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What's holding mobile gaming back from being widely accepted by "gamers"?

This is also truth. The iOS ecosystem is like a modern age revival of the 80's videogame crash market:
- Unimaginative clones: check
- Floods and floods of crappy games that hide legitimate good games down under and make it impossible to find them: check
- No basic quality control at all: check
- Piggybacking on the success of old glories: check
- Race to the bottom in prices: check

App store has got pretty good at highlighting the best games of the week and recently.

-10 points for using the "Video-game crash" to bolster your argument.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
1. Touchcreen only is horrible for many games, especially if it's emulating physical controls
2. Capacitive touchscreens suck for gaming
3. Download only is a massive turn-off for me
4. I don't want to use a mobile phone for games, I want dedicated devices, like I don't like PCs for gaming
5. Mostly overly simple games and rip offs
6. Business model not suitable for game I want

Any one of these reasons would be sufficient for me to "look down" on mobile games.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Only a relative few types of games play well with touch-only controls, and those really aren't core games. It's really as simple as that.
 

Feep

Banned
I don't buy it. Maybe if you're only counting iOS-exclusive stuff, that list is a bit thin and/or tough to find. But if you start factoring in multiplatform games (see: GTA3/VC, Bastion, THPS2, everything by Cave), it just ain't true.
Fair enough. EXCLUSIVE content, or at least content that I would rather play on a mobile platform. None of the above even remotely qualifies.
 
It's simply not the same type of (nor, most of the time, quality of) gaming. I get phone games every now and then as distractions, but the fact is that the type of games that traditional gamers play either aren't on phones or are pretty bad. This goes for the games designed for phones, btw.

Music games would require me to have on headphones or the volume up, FPSes suck even on the Xperia Play, etc. The games I played most on my phone ended up being GBA games or GTAIII.

The rest are good distractions (picked up some from an indie bundle) but ultimately not the same as the ones we can get on consoles. Which is a shame - I hoped for the mobile gaming scene to get better (for traditional games), but a lot of the time the games are hollow copies of AAA titles, with the fact that the graphics are good as the only fallback.
 

Ferrio

Banned
The fact that most of the people in this thread label the games as "distractions" is pretty much all you need to know.
 

zoukka

Member
The fact that most of the people in this thread label the games as "distractions" is pretty much all you need to know.

Well a huge chunk of mobile games are exactly designed as distractions that you can instantly put away and start up.
 

Steroyd

Member
Oh god, the controls.

My cousin was playing some third person shooter on his Ipad, had a try and nope, auto aim was like they were playing the game for me and it didn't feel right no matter how much I tried to get used to it.

To say it was a more significant downgrade than from Keyboard & Mouse to Controller is an understatement.
 

Septimius

Junior Member
I am flying to Tokyo tomorrow, and I'll be bringing both my iPhone and iPad. But I'll be gaming on my 3DS - holy shit, I'm a tech-packer. Why? Because all games, every single game I've played on iOS feels like a gimmick or a time-sink, or both. Draw Race is fun, but it gets old. Across Age is the best gaming experience I've had, but there's something lacking that makes it dull. All 'wait or buy to continue' games are basically crack in game-form, only built to be appealing, but not a good game.

Most good games I have played on iOS have been something I can play two rounds of while I crap, then I get on with my life. It's nothing to sink my teeth in.
 

beje

Banned
App store has got pretty good at highlighting the best games of the week and recently.

-10 points for using the "Video-game crash" to bolster your argument.

Aside for that, where are your arguments for debunking the rest of the list apart from just giving my post a negative mark? Let me guess... no way to debunk them, so you're just resorting to the classic internet argument of "lol ur wrong"
 

demolitio

Member
Give me decent controls for some core games, then I'd love it. As it stands, it's only really good for certain genres and mostly more casual games so it's hard to get too involved in it. I love to play mobile games while waiting for my doctor but it's not taking over my time at home by any means.
 
Aside for that, where are your arguments for debunking the rest of the list apart from just giving my post a negative mark? Let me guess... no way to debunk them, so you're just resorting to the classic internet argument of "lol ur wrong"

I agreed with them, how about that? Nothing wrong with the rest of your points.
 

Card Boy

Banned
It's no buttons, standization and 99% of the games being dogshit with no substance.

For every good game on mobile platforms there are 1000 turds, this puts off alot of people.
 

beje

Banned
Has somebody ever copied Ninja Gaiden DS controls for a smartphone game? Those were incredible.

Wouldn't work with fingers because the game relied in precision for throwing shurikens a lot. Enemies would have to be bigger and therefore the general gameplay more zoomed in for it to work.
 

Yagharek

Member
The few mobile games Ive payed really remind me of those cheap, annoying $5 PC game discs you could get with "20 Games!!!111!!1!" and all of them asked you to register and pay to unlock the full game. Most of the 20 games were variations of two or three genres at best.

I've got no doubt there are some good games, but even the alleged good ones I have played are unwieldy and unbalanced with a touchscreen.
 

