Mobile Games - What's the appeal?

Crni Vuk

Crni Vuk

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I havn't really played PC games in quite some time, but I am still interested in PC-Gaming in general, what new games are on the horzion, how the visuals progress and so on. I might get back to some gaming, once I have a new computer and not this old Mac-Book anymore.

The point is, what is the appeal of mobile games in general that it's gaining so much hype these days, particularly by big developers? From what I can read, but I might be wrong, they do not seem to be really special. They get a lot of shit actually, due to the micro transactions and monetizing on mobile platforms, which I guess explains why game developer sare so hot for it, but what about gamers? What kind of fun do people get out of it? Loot boxes? I just remember how much hate Blizzard got for their press idea of a Diablo game as a mobile game. So what makes them interesting?

Are there some 'avid' mobile gamers in here?
 
I mean, not all mobile games are mindless bullshit. The wargames by the studio HexWar are pretty damn fun (even after they added “updates” that ruined certain gameplay aspects), and the ports of Total War: Rome and Reigns for IOS are in my opinion much better than their PC versions (I’m not kidding; if you have the money for Total War: Rome on mobile, give it a try. Imo it’s one of those examples of a port doing a better job than its intended console).
 
I sometimes wonder if there are decent FPS games or action-adventure games on the mobile devices that would work well on the PC.
 
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Memes aside, I am serious about Total War for mobile. No microtransactions and an unlikely match made in heaven; case in point: they added a touch screen button to select every unit on the battlefield at once, then you can quickly tap the ones you wanna deselect (in case you wanna do a cavalry skirmish charge or some shit), bam. Done.

On PC the same thing is hold CTRL + A. Move the mouse and deselect units. OH FUCK THE GAULS ARE ON TOP OF US PANIC
 
The main reason for developers switching to mobile is probably the kind of monetization they can get away with.
 
portability and ability to play while taking a shit.

I play mobile games every now and then. Usually simple word games or platformers.
Problem with platformers is the difficulty is usually scaled down to accommodate touch controls.
Most platformers on mobile you wish you were playing on PC instead.

EDIT:
"Problem with ________ is the _________ is usually scaled down to accommodate touch controls"
I guess there's your problem with mobile games in general. In the case of Diablo, no keyboard shortcuts selecting spells, inventory management on a tiny screen, shitty joystick... In general, tonedeafness of the presentation thinking people are looking at their trailers and going:

when more often than not it's the opposite...
 
Alkuam said:
The main reason for developers switching to mobile is probably the kind of monetization they can get away with.
Click to expand...

Well from what I know the big money has been in mobile games for quite a long time now. Obviously folks like us know the true quality when it comes to digital gaming. However the masses still want to play stuff like Angry Birds and Clash of Clans and Flappy Bird or whatever.
 
How is this even a question? Virtually everyone has a smartphone. Small children have smartphones. Making games for a platform everyone has in their pocket is an absolute no-brainer. So is playing games on the device you always have on you. Bathroom break? Cool, I can sneak in a few minutes of desert golfing while I poop.
 
That's a good way of getting Fecal Coliforms on something you hold close to your face on a regular basis.
 
Since everyone has a smartphone that means your reach has expanded much wider than you would have selling a game that needs significant hardware like a gaming PC or a current console. If you're potentially selling something to 2.1 billion users, you only need to hit like 5% of those users to get 105 million sales/installs. If you get 5% of PS4 users, you're getting about 4.5 million users out of the ~90 million. 5% of the mobile market potential is larger than the amount of a console sold.

There's also the factor of cost of development and such. I'm no developer but apparently, it's a lot easier to make games for phones since they'll be smaller and be more repetitive (and it is accepted more there). So if you can make more money with less, why wouldn't you want to? Sure, you're not making the upper 20s to low 40s per unit sold but now you have a potential to make money from more people.

Not to mention that a bunch of free games that are intended to get you hooked in are easy to make a few bucks here and there. Things like timers making you wait until you can play more, upgrades and items like lootboxes, or even giving you the entire game but making you watch ads between levels or retries or whatever to entice you to spend the 3 bucks to get rid of them. Fairly effective methods of encouraging you to spend a little cash. What's three bucks to get rid of annoyances like time limits or ads when you've already really enjoyed the game and just want to play even more of it?
 
