Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
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Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
#2If they can get games to be fun again, where you want to play, rather than just kill time, that would be awesome.
I still play games on the old 8 and 16 bit consoles, where gameplay always shone. No matter how many times you complete R-Type, you still come back for more.
Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
#3If they can get games to be fun again, where you want to play, rather than just kill time, that would be awesome. I still play games on the old 8 and 16 bit consoles, where gameplay always shone. No matter how many times you complete R-Type, you still come back for more.
>> rather than just kill time
Yeah, that's something I find really odd about most mobile games. They seem designed as a way to basically put the brain into a low energy state or something, rather than actually being interesting.
My personal experience of games like Candy Crush is that people play them on the subway or whatever when there's nothing else to do. If they had a book with them they'd read that, if someone handed them a Nintendo DS with zero effort they'd probably do that (if they could get over the ego thing).
I can't really imagine anyone setting themselves up for a marathon casual gaming session. They seem marketed to be one level above 'watching paint dry' and used in circumstances where that's the only alternative.
Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
#4If they can get games to be fun again, where you want to play, rather than just kill time, that would be awesome. I still play games on the old 8 and 16 bit consoles, where gameplay always shone. No matter how many times you complete R-Type, you still come back for more.
> If they can get games to be fun again
They are still fun! But the bar for creating games has been lowered. On net, that's a good thing -- we get more games to choose from overall. But one bad consequence has been that people have created lots of games that aren't fun, and especially lots of pay-for-play games that exploit people's weaknesses.
Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
#5I played Clash Royale for several days and the insistence on payments to progress was really off putting. The gameplay itself was quite addicting so I presume they're trying to avoid players burning out from binging. But the fact you either had to pay money or wait three hours to do anything of value was just too much to bear. The entire game design is genius in how it funneled you toward purchases.
Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
#6If they can get games to be fun again, where you want to play, rather than just kill time, that would be awesome. I still play games on the old 8 and 16 bit consoles, where gameplay always shone. No matter how many times you complete R-Type, you still come back for more.
>> rather than just kill time Yeah, that's something I find really odd about most mobile games. They seem designed as a way to basically put the brain into a low energy state or something, rather than actually being interesting. My personal experience of games like Candy Crush is that people play them on the subway or whatever when there's nothing else to do. If they had a book with them they'd read that, if someone…
> If they had a book with them they'd read that
You can fit lots of books on a phone!
Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
#7If they can get games to be fun again, where you want to play, rather than just kill time, that would be awesome. I still play games on the old 8 and 16 bit consoles, where gameplay always shone. No matter how many times you complete R-Type, you still come back for more.
There are some game developers striving to do that on the mobile platform, but they are mostly indie and not very well known.
On a related note: Here's a shameless plug for the Trese brothers. They make mobile games with no ads, and minimal in-app purchases. For what it's worth, I have no affiliation with them other than backing their Star Traders 2 kickstarter.
Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
#8I agree. Most mobile games I've downloaded prioritize ads views/in app purchases over making a 'hardcore' game. There are a few exceptions, such as Vainglory, but the vast majority are the equivalent of the super ball vending machine at the grocery store.
Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
#9He obviously hasn't played Neko Atsume
Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone
#10If they can get games to be fun again, where you want to play, rather than just kill time, that would be awesome. I still play games on the old 8 and 16 bit consoles, where gameplay always shone. No matter how many times you complete R-Type, you still come back for more.
> If they can get games to be fun again They are still fun! But the bar for creating games has been lowered. On net, that's a good thing -- we get more games to choose from overall. But one bad consequence has been that people have created lots of games that aren't fun, and especially lots of pay-for-play games that exploit people's weaknesses.
It is incredibly hard to dig through the mountains of garbage to find the occasional good game. I'm not so sure it is a net good thing, I think fewer good games are succeeding now because they are being buried in crap.