# WTF? Android games not as advertised on Facebook. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 25, 2019, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809 "2019-09-25T16:43:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/1 "2019-09-25T16:43:09Z")
I saw this game “Homescapes” that looked fun and relaxing to me. In the FB ad, it show a guy in a scene. Underneath the scene, you’re given a choice of three tools to best fit the situation. Basically, you pick which tool that will save the protagonist from mortal peril. The thing is, when I actually started playing the game, it was NOTHING like that. Instead, the protagonist is just a guy who wants to remodel his parents home. And even that turns out to be a “match the blocks” game. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/2 "2019-09-25T16:45:43Z")
LOL, was it “Matchington House”? I had the exact same experience… not on FB, though, as that’s a shit site, but yeah - that’s exactly what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/3 "2019-09-25T16:59:18Z")
Yeah, I got sucked into Fishdom and it is also a “match the blocks” game. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/4 "2019-09-25T17:04:00Z")
What baffles me is, the game they were advertising seems WAY easier to make than the convoluted nonsense that was the actual game. Lol ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/5 "2019-09-25T17:05:36Z")
I play Angry Birds 2 and I have seen ads for Homescapes, Gardenscapes and something called Township that make them seem like at least 10 different games. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/6 "2019-09-25T20:42:02Z")
Some day, all of humanity will be Bejeweled clones. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/7 "2019-09-25T21:58:04Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > I saw this game “Homescapes” that looked fun and relaxing to me. > > In the FB ad, it show a guy in a scene. Underneath the scene, you’re given a choice of three tools to best fit the situation. Basically, you pick which tool that will save the protagonist from mortal peril. > > The thing is, when I actually started playing the game, it was NOTHING like that. Instead, the protagonist is just a guy who wants to remodel his parents home. And even that turns out to be a “match the blocks” game. > > WTF? Yes this is a new, complete bullshit approach to advertising for games. Show a game that looks interesting but doesn’t exist, so the customer will download it. Then once you play it bears no resemblance to the game in the ad. It’s a bad trend that I hope backfires completely. I have a personal rule that if I try out a game that has gameplay not resembling its ads, I delete it. That tells me that the marketing folks realize that the game is trash with no real entertainment value and is forced to lure people in with a lie. It’s a waste of time to give the game a chance knowing that. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/8 "2019-09-25T22:07:28Z")
I suspect that the real intention is to trick people into downloading their game just to gain some permissions and do some data mining. They don’t really care if it’s launched once and deleted straight away, they already got what they wanted. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/9 "2019-09-25T22:29:15Z")
Hero Wars on Facebook turned out to be very different, too. The advertisement had it looking like a puzzle game-- pull this lever, take this thing out to loot the gold without getting lava dumped on you. In practice, it’s just an RPG, and a crappy one at that, because it basically plays itself. You don’t get to choose your targets, and you can’t heal. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/10 "2019-09-26T00:39:43Z")
I’ve played gardenscapes and seen the ads and to me, the only thing is they dont mention the match 3 aspect of it anymore But yeah theres a final fantasy mobile game where you had to play it for 30 seconds to get through the ad only to see along the bottom “not representative of actual gameplay” ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/11 "2019-09-26T00:59:11Z")
All game ads on Facebook aren’t the real game. Check the comments first before downloading and they will tell you. Also, ignore any ads on Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/12 "2019-09-26T01:15:41Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > All game ads on Facebook aren’t the real game. Check the comments first before downloading and they will tell you. Also, ignore any ads on Facebook. The same ads being described here are ads you’ll see elsewhere, not just Facebook. I see them on web pages and in ad-supported apps. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-android-games-not-as-advertised-on-facebook/840809/13 "2019-09-26T17:12:31Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > The same ads being described here are ads you’ll see elsewhere, not just Facebook. I see them on web pages and in ad-supported apps. Yeah, I get that Hero Wars ad all the time on another game I play. All the ads on that game are about fake games.