10 Million People Are Playing This Horrible Game

10 Million People Are Playing This Horrible Game

"Free-to-play card game Rage of Bahamut lives among the top-grossing games on the iPhone and Android charts, right up there with Temple Run 2 and Minecraft. Tokyo-based developer Cygamesrecently revealed that half of its 20 million overall players are playing Bahamut. That would make it one of the most popular games in the world.

That’s surprising because it’s also a real piece of crap.

“Bahamut’s success seems to tell today’s game designers that a game with minimal interactivity, massively disorganized UI and incredibly confusing game design is the way to hook millions of players and make a fortune,” said Arash Keshmirian, CEO of Limbic Software, in an e-mail.

For one of the most profitable English-language apps of the last year, Rage of Bahamut’s interface is shockingly ugly. The fantasy-themed trading card game looks like two Yahoo! Geocities went to war with each other, with text scattered everywhere and dial-up speed load times between every page.

You can even scroll past the top and bottom of the screen, almost as if the entire game is being rendered in some sort of makeshift mobile web browser. Since the game only works if you have a network connection, this may actually be the case.

Once you’re actually playing Bahamut, the goal is to level up and get lots of digital cards, each of which features anime artwork of goblins or scantily clad witch ladies. Level up more and get more witch ladies by completing quests and “battling” other players."