Just got the sales numbers for yesterday. It’s going to sound like bragging if I keep quoting them. So I’ll just say that they are still going up.

Dear internet: I have a shameful confession. When I crippled Hearts Solo, I honestly didn’t know that it was going to create such a firestorm. But once I saw that there was indeed a great groundswell of anger bubbling up, I decided to see if I could turn it to my advantage.

There are a number of prominent, successful people in the tech community who are essentially professional trolls. I could name names, but that’s exactly what they want, and I don’t feel like further glorifying them. I’ve always despised that kind of thing. It seems like a cheap shortcut to success. Why not just do good work, and be recognized for that?

It doesn’t always work that way. There is this thing that us techie-types are mostly unfamiliar with, called “marketing.” Apparently it has something to do with connecting customers to stuff they might want to buy? I guess? I think there may be pie charts involved.

I’d always written off “marketing” as unnecessary fluff. Then I started trying to sell my own products directly to customers. Strangely enough, buyers did not just magically appear, ready to stuff money into my pockets. Puzzling.

Nowhere is this more true than for Apple’s App Store. Apple controls way too much of the experience. If you sell products on the App Store, they control your store front, your customers, your reputation, your prominence, your payment processing, and your customers’ ability to find your products. People write ridiculous, unfounded reviews of my game every day, and I have no way of knowing who they even are, much less a way to respond or correct those impressions.

I have more than a passing familiarity with trolls. I was there up close and personal as USENET was entering its death throes. I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but I have a fairly strong trollish streak myself. I try to suppress it for the most part, but sometimes, it’s useful to be familiar with that personality type.

I’ve gotten, oh, let’s say 200 emails regarding my Hearts games in the last few days. More than I’ve gotten in the entire life of the app, before this. And a lot of them, I realized, came from trolls. They don’t care whether I crippled Hearts Solo or not. They just smell blood in the water, and they want in on the feeding frenzy.

So, here’s the confession. I fed them a little. Just a little bit. So that they would make a slightly bigger firestorm, and that the resulting blaze might attract a bit more attention than I was getting before.

Was this a good move or a bad one? It’s too early to tell. Early indicators, like my sales numbers, say “good move.” Boy, talk about conflicted. Am I joining the ranks of the professional trolls? Will I be able to live with myself? If it makes me enough money to keep me from having to get a day job, then yeah, it’s worth the ickiness.

If you find yourself sickened by the fact that I’m “turning to the dark side,” well, there’s an easy way to put a stop to it: give me something better to do. Give me enough contract work so that I don’t have to go back to a boring, paranoid, stultifying office environment ever again, and I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll keep my mouth shut and code, which is my place in the natural order of things anyway. But until that money-laden benefactor arrives, I’ll be twiddling the knobs here by myself, trying to find a way to get along in the world.

I don’t regret crippling Hearts Solo at all, by the way. That was the push that my true customers needed to see that I am serious about this. But if I’d known everything that I know now back at the beginning, I would never have released a full-featured, free card game to begin with. Then I wouldn’t be in the position of competing with myself right now. Live and learn.

Categories: cards
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