
The most successful game ever: a history of Minesweeper - creativityhurts
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/the-most-successful-game-ever-a-history-of-minesweeper-596504
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bad_user
_To most of us, mines are just a handy framework to wrap the deductive
gameplay around. This isn't the case elsewhere in the world, where they remain
a threat, and a symbol of pain and suffering. In 2001, a group calling itself
the International Campaign to Ban Winmine attempted to make Microsoft choose
something less controversial as its subject matter, and there have been other
similar protests over the years._

Is this for real? Wow!

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chrisacky
I'll start with "the moral of the story" for me...

I need to stop taking articles so seriously and taking all of the fun out of
an otherwise highly nostalgic blast from the past.

\--------

This is an old article (2009).

Even so, I can't imagine that this is true: _"Click-for-click, nothing has
wasted more time than Minesweeper...."_

It's probably just hyperbole to get the point across, but to then come out and
say that "The most successful game ever made isn't World of Warcraft"...
really can't be said without saying by what qualifications you are saying a
game is successful.

\- If it's pure mouse clicks, I'm sure a gazillion percent sure that WoW has
had more clicks.

\- If it is $$$ than that's an easy one too.

\- If it's time wasted... then I'm sure it's not Minesweeper either.

\--------

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yread
_\- If it's time wasted... then I'm sure it's not Minesweeper either._

Do you have any data for it or should we just trust you because you are also
gazillion percent sure? Lot more people play minesweeper and solitaire than
WoW..

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joeld42
It's a fun game. I've build a Minesweeper varient that works on a spherical
planet with hexes rather than a square grid. <http://bit.ly/ycjiGQ> It's true
that it's a huge timewaster. Since I've released it in Dec. of last year
people have played over 600,000 games and spend a combined total of over 8.7
years playing it.

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jdkilby
I've never played BeTrapped, but here is an interesting game that is literally
Clue / Cluedo combined with Minesweeper. It's not perfect, but it still works
surprisingly well.

<http://www.kongregate.com/games/nerdook/cluesweeper>

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klez
Vista? Actually I remember seeing flowers instead of mines in Windows ME
already... Am I remembering uncorrectly?

~~~
zer
Are you Italian? The Italian versions of Windows ME and Windows 2000 were
shipped with flower versions.

Source:
[http://www.minesweeper.info/wiki/Windows_Minesweeper#Windows...](http://www.minesweeper.info/wiki/Windows_Minesweeper#Windows_2000)

~~~
klez
Yep, Italian. So we were the 'lucky' ones. I find this rather absurd, but
maybe if I had to live in real minefields I would think in a different way...
who knows...

