Maybe I'm over-sensitive
You are. But worse, you didn't watch the video. Why would you try to comment on something you're not going to even try to examine?
As another comment pointed out, the game's just a play (haw) on the Whack-a-Kitty youtube video. The game looks only slightly less adorable. It's also showing how even any game, even those as brutally simple as this, require * ton* of attention to graphics (which I'd hope would be obvious. A proper game requires even more attention to gameplay, but that rant will wait).
If you -honestly- think the concept alone makes light of animal abuse, what do you think about FPS's?
I won't get into a long debate, because I doubt it can be constructive (I had a longer post, but it wasn't going anywhere), so I'll just leave it at this: I disagree.
Completely regardless of "social responsibility" or "over-sensitivity" or anything like that: what effect does that name have on sales/downloads? I wouldn't think it'd be good.
And, yes, that's "unfair" since it's a play on Whack-A-Mole (which I've never heard complained about)... are moles more OK to whack than kitties? Still, that's the way the world works, and I wouldn't have used that name for my own game for that reason alone.
Well, for what it's worth, this thread was the first "complaint" about the name. I expected that to happen on YouTube first, but it was actually HN - go figure.
It's really tough to separate the name from all other factors influencing downloads, but I haven't seen any evidence it's hurting.
I think the name is pretty effective, for a few reasons: the most common reaction when I tell people the name, by far, is genuine laughter. I'll take that over polite interest any day. The name is descriptive, anyone who knows what Whack-a-Mole is can make an educated guess about this game (although it's probably cuter than they would expect). And yes, it is a tiny bit naughty - no one ACTUALLY wants to whack a kitten! - which is what makes it memorable, without crossing into offensive or controversial for controversy's sake (at least for the vast majority of people).
Do you have suggestions for other names? I can't think of anything good - "Tap-a-Kitten" or "Tap-a-Kitty" sound a lot more bland and unremarkable. Lots of R-rated names I can think of, but that's the last thing I want to get into in this thread :p
Here's my only suggestion: rename it "Whac-A-Kitten". Drop the "k", throw in a couple of hyphens.
Might not be enough for the most vigorous of offense-takers (nothing ever will be in this arena), but it at least partially mitigates that visual symbol "whack". And is a more direct reference to its progenitor, anyway. It 'feels' more like a carnival game to me than "WhackAKitty" does.
Edit: maybe also change "Kitten" to "Kitty"? I'm not sure why that sounds a bit more palatable to me - maybe because "kitten" only ever means a juvenile cat whereas "kitty" can mean several other things? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty
Watch the video. It's based on a Youtube clip of someone gently prodding adorable little kittens back into a box with a very soft mallet. No abuse here, and a valid enough inspiration for a quick game.
Animal abuse is usually illegal, and especially to target an animal that is regarded as a pet makes it more the inhumane. However, there are plenty of games that promote violence in our culture, but do we need yet another one? I don't think so.
They are free to make it, but they also take the responsibility of releasing it. Perhaps from a corporate stance, it may be about social responsibility. However, I mean personal: do you honestly think that putting that forth in the world will result in anything good? Most likely, it will come back to them in one bad form or another.
Or, to make a point, how about further games to sell:
Rape the bitch
KKK Kross Alley
Stone the Adulterer
Spics Kikes and Pikeys
Skinhead adventures
Hitler's Easy Bake oven
I mean, if we dont take responsibility for our own actions, who will?
You are simply extending the argument to ridiculousness to make a point. What about the game angry birds? It features suicidal birds with bombs strapped to them that you fling into buildings to kill pigs.
That was arrogant, but to make you happy, why don't we just call this game a "highly overrated game for sheeple" too and let it slide?
Are you one of those people who believe GTA makes kids steal cars, or that sonic the hedgehog makes kids run into walls and try to loop around their ceiling?
As I've said elsewhere in this thread, I don't think it's a great name for a variety of reasons, but it's a bit of a stretch to say a guy that's got an app with a tone-deaf name is being irresponsible and to suggest to him that he could also make Rape-the-Bitch.
Hey.. no one stopped them from making a Whack-a-human iphone game! All they do is eat, sleep and shit. They don't even roll over and play dead. No! They want you to pet them - but not all the time! no.. only when they want you to pet them! Its about time we had our little revenge! Even if it was only in electronic / imaginary form. Viva la revolucion! Viva!
Personally, I think the idea is relatively juvenile but I never intended for the headline to sound spammy. I'm just excited.
As for the "Awesome. I love the internet" portion, I'm not sure I can change that one. I do love the internet. I can't think of any industries where something like this is possible... well, no other legal ones.
I ran a large (1+ million member) community website back in 1999 - 2000 and realize that every community has their style and voice. I'm sure given more time on HackerNews I'll learn to speak with the one that's appropriate for the audience.
My advice: don't say what you can do, show what you can do. Start a project you can get excited about and demonstrates your ability to market a product or service. Document the entire process on your blog, and create awareness to your blog with Twitter.
Card games is a rather broad umbrella term. Do you mean card games like Poker, or Magic: The Gathering? Or something experimental like Rejection Therapy?
Just trying to figure out what your after. I never play Poker (I find it boring, and I don't gamble) but I'm fascinated by social experiments like Rejection Therapy.
My 'which will here be defined' was an attempt to describe the set of games like poker, bridge, whist, war, 66, skat. Conventional folk games played with one of only few sets of conventional decks.