My only mobile game is Dink Smallwood but i never play it since the controlls are kinda meh, Rather get it on PC again TBF. Besides that game there has been like 4 i could try to play but all of them have been removed, Like the mass effect mobile games.

The Dutch Ghost said:
I sometimes wonder if there are decent FPS games or action-adventure games on the mobile devices that would work well on the PC.
Click to expand...

There is one deus ex from mobile that was "ok" on PC, Sadly they never released more than the first part.
It might be the worst deus ex "?" but i thought it was ok.
 
The appeal of mobile games, from a consumer perspective
-often free (although often with strings attached). Not always the case though, pubg mobile gives you access to all the features free of charge. When games DO cost money, they are often quite cheap (compare rome total war and minecraft and terraria mobile to actually buying the games)
-portability: play on public transit, in the airport, on the plane, in your bed
-touchscreen controls are actually quite good for some games (I actually reckon they could get fallout 1 and 2 working on a smartphone if they wanted to)
-accessibility: the apple store and google play are put together much better than steam. Download and update speeds are faster because most of the apps are better optimized than PC games, the user review system is superior, devs as a rule are meant to list a sort of patch notes for their game every time it gets an update
 
MPPlantOfficial said:
portability and ability to play while taking a shit.

I play mobile games every now and then. Usually simple word games or platformers.
Problem with platformers is the difficulty is usually scaled down to accommodate touch controls.
Most platformers on mobile you wish you were playing on PC instead.

EDIT:
"Problem with ________ is the _________ is usually scaled down to accommodate touch controls"
I guess there's your problem with mobile games in general. In the case of Diablo, no keyboard shortcuts selecting spells, inventory management on a tiny screen, shitty joystick... In general, tonedeafness of the presentation thinking people are looking at their trailers and going:

when more often than not it's the opposite...
Click to expand...

Diablo/POE controls are just MMO shite, you don't need keyboard shrtcuts/hotkeys to select spells if they're all readily available on the screen and you can fucking press the icons. Inventory management is not too complex. Honestly, while I don't believe Blizzard has the commitment to the project (especially post massive backlash) to make it decent, they actually could. Just think about it:
- path of exile has proven the freemium model is not only workable for this genre, but arguably ideal
-the controls would translate fine (there are mobile league/dota clones out there that have figured intuitive ways to cast complex spells like vector targeted skillshots, volleys of individual projectiles and the like, diablo skills are about the same level of complexity to MOBAS)
And thats all there really is to making a diablo game. There's no complex story, no complexity to the gameplay loot. Its 100% braindead, you kill shit and take the shinies, just like fallout 4.
 
As People have said, everyone has a smart phone now so the market for gaming on said phone has increased.
There's a lot of addicting fun to be had with them. A few friends of mine had to make a really crappy game which forced you to keep tapping the screen like a mad man. It didn't work properly and even they admitted it wasn't very good, so much so it became a bit of a joke for a while. But there was something about trying to gain some kind of number to see how broken the game truly was (turns out, it was very broken).

But for the most part, they are games that you pick up when you're on the toilet or when you're on a night out. Can play for about 5 minutes and then put your phone away.

Sometimes you get a better deal when you find older games on the Play Store, like Dragon Quest for example. The only way I can play the older games is on mobile. It's kind of annoying and I kinda hoped Square would released some kind of collection on the Switch or so... but I can play them on my Phone regardless.
 
I've been without a game console before, and will admit that I got pretty addicted to Angry Birds. I still like it, that shit is fun, but yeah, you are able to play mobile games pretty much anywhere.

I can't speak for anyone else, but a more complex game on a mobile device just wouldn't be my style. I need some kind of controller or I just suck at them.
 
@Black Rose im telling you guys, Total War on iPhone is a match made in heaven. 10/10 best war game.

But also if you want a lite wargame experience, the company HexWar that I mentioned. “Now I can bring the unrestrained brutality of the Middle Ages anywhere, anytime!”
 
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