Coflash

Member
No buttons X infinity

Fingers in the way

Microtransactions

Social integration being forced up your arsehole. There should be a switch on the side of my phone/tablet that just cancels anything Facebook/Twitter/instagram/Gamecenter related.

Fingers in the way

Lots of games that are basically shallow versions of their predecessors + RPG-Lite's

Games/Ports with terrible, terrible controls. Seriously. So many games have horrible controls. Compare Kingdom Rush to Max Payne. Jebus.

Fingers in the way

Fingers in the way

1,000,000 clones of anything that's shot to fame quickly (Minecraft, zombies etc), it's hard to sift through all the garbage to find the decent stuff

+ I have a PC, gaming handhelds and consoles. I know better.
 
Because they're not'deep gaming experiences.
There's either flash games, small good games and unplayable console wanabe games.
 

Amalthea

Banned
Wouldn't work with fingers because the game relied in precision for throwing shurikens a lot. Enemies would have to be bigger and therefore the general gameplay more zoomed in for it to work.
Of course not necessary exactly like NG DS. More like as a robust basic framework for mire dynamic action games.
 
Buttons.

I'm playing P3P on my phone these days, and the lack of actual controls still hurt it, particularly movement and camera.
 

Astery

Member
1. People's price expectations, market saturation. While our traditional games prices are standing at a norm of USD 60 and that's kinda low already as it didn't go up along with inflation, most games on the mobile have the entry price of free trying to get more exposure. Almost every devs are doing it, and the sheer amount of free price point game apps release per day is just way too many, devaluing games even more from their already low price point.

2. Freemium business model and quick death cycles causes shallow gameplay loop cycles. Due to the freemium business model, most games designs are designed with 'how to generate a profit during game play in mind, and to be frank, making a profitable f2p game requires alot more resources to do properly rather than focusing on a single premium price game IMO. The usual target audiences- casuals also make the design of a game preferably to be without much depth.

These combinations have caused people to download a freemium game, play it for 10 minutes and then move on to the next until they found a game they like. And this turns into a unhealthy loop.

3. no buttons. Not as big of a deal as above, but still a problem in many genre of existing games.
 

Shiggy

Member
Mobile gaming has shown to be a great alternative with titles such as Rayman Jungle Run, Broken Sword, The Room, or the Anomaly titles. Still, there are titles which vastly benefit from buttons and thus aren't well suited for smartphones or tablets, e.g. The GTA games. The ports are ok but feel a bit clunky.
 

TokiDoki

Member
Too shallow .

No button is not really a big deal if implemented properly . Make more games like Phoenix Wright from portables or Flight Control and Plant vs Zombie from mobiles , which actually worked .

Kinect has no button too , so why is Microsoft still pushing it ?
 
For me, no buttons and an overwhelming abundance of shallow games. I own an iPhone 5 and an iPad 4 but rarely do I play games on them. Although I will do a bit of Super Stickman Golf on my iPhone from time to time.

But I still think buttons is also a big part of the reason why there's an overwhelming abundance of shallow games. With buttons, I think we'd see a far more varied selection of gaming experiences, and it'd also allow for ports and sequels to some of our favourite handheld (and consoles) games of yesteryear.
Too shallow .

No button is not really a big deal if implemented properly . Kinect has no button too , so why is Microsoft still pushing it ?
Kinect is just an accessory though. It's not a console. Even if Kinect 2 is bundled with Durango, it'll still come with a controller (with lots of buttons).

As for mobile gaming, I'm not saying they should replace the touchscreen with buttons either. Touchscreen gaming is good fun for dipping in and out, but adding buttons would add another dimension back in to the games.
 
I "accept" it but many of the experiences are lacking for me.

Speaking as a iOS user:
Emulating buttons is horrible. They feel inconsistent and awkward and I never forget I'm using them. With a controller especially and generally with a keyboard and mouse (unless it wants me to go from WASD to press P in BFE) I forget I'm using them quickly.

Endless arcade games. I can enjoy these for a few minutes but they are usually very shallow experiences. Still they are probably the dominant "genre" of the mobile gaming space.

There are some better games for mobile out there though. Plants vs. Zombies is fantastic on iPad; a great adaptation. Puzzle games are usually a good fit. Machinarium worked well from my experience. Super Hexagon (only did the first "level" I think, on one hand its endless but at least tries to promote skill progression through incremental increased gameplay speeds). Rayman Jungle Run.

I guess the problem is that there is plenty of really poor uses of the typically touch platform that remain really popular. If the top 20 games were all touch-designed and optimized non-endless arcade games I'd probably like it more. Right now its just the occasional good handheld experience.
 

TokiDoki

Member
For me, no buttons and an overwhelming abundance of shallow games. I own an iPhone 5 and an iPad 4 but rarely do I play games on them. Although I will do a bit of Super Stickman Golf on my iPhone from time to time.

