.
I find it difficult to turn the little figure round. This means it just gets stuck on a stone or under a tree at the start of the game. I can tap and swipe all I like, but nothing works.
Another downside of the game, in my view, is that the little block character sometimes disappears off-screen, so you can’t zoom in on that part and have absolutely no idea what’s happening, in all likelihood, it’s being run over again by a train or hot by a truck.
Another drawback, in my view, is that there’s no easy way to get started; this means that, if you’re unlucky, the game’s over after two seconds, and naturally, you won’t play it under those circumstances. Whilst trying to figure out how to move the character, you’ll have died and restarted at least 20 times by then, and in that respect, too, the fun of the game is well and truly gone. There’s simply no point in playing if you can’t try it out at your own pace first.
oh, yes, I tried this one for a few minutes. Kind of strange if I tap left it goes right ...
If all games are like that, I can well imagine that not many people would be interested in playing them, with the exception of those that cost next to nothing and offer the chance to earn a bit of money, but then I do wonder to what extent people are actually interested in gaming itself, in the relaxation it offers, or whether it’s simply about earning Steem in a very easy way.
By the way, this also drains the battery of my phone 🤔
I think I’ll just carry on with my chess lessons on Duolingo for now @steemchiller, let me know if we have Murdoku, Meowdoku or something exciting.
7-11-2026