You Should Be Playing Tap Sports Baseball

Mobile games these days are largely dominated by free-to-play offerings that pressure users to spend money. Often it’s about spending money just to be able to continue playing the game rather than the more traditional paying for optional upgrades or bonus content. This has resulted in a reliance on “whales” – the incredibly small percentage of users that account for the majority of the revenue – and creating a game that will hook them. They’d rather do that than make the game fun and inviting with the belief that satisfied users will be more likely to spend money to expand their experience due to a desire to play longer while recognizing the value.

This is where Tap Sports Baseball gets it right and those involved in making those design decisions should be applauded. The game is free to download and really is free to play. At no point will you be stopped from playing because you have to buy the right to continue. Plus you can succeed and field a strong and constantly improving team simply by playing more! TSB is primarily turn-based (you only hit but there are ways to improve your pitching) against other users but there are also games that can be played against AI opponents. 

I’ve spent some money on the game to support the developers but for the purpose of evaluating the game I instead used it to buy the likes of different uniforms rather than players. The only deviation from that was the offer of paying $2 to get rid of ads which also included a “First Round Draft Pick”. 37 games in without having paid to improve my team I’ve got a fairly strong group together that are at least competitive against teams I’m going up against. I’ve been able to play at the pace I choose, whether that is slower at different points of the day or back and forth with my brother on his phone in the same room completing a game in 10 minutes.

Believe it or not Tap Sports actually rewards you for playing more! You get bonus cash for logging in every day, for getting “achievements”, for completing games whether having won or lost, and for advancing to a new level. They give you bonus “Draft Picks” for many of the same things and you can trade in your inactive players for a “Late Round Draft Pick”.

I’ve yet to come across another sports game on mobile that provides so much positive reinforcement rather than backing people into a corner where they feel the need to spend money or just stop playing the game. When did it become okay to make games that were about putting people into situations where they can’t even play them how or when they want to? Sadly that’s become the way many developers design their mobile games now.

Look for a full review of Tap Sports Baseball in the coming days. But in the meantime give it a shot by downloading for iOS devices here and Android devices here.