Freemium = 'not really'

I've been playing QuizUp, a freemium game, for a year and a half now. It's a free app, but it does allow in-app purchases of 'experience point' multipliers, a buck to double your experience points (or whatever the game calls them) for ten minutes, a couple more bucks to double the experience for half an hour or an hour. I have yet to pay a single penny through the game, but I know that freemium games are wildly profitable - Clash of Clans had more than $1.8 BILLION in revenue in 2014.

Thankfully, South Park laid it all out...



This last one, I warn you, is more than a little NSFW.

Update: QuizMeUp

Updating my QuizUp progress...

I've crossed halfway to the Praetorian which requires 10,000 victories. I screenshotted my progress when I was just over halfway to that with 5007 victories. The other achievement in the distance for me is Unstoppable which requires 10,000 games played. Add in my 1559 losses and 95 ties, and that gives me 6661 total games played, nearly exactly two thirds of the way there.

I cut the photo off with the topics in which I've crossed the level-sixty line because those are the ones needed for the Avatar achievement. I have upped my average score to 116 from the 112-point average that you saw last time. Helps that I played a bunch of categories that I know well to get to Avatar instead of banging away against those categories that required level fifteen for the achievements.

The other two achievements that I'm lacking are going to require some traveling, needing me to play in four and ten countries each. Supposedly, I've played in three countries, though I've no idea why QuizUp believes that. I've only played within the cute confines of these here United States of America.

I dropped all the stats from the QuizUp website into a spreadsheet (Google Drive link, check it). Admittedly, I typed them into a spreadsheet because the QuizUp website presents its numbers as graphics not as copyable text. Here's what I found.

My best winning percentages (minimum of level 60)

• Batman - 94.5%
• Chemistry - 93.5%
• Name the Element - 92.8%

Categories with the most wins without a loss

• Animals - 6 wins
• Riddles - 5 wins
• Commercials - 5 wins

 Highest average points (no minimum level)

• Math: General - 158 (1 game)
• Mothers - 156 (1 game)
• Name the Dish - 150 (1 game)
• Back to School: Science - 149.8 (469 games)
• Name the Element - 147.4 (542 games)

Most games required to get to level 60 

• Actually, I can't tell. I don't know what the stats are exactly when I hit level 60. Name the Elements, for example, is currently on level 64, so saying it took me 542 games to get to level 60 would be wrong. Wish I could've gotten the stats at each milestone.
• See, if I could get to level 60, I was probably pretty good at the category, so I was fine to keep playing at it.

Most games required to get to level 15 (I'm assuming if I wasn't great at it, I stopped at level 15. Hence anything that would've taken me the most games would be a category in which I stopped at level 15.)

• MMA - 98 games (this felt eternal, a 9.2% winning percentage)
• Poetry - 72 games
• British Royals - 70 games
• Formula 1 - 69 games

 Most games without a win

• Harry Potter (movies) - 4 games
• Baking - 2 games
• App Logos - 2 games

Worst non-zero winning percentages

• Bob Dylan - 9.1%
• MMA - 9.2%
• Dog Breeds - 20%

Highest non-hundred winning percentages

• Action & Adventure (movies) - 94.6% (37 games - I am stunned that I have a winning percentage that high in this category.)
• Batman (movies) - 94.5% (475 games)
• Chemistry - 93.5% (494 games)

QuizMeUp

I've been playing QuizUp for a few weeks now, having downloaded the app on the eve of our trip to Chicago via MegaBus. Since then I've thrown myself whole-heartedly into the QuizUp frenzy.

I'm on as Lonnie Dusch (the alias that phschemguy uses when I'm in meatspace), and I'm rocking the chemistry category, having made (as of Sunday evening) it to level 45 and needing only five more categories to top out the titles there with Private Ion. Though I really like the idea of level 50 on Periodic Table getting me nicknamed as Mendeleev's kin. Or the choice of Splitter of Atoms if I get to level 40 in the Scientists category.

Currently I'm rocking the Flux Capacitor title having earned that achievement most recently. I think I'll stick with the science-themed nicknames as I'm kind of using it as a way to interact with my students (some of them anyway). Admittedly, I'm an achievements-chaser. Currently I'm working on UN Assembly (play matches against players from 100 countries - I'm at 61 and counting), The Big Kahuna Burger (reach level 15 in Snacks and Quentin Tarantino - I'm at 6 in Snacks and 5 in Quentin Tarantino so far), and David (as I am currently challenging some 60+ level folks in the Tennis category before I've even made it past level 1 myself.) So far I'm proudest of the Ramtastic achievement of fifty consecutive victories, mostly in the Chemistry category.

My favorite categories at this point are Chemistry (level 45), grammar (17), Batman (the comics - 16), and Name the Element (16).

My next steps for this summer will be to contribute some questions, partially to get the Sphinx achievement and partially to help make the game better. At this point I pretty much know all the chemistry questions and answers by heart, barely having to read each question to know the answer instantly.

Anybody wanna challenge me?