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The surprising draw of 'Draw Something'
Chris Pirillo is many things: a self-proclaimed geek, a blogger, an entrepreneur -- and according to him, an average gamer.
The 38-year-old founder of blogging network Lockergnome loves the casual game. The pick-it-up, put-it-down, stress-free app.
Pirillo has played his share of games like "Cube Runner" and "A Monster Ate My Homework." He even jumped on the "Words with Friends" bandwagon, but found the Scrabble-like game to be a little too much work.
"The problem with games is they're usually so overly complex. If I can't figure it out within a minute, I move on," said the Seattle resident. "And you know, there are lot more people like me than people who would take a lot of time to get into a game."
Then came "Draw Something." Pirillo came across the game -- a digital variation on Pictionary, with a dash of Hangman -- recently while browsing the latest apps on his iPad. He downloaded it, connected to Facebook and started playing.
He was instantly hooked. Now Pirillo easily blows through a couple of hours a night playing the game.
"What draws people is the drawing," Pirillo said with a laugh. "Everyone likes to doodle. Who doesn't like to doodle? It's fun, it's easy, it doesn't take any thinking. Not any, but just a little."
The app, created and released by gaming developer OMGPop, has enjoyed unbelievable success in its short life. It has attracted more than 35 million users in the two months since its release -- a remarkable amount for a game that has no clear-cut winners, losers or "Angry Birds"-like levels of achievement.
"Draw Something" spent weeks as the No. 1 free app on the iPad and iPhone, and OMGPop was snapped up last month by Zynga, the king of the social-gaming industry, for about $200 million.
Playing the game is simple once you scan your social-network contacts for someone to play with. The app gives you three choices of things to draw; you pick a word and then draw it with your finger on the touchscreen, using the basic colors provided in the app. Your friend hopefully deciphers your picture and guesses it correctly, then draws a picture for you in return.
The back and forth continues in an addictive cycle. There's no winner; instead, players work together to build streaks of correctly guessed drawings.
Dan Porter, former CEO of OMGPop turned a vice president of Zynga, said they were inspired to create something that was close to a party game -- targeted at everyone and not too competitive.
"We wanted to be that game that was on the phone of the people who had no other games on their phone," Porter said. "We thought it would do well. But we were shocked that it did this well."
The point system complements the easygoing nature of the game. Players have the ability to pick from a list of three words, which range in difficulty. Harder words are worth more virtual coins, which can be cashed in for features or hints within the game.
What's interesting is how these points work. The person drawing gets coins if the other player guesses it correctly. The person guessing is given the same number of coins for guessing it.
Pirillo thinks this system is very intelligent.
"It's not a competition, it's about collaboration," he said. "You owe it to the other person as a player to get what's in your head."
This may be a factor of why the game is thriving in more than 80 countries, in the hands of people of all ages.
Porter thinks Zynga's support and infrastructure will enable them to make significant improvements to the game -- such as incorporating a chat feature or letting players save their drawings within the app. Currently, players must use the screen-grab function on their phone or tablet to save images of their drawings. |