Bespoke Custom Games for business – Works every time.

As the gaming community has known for a long time, a game is not just about winning or losing, its far more important than that. Games are increasing in complexity all the time and are now firmly rooted in our everyday lives. Recent daily news reports about the invasion of PokemonGO players to such diverse locations as The White House to Ayers Rock, causing mayhem in their wake, are proof of this. To ignore the power of games to influence people and create market share would be a mistake for business especially those involved in building their brand. The future of marketing is complex and apps and games are a very useful vehicle and tool to drive business forward. This is not surprising to us at Fierce Fun, but what does surprise us, is the amount of companies both large and small, that are completely unaware of the marketing potential a bespoke game can have to their bottom line. Not only do games have the power to influence our lives but they are a powerful force for marketing and in the area of education and learning.

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QuizTime Trivia has landed – Try it free on Android now


Fierce Fun Apps

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.quiztimetrivia&hl=en

Download URL  https://fiercefun.com/quiztime_download/download.html

Video  https://youtu.be/qD3wZNSuUo8

QuizTime Trivia Rapid Fire Fast Paced Quiz

Quizzes, like University Challenge, Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, have been tricking us with trivia, puzzling us with puzzles and probing our knowledge on the most obscure topics you can find, and we never grow tired of it. The fact is we love it. But why?  Quizzes are not new, they are the age old test of acquired knowledge. Well here at Fierce Fun we want to offer something new to the genre, with our new generation trivia sensation, QuizTime Trivia. It offers the player endless trivia quiz fun and is the fastest game online to test your trivia knowledge. If you are a fan of trivia quiz games and want to test your knowledge? Then look no further and try this, it never gets dull.

The Quiz reflects the highest form of human achievement.

So why is the quiz, such an essential part of the human condition?  People are natural exhibitionists and posers when it comes to what they know (or think they know) and seek the validation of their intellect by their peers. This is our basic competitive nature and is one of our unique human traits. I see the quiz and quizzes in general as the zenith of human development and it is a key ingredient in what separates us from the animals.

Some say that our ability to manage fire, speak, develop agriculture, write, and cooperate are the benchmarks for human evolution. These are indeed great achievements. But I say the quiz is our greatest. One of the most important human achievements is the pursuit of knowledge and the retrieval of it when needed. This along with our imagination, which we may use to create scenarios for our challenges is unique to humans, and has allowed us to make sense of our world and find answers to all the problems that assail us as a species.

 Origins of the Quiz

So what is the origin of the Quiz? Testing of ability has always been a feature of human society. The testing of knowledge, was common in early civilisations as far apart as Ancient Egypt in the Mediterranean to the Han dynasty in China.Most ancient societies offered education to certain members of the populace and passing tests of knowledge was a way of advancing yourself in society, just as it is today. Testing and examination through the ages came under a variety of names but the term quiz is relatively new. The use of the word Quiz for an intelligence test was first recorded in mid 19th century, when first used as a verb for interrogate. Later in that century it came to mean what it does today, i.e. an entertainment based on a testing of someone’s knowledge.

Earlier uses of the word conveyed that of an odd or eccentric person, as used by the English novelist, Fanny Burney  in a diary entry by her in 1782. The most interesting origin theory of the word is a Dublin tall tale, whereby the Impresario Richard Daly, bet he could introduce an unknown and nonsensical word to the English language and let the public decide its meaning within 48 hours. He had people graffiti the word all over the city and in two days it was the talk of the town and entered the English language. Whether or not the meaning was agreed upon by the Dubliners of the day is unclear but the meaning eventually evolved into the Quiz, we understand today.

Change of use.

How has the quiz changed over the years. Initially a parlor games for the middle classes it eventually gained respectability, when it was used as the basis for the IQ test. Intelligence Quotient or IQ as we more commonly know it, was devised to measure the ratio of the mental age of a person to their actual age. This was carried out by what came to be known as Mensa. Also known as the international high IQ society, Mensa, provide a forum for people of high intelligence, as judged by their quiz or test, to become members and to show off to each other, seriously, they do.

So the quiz had attracted the super brainy people. Mensa was set up in 1946 and was advertised as a club for those with high IQ’s, no dummies need apply. It was was set up by a British psychologist named Cyril Burt. The problem with Burt was that he was a eugenicist, meaning he believed intelligence was hereditary and that society could enhance the human race by allowing the brightest and best to breed. Eugenics had it roots in the selective breeding movements, popular at the time in Germany and Sweden. So is that why he set up this social club? For the intelligentsia to copulate? Possibly, but the interbreeding of the ruling Royal families of Europe over centuries, never produced one Einstein. So the evidence suggests it is codswallop. Mensa now say they are a social club of intelligent friends.

So dont worry if you cannot get into Mensa, all intelligence can be learned and help is at hand with QuizTime Trivia. This quiz is ready to take your brain on a rapidly moving roller coaster ride of unparallelled dimensions. You will be examined on your knowledge of, news, sports, music ,films, history, science, celebrities and much more. There are 150 levels of ultra fast rapid fire rounds. You will have to react with speed dexterity and wit, and every level you climb will get just a little bit more difficult. QuizTime Trivia takes no prisoners. Survive this and a Mensa test will be a walk in the park. Now you too can show off, take on the Bag Man in QuizTime Trivia.