But I still think buttons is also a big part of the reason why there's an overwhelming abundance of shallow games. With buttons, I think we'd see a far more varied selection of gaming experiences, and it'd also allow for ports and sequels to some of our favourite handheld (and consoles) games of yesteryear.

Kinect is just an accessory though. It's not a console. Even if Kinect 2 is bundled with Durango, it'll still come with a controller (with lots of buttons).

But it seems that Microsoft plans to make Kinect as the main thing , and I'm afraid more and more people are going to accept this atrocity .

Like I said , certain games do work with touch screen we just need more of them . Love+ anyone ?
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Snobbery, really. The 'shallow games' mantra doesn't stand up to any challenge when you consider both that games like Journey are some of the most-lauded console games despite no profound complexity, and that it has a not too shabby port of Baldur's Gate, which means that iOS actually has a deeper, more complex and rich game than any of the current gen consoles. XCOM is on the way too.
 

Synless

Member
I try , every month I go through the iOS thread and checkout the recommended titles, and every month I end up disappointed.

Shallow games , crappy controls , hiding content behind IAP's and the majority of games being from 2 genres just kills it for me.
Pretty much this, it's a combo of controls, shallowness, or both. The best in mobile are no better then the mediocre in handheld or console games.
 
Snobbery, really. The 'shallow games' mantra doesn't stand up to any challenge when you consider both that games like Journey are some of the most-lauded console games despite no profound complexity, and that it has a not too shabby port of Baldur's Gate, which means that iOS actually has a deeper, more complex and rich game than any of the current gen consoles. XCOM is on the way too.

Ports of games that play better on other hardware? Not exactly compelling. I admit I'm ignorant when it comes to mobile games though, just have no interest. Haven't seen anything to change my mind yet.
 

ksamedi

Member
I cant play with emulated buttons. The touch only stuff is good, but I have yet to experience a truly amazing game with good controls on my Iphone. I played plenty of Angry Birds kind of games and I am getting tired of it. There is also way too many games on there and a lot of that is shit, so I am wary of trying out something new. I also don't like the small screen, so I rarely play games on the Iphone anymore. 3DS is infinitely better IMO.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Not all mobile games are of the difficult to play, "freemium", hard-to-control, and shit quality, true. But don't you folks think that the games that fit those description are prominent enough on the mobile gaming platform that it is perfectly acceptable for a person to avoid choosing to game on that platform for those reasons alone?

Saying people mentioning those reasons to avoid mobile platform gaming as 'ignorant' is a bit hogwash, in my opinion.
 

Blearth

Banned
The best in mobile are no better then the mediocre in handheld or console games.

GOTY 2012 was on iOS but not on 3DS/Vita.

TWD-the-walking-dead-game-32546828-1280-800.jpg
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
MvmntInGrn said:
There are some better games for mobile out there though. Plants vs. Zombies is fantastic on iPad; a great adaptation.
If you call a 50-stage tutorial with microtransactions a "game". Then again apparently it's like that on all platforms now, so it's hardly the fault of mobile.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Ports of games that play better on other hardware? Not exactly compelling. I admit I'm ignorant when it comes to mobile games though, just have no interest. Haven't seen anything to change my mind yet.

With due care and attention, XCOM should play better on iOS than it does on consoles. Even with the jankiness, Baldur's Gate plays better than it ever could on 360 or PS3.
 

Synless

Member
Ignorance like this is holding mobile gaming back.
Weird, I buy and play most if not all the big, good games on my iPad/phone and on my opinion, that's what they are, that's not ignorance. I'm not holding anything back, I'm supporting them, but they just are not that great.

GOTY 2012 was on iOS but not on 3DS/Vita.
But it was on PS3/360, I believe I listed those as consoles and they were better on those, my point still stands.
 

Blearth

Banned
Weird, I buy and play most if not all the big, good games on my iPad/phone and on my opinion, that's what they are, that's not ignorance. I'm not holding anything back, I'm supporting them, but they just are not that great.


But it was on PS3/360, I believe I listed those as consoles and they were better on those, my point still stands.

There's no point comparing portable game platforms to ones that are stuck at home. The only comparable platform to phones is dedicated handhelds.
 

danmaku

Member
Ignorance like this is holding mobile gaming back.

It's not holding back anything. Mobile games are designed for a much bigger market than dedicated gamers, and follow different priorities. Gamers that refuse to play them are just a tiny speck on the radar. Sure, the market could be bigger if they could attract even core gamers, but that would require bigger budgets and there's still no guarantee that they would make the jump. It's kinda like asking why there are so few FPS on the Wii.
 
With due care and attention, XCOM should play better on iOS than it does on consoles. Even with the jankiness, Baldur's Gate plays better than it ever could on 360 or PS3.

Fair enough, I play those games on pc though. I'm not saying they're going to be shit versions but the only benefit I see is the portable factor. I don't game on the move so it's just not a draw for me. Would be much more interested in stuff I can't play anywhere else.
 
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