There’s a reason why Angry Birds is so popular. I don’t think it answers humanity’s age-old desire to fling birds at pigs. Right? Here’s why I think it’s so popular: It’s simple: Bird, structure, fling. Points! I get it, my six-year-old gets it and it’s pretty easy to learn to score points. That simplicity is what makes it addictive. We live in complicated times and though we’re willingly dialed in all the time, the complications extend to our online experience. To play Angry Birds, you don’t need to know about the ins and outs of a social network. You don’t need to spend an hour to complete a level or task. You just need aim and shoot.

Plus Angry Birds teaches a new skill of sorts. Granted it’s not a marketable skill, but it is a skill and if there is a time where knocking down pigs with birds becomes a life-saving skill, well, the human race will make it!

When I first gave Angry Birds a try, I was most impressed with its simplicity to start playing. You know you fling things with sling shots, so you grab the bird and fling it to see what happens. Don’t destroy all the pigs? You don’t win and it starts again. And then I let my son play it. It’s great for kids too because sometimes they need a break from Daddy pushing purely educational games on them. Though after some time he start pointing out that there is more than meets the eye. Like the angle you shoot, the strength of the shot, hey that’s physics. And so I try to add a lesson in there.

I’m in the business of understanding why people like games, and not necessarily in the business of predicting the hot new games, but I promise you the next big thing will be simple and satisfying like Angry Birds.

What new games are you playing that you think will be the next big game?