Mobile Games
I have enjoyed games on mobiles from the days of Snake on the Nokia 3310. Since those days I have enjoyed taking a friend’s phone and playing a game, trying to see if I could beat the top score. Then as phones evolved the games got more sophisticated, and new games were put on phones. With classic games being brought over for mobile play, such as Tetris. Then of course the smart phone came around and now there are games everywhere.
The mobile video games industry is a big business with reports claiming, “The number of mobile gamers was 1.36 billion worldwide last year.” With the finances also claiming, “China was the biggest market for mobile games in 2019 with $18 billion in revenue, followed by the U.S. at $9.9 billion and Japan at $6.5 billion.” Which tell us mobile gaming is a serious business, but do I ply them? No, I don’t.
There has always been an argument between Hardcore Gamers and Causal Gamers as to if mobile games are considered real gaming. Personally, mobile gaming is a form a gaming just like PC and Console and Handheld gaming. For me it was something I was into, but as time has gone on it has been something that has died by the wayside.
I would like to say I don’t play mobile games as I play more ‘real’ games, as some might say. However, this isnt the case for me. I have enjoyed a lot of the earlier mobile games, such as Angry Birds and Temple Run. As these were fun games to play, and great ways to kill time, as time went on, I started to leave them behind.
I left them behind because a lot of mobile games have a lot of things I don’t like from my gaming. These would include; advertisements, timeouts and the dreaded microtransactions. Many games are giving away for free and I know a business got to business, but I hate when I play a game and then suddenly, I must wait for half an hour to play another round. Or in between every round I must watch an advert for a game I don’t care for, or for service already have. Which is why I started to put my phone on flight mode just to avoid the adverts. Which defeats the point as I would like to have a phone who also plays games, and not just device that plays games and doesn’t make phone calls.
I’m not going to lie; I do have a few games on my iPad. Some the favourites I have mentioned, as well some older games now made for the mobile platform. As for playing them that is very few, unless I have a long journey. I do understand these games do have a place for some people. They are good with the younger generation, and people who just want to have a distraction on their phone. Or those who like to keep up with the latest trends.
I do feel like mobile games is a nice gateway for some people to getting into more serious gaming. Which I think a lot of the big gaming companies are starting to click on too. With games like Call of Duty coming to mobile, and Mario Kart also coming to mobile. I think there was a lot of people who enjoyed Pokémon Go when it first came out. I don’t know if anyone continued to play the next Pokémon game. I can see the company’s logic, people enjoyed play these games on there phone, maybe if they see the console version, they might go out of their way to buy it.
As people continue to get new phones, and technology is upgraded, mobile games will become better. I do I think I will be some one who converts to just playing mobile games? Maybe not as I don’t have the time to divert into something else. I know mobile games aren’t going to go anywhere. People are going to enjoy them for what ever reason. Even some of the more popular games will get console ports, but mobile games aren’t for me. if they are for you, let me know some of your favourites.
