This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
People are falling in love with the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood app – so much so that a recent article I wrote about the phenomenon has garnered 7,180 views in about 72 hours:
All that controversy even sent “Kim Kardashian West” to the Today Show to chat it up with Matt Lauer to show off pics of North and to defend her gaming app from all the parents who are finding unexpected charges on their credit cards. Even Kim’s sister Kylie has spent $300 on the addictive game, and has begged her older sister for cheats. (I can almost hear the chorus of readers saying that Kylie can afford to drop that much on K-stars.
“I am your friend taking you through your journey of Hollywood to become on the A-list,” Mrs. West described to Lauer, who didn’t download the game yet, but did ask Kim if the $200 million it is projected to gross this year is accurate.
“I’m very surprised at how well it’s done,” Kim said, playing coy with the actual numbers. She mentioned that Glu Mobile is very happy with the results, and gave parents a few tips on controlling their kids’ spending.
“Be responsible and don’t have your credit card linked to where your kid can spend,” she explained.
The real secret of the Kim K game success: Viral ‘oops’ Twitter updates, simplicity, real voices and the desire to rise up the ranks
After finally downloading the free game myself and playing it, I noted several factors that contribute to the brilliant success of the game. First of all, it’s really freaking easy to play. Unlike games that frustrate their users to the point whereby they hold their iPhone’s icon until the icons wiggle, allowing them to click the “X” and delete apps that make their gameplay too confusing, Kim’s app tells you what to do all throughout the game. (At least the levels I played.)
There was no need to swipe anything at the precise time to launch some pig into outer space. Nope, it was pretty much “take the bus to Hollywood, smile for the camera and choose your hairstyles.” Girls love that crap.
Better than that, Kim’s actual beautifully nasally southern California whine of a voice can be heard throughout the gameplay, making it seem like she’s right there with you – along with other crowd noise that brings it to life. It’s a virtual chance to rise up the Hollywood ladder like many of us secretly want to do although we claim everything otherwise. With this app, we can walk the red carpet in a fabulous ensemble tonight.
A guy named Nir Eyal who writes for Forbes and other publications also came up with a fascinating theory as a contributing factor to the game’s success. In that blog post, he includes a screenshot that shows a real Twitter action – following @StarNews_Ray on Twitter – versus a fake Twitter action, and they look similar.
Brilliant, I say!
Even though I didn’t get to the “media feed” level yet to test out this action, apparently somebody at the government’s EPA office was playing the game and accidentally sent out a real tweet – as have others – instead of doing their water job stuff. And while all these things – Kim’s popularity, Kanye’s gorgeous hilarity, unintentional tweets, social climbing and simple simplicity – all contribute to the app’s aura and explosive growth, let’s explore the one unexplored option.
Say ‘Bible’
One user who reviewed the Kardashian game on iTunes asked, “Why do they keep saying ‘Bible’?”
Ah, I thought to myself, they’re not a real Kim K fan and watcher of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. It’s a reality show that I caught for the first time years ago, back when I clucked with Christian derision at a mom like Kris, who would allow her youngest girls (Kendall and Kylie were about 9 or 10 at the time) to jump atop their sisters and grind all over the place on a private bus trip.
Nevertheless, I kept watching, and like millions of Americans, fell in love with the kooky “klan” as I followed their antics, even soaking up a YouTube video of a 30-year-old Kris on a treadmill looking fierce, singing about how much she loves her friends and attending Bible study.
Yep, Bible study.
That’s why the Kardashian kids will tell each other to “say ‘Bible’” when one of them wants to know if the other is really telling the truth. Despite how Pharisee-like believers think others should act, that “train up a child” message hasn’t left them.
Kim even talked about how she still tithes 10% of her massive income to church – at least all the way up until 2011 she did – and I’ll bet you “dollars to doughnuts” that she still does, as my mother would say.
Although with all the controversy that has been released surrounding the family, like adulterous affairs, drug use, bare butted selfies and sex tape twerking, I feel like there’s a certain Je ne sais quoi charmed life existence on the woman, although I know exactly who is blessing Kim and her game. In many ways, she is the perfect person to experience the success – not preachy, but flawed and a fabulous member of a controversial family that could’ve rivaled any new or old testament crew.
So I say ride it till you can’t ride it no more. Yeah, some of those app fans might need a little debt consolidation once they get done “fiending” for more K-stars to make it to the top of the Calabasas A-star list hill, but Kim probably won’t.
Bible.