When you reach the top level in QuizTime Trivia you too will believe, the Quiz is the highest form of human achievement.

 

Tempting us with an Apple – One way Apple are targeting the Android user.

smartphones

Is the Apple attempt to coax Android users to the iphone/pad a bit cheeky? Using their Move to iOS for Android app, makes this now possible. The reasonable man would say Apple are just giving new or potential Apple customers an easier way to change from Android to Apple? The unreasonable man would say encroachment on the competition smacks of desperation.

Whatever the answer, it is not the only Apple made App that will be accessing their main competitors operating system as next year they plan to launch Apple music on Android. But rest assured mobile games fans Fierce Fun will provide the best range in mobile entertainment on the widest range of OSes.

Move to iOS9

The Move to iOS9 is a free download available on the Google Play store, and it makes it easier for people who want to change device to bring their data with them. You will need both an Android and iOS device to complete the switch process.

The Move to iOS App will allow the existing Android user move all their precious files to the iOS ecosystem. This will include files containing your photos, your calendar, your message files, your contacts and even your email accounts. So how does it work in practice? Your new Iphone or Ipad device will need to set up a secure Wi-Fi network when prompted by the App you can then go on to download all that precious, never to be found again data that for some reason you have been carting around on your phone for years. Yes I do that too.

So all this begs the question, why would one want to switch to Apple? Or why Apple feel they must smooth out the switching process with this new App. Just to let you know, here at Fierce Fun we ensure our mobile games run beautifully on both OSes. But in reality, the smartphone market has been regenerating itself frantically with upgrade after upgrade all through 2014 and 2015. Android devices like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung Galaxy Note 5, HTC One M9 and LG G4 are state of the art hardware and represent each of the named company’s flagship smartphone. Apple in response have given us the its new iPhone 6S and S6 Plus and a new ecosystem i0S9.

Statistics for worldwide sales on smartphones first quarter 2015 –

Table 1

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 1Q15 (Thousands of Units)

Company 1Q15Units 1Q15 Market Share (%) 1Q14Units 1Q14 Market Share (%)
Samsung 81,123 24.2 85,507 30.4
Apple 60,177 17.9 43,062 15.3
Lenovo* 18,888 5.6 16,721 5.9
Huawei 18,102 5.4 13,450 4.8
LG Electronics 15,428 4.6 11,200 4.0
Others 142,335.6 42.4 111,697.8 39.7
Total 336,054.4 100.0 281,636.8 100.0

Source: Gartner (May 2015)

All do what they say on the tin, all perform little miracles for us every day that would have seemed like science fiction to us 20 or even 10 years ago. So apart from sales figures the question seems to be what smartphone pushes your buttons and not as I had previously thought, who makes the better smartphone?

What Smartphone pushes your buttons?

I have my own sentimental preference for Nokia, a Scandinavian toilet and kitchen roll maker turned tech world leader, just that alone, will always get my vote. I heard on the Grapevine that Nokia were flirting with Android systems some time ago and liked it, but since the Microsoft corporation got wind of this treachery, that little dalliance became history. Which is a pity because as I said Nokia will always have a special place in my top pocket. Blackberry also should be given our respect for holding out in the face of insurmountable odds, that is, the obvious popularity of touchscreen technology, almost the the brink of bankruptcy. A friend in Capetown informed me,  they were still moving Blackberrys in healthy numbers in South Africa until 2013, but even there, now in 2015, the touch screen has all but leveled that field. They had it all once, however they gave away their advantage, but I am glad to hear that they may have embraced Android in tandem with developing some new technology for themselves,  as to go it alone can becoming very lonely.

 

There is more than one way to skin a cat.

Okay the above title is an unfortunate and bloody saying but proof of the pudding, another awful phrase is that two great tech companies fire at the same target, you and me, the customer, but come up with completely different creatures essentially doing the same thing. I speak of course of Samsung and Apple. What Apple Iphone and Samsung Android phones have shown us is that “there is more than one way to skin a cat”.Both have flagship phones that are exceptional and I could not favour one above the other. My only buying decision would be price and here Samsung win over Apple nine times out of ten.

I use a Samsung Galaxy, my partner uses an Apple Iphone, I like both, and would not care if I changed, she only likes her Iphone, she is in love with her Iphone, and would never change, even if she received a free Android. This is cultism which is an intrinsic part of the Apple brand and is to be commended but also ridiculed at every turn. I would not find it hard to switch from one to the other and have done so in the past, dumping an early Apple PC for a far better and cheaper Dell version. It is easy if you do not buy into the cult of Apple, after all they are not the Kardashians.

Summary

The devil seems to be in the detail, the small differences of functionality that may appear on the OS of your phone and not the other. But both OSes have phenomenal capability and this is a indication of how far technologically the smartphone has evolved. Our personal preferences may impact on the phone we choose, maybe because of the interplay with the phone, how it feels in the hand and where certain buttons are positioned. But also our personal preference for which company we would like to entrust our information. This will increasingly play a part in our choice.

Apple and Google seem to be two heads of the one beast but they do have different agendas and see the world through different lenses. This is something to consider when choosing your hardware and software products in phones PC or cloud services. You must ask yourself with whom do I trust with my digital existence?