We tend to hope that we will find the per­fect game; that there is some for­mu­la for cre­at­ing the best, most addic­tive game pos­si­ble. And when­ev­er we have a new hit, those hopes get pro­ject­ed onto it. In recent times, the per­fect game has been thought to be games like World of War­craft, Far­mVille, Can­dy Crush. And then anoth­er game comes along. Charles Pratt and Tad­hg Kel­ly have made sim­i­lar points. But I think it goes fur­ther: peo­ple play Flap­py Bird because it flies in the face of what every game design­er knows at this point. Not because play­ers care the least about what game design­ers or the­o­rists like myself think, but because the shared con­ven­tion­al wis­dom of How You Shall Design Your Game is mak­ing games sim­i­lar, and play­ers know a breath of fresh air when they see it.