On the surface, the majority of our apps appear to be
harmless little programs which allow us to pay bills, share photos, send
messages, find a nearby restaurant, reach out to friends and family, and of
course, play games. But what else are apps doing? How do they “speak” to us? What
sorts of values or ideologies are being promoted?

After watching the video trailer for Candy Crush Saga,
one can easily assume that it’s merely a wonderfully colorful, fun, easy to
learn, candy-matching game. But, in looking closer and peeking behind the curtain,
it becomes quite clear that CCS is not just a run-of-the-mill gaming app. It’s
an absolute juggernaut. Indeed, King, the maker of Candy Crush Saga, has an estimated
66 million people that play CCS. And from those 66 million players, King
generates over an estimated $600,000, daily, from in-game products such as
boosters, extra lives, and advertising (McKenna, Stone). Because of this app, King has an incredibly large audience's attention. There is inarguably an inherent power in having the eyes and ears of 66 million people.

And while Candy Crush Saga’s sky-rocket to success in the
app world is certainly an appropriate example of capitalism at its finest,  to simply research King's business model and plot the trajectory of their history-making, cash-cow of a game as it
ascended to the top of the app world would be a myopic oversimplification. Of
course, the app market is all about making “hits,” and if it was just a matter
of following a formulaic business plan, then certainly all app creators could –
and would – achieve the same level of success that King’s CCS has accomplished.
Further, limiting the investigation to aspects as dry and benign as corporate
structure, graphics, resources, and marketing, would be to turn a blind eye to
the powerful, rhetorical tactics which, I argue, lie beneath the seemingly
innocent, sugary sweet narrative of Candy Crush Saga. It is a narrative, I will
show, that supports a decidedly patriarchal ideology by reifying masculine
dominance and feminine subordination.

In the creation process of this app, King made intentional
decisions about the game's structure, visuals, user options (or lack thereof), etc. which, when all considered, not only appear to reify a masculine hegemony, but have done so to incredible success. And in order for hegemonic ideologies to take root and sustain themselves in a given society/culture, ala Antonio Gramsci, the individuals within that society must themselves take part in the establishment and maintenance of the same. And CCS certainly appears to have the willing (perhaps unsuspecting) consent of the target players themselves, the majority of which are female. King's target audience was correctly chosen and perfectly positioned to sustain this hierarchy and maintain a masculine hegemony. According to Computer Graphics World (and several other sources I found), King’s key demographic/core market has been identified as women between the ages of 22 to 55 (King. D.). So, how does a social ideology as powerful as masculine hegemony assert itself in what seems to be a simple matching game? Granted, it is a very visually appealing and addicting app, but, what messages does this game communicate to the user audience and how does it speak to gender hierarchies? How does it rhetorically promote a masculine ideology?