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Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

theguardian.com

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Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#101

Post by hbosch »

ketralnis wrote: post #79
jwcooper wrote: post #14

If you can get past maybe the top 50 or 100 grossing games there are a lot of really good games out there that aren't looking to leech money from you. I have plenty of games that have been worth every penny I spent with a lot of depth and strategy required in order to master them. Letterpress, Spelltower, Hearthstone, Tiny Wings, Ticket to Ride, Strategery, GD Swarm, Ridiculous Fishing, Monument Valley...I could go o…

> I could go on and on Please do! The problem I've had with mobile games has been discoverability. The app store's recommendations have been useless and the featured/top grossing/most popular games are just the ones that make the most money via in app purchases. And for some crazy reason, fewer and fewer games have actual screenshots in the screenshot section of their store page. Instead they opt to use that space fo…

You would LOVE Rymdkapsel ( http://rymdkapsel.com/ ) in my opinion.

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#102

Post by cletus »

Ugh, in-app purchases are the worst thing to ever happen to the game industry. Unfortunately there are two types of IAPs:

1. Extra content (eg extra decks in Agricola, more levels, etc)

2. Pay-to-win purchases.

And there's really no way to distinguish between (1) and (2). I loathe (2) but (1) is where all the money is. The market has (sadly) spoken on this one. :(

Ya know, it just occurred to me that paying to win has precedent. The old arcade machines used to let you keep playing by inserting more money. Or some of them did anyway. This is analogous.

I've stopped even looking at new games. I just keep playing Bejeweled HD (Diamond Mine).

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#103

Post by sandebert »

jwcooper wrote: post #14

If you can get past maybe the top 50 or 100 grossing games there are a lot of really good games out there that aren't looking to leech money from you. I have plenty of games that have been worth every penny I spent with a lot of depth and strategy required in order to master them. Letterpress, Spelltower, Hearthstone, Tiny Wings, Ticket to Ride, Strategery, GD Swarm, Ridiculous Fishing, Monument Valley...I could go o…

I'd like to take the opportunity to recommend this almost unknown gem for Android: I Am Level. A platformer with a retro spectrum feeling. Got me instantly hooked. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.SmilingBag...

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#104

Post by riskable »

coldtea wrote: post #41
Goronmon wrote: post #19

Honestly, the lack of dedicated controls will never allow for mobile gaming to be anything more than a time diversion for most people. A touchscreen just isn't something that's comfortable to use for extended lengths of time, in my opinion at least.

> Honestly, the lack of dedicated controls will never allow for mobile gaming to be anything more than a time diversion for most people. Isn't gaming precisely a time diversion?

Single-player games trend towards mere time diversion but multiplayer games can be any number of things such as:

  * Competition
  * Shared experiences
  * Role play
  * A way to socialize
...among other things.

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#106

Post by aabajian »

Goronmon wrote: post #19

Honestly, the lack of dedicated controls will never allow for mobile gaming to be anything more than a time diversion for most people. A touchscreen just isn't something that's comfortable to use for extended lengths of time, in my opinion at least.

I understand your point if you're talking about racing games / first person shooters, but for RPGs I think touch screens work really well. I just finished playing Final Fantasy VI on the iPhone, and it was much easier than playing on the SNES, specifically because of the touch screen.

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#107

Post by noxToken »

Tenhundfeld wrote: post #48
jwcooper wrote: post #14

If you can get past maybe the top 50 or 100 grossing games there are a lot of really good games out there that aren't looking to leech money from you. I have plenty of games that have been worth every penny I spent with a lot of depth and strategy required in order to master them. Letterpress, Spelltower, Hearthstone, Tiny Wings, Ticket to Ride, Strategery, GD Swarm, Ridiculous Fishing, Monument Valley...I could go o…

If anybody's looking for a side project, I think there's a curation opportunity here. I'd subscribe to a newsletter focused on great, non-IAP-driven iOS games. It could be weekly or monthly, with a mix of new games and classic gems that maybe aren't so well known. I'd tolerate a fair amount of advertising or sponsored content in the newsletter as long as it was clearly labeled. The key thing for me is quality . I thi…

VSauce 3 used to have videos dedicated to apps. Some were games. I'd be lying if I said I tried all of the games, but I will say that most of their recommended games were of good quality.

They stopped making those videos sometime last year.

Here's a compiled list of their featured apps: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cnARmaoMH-ZzAHCmaqkBus3r...

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#109

Post by Vaskivo »

mfoy_ wrote: post #71
gambiting wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clash of Clans had a revenue of 1 BILLION dollars in 2015 alone. That's insane. I'm sure they measure every single metric that can be measured in that game and make sure it's as engaging as possible by optimizing their interfaces and looking at the psychology of players.

Some odd non-specific trends I've noticed across various games: * There are usually 3 currencies. Usually a "f2p" currency, a "p2p" currency and a "social" currency. * There are at least 3 distinct ways to progress a unit, for example "level", "stars/quality", "gear/items" and each way requires a different activity or minigame to progress. * Playing the game requires "energy" or something similar which recharges slow…

> It's like every big mobile game studio is designing off the same playbook

They, in fact, are. Every one of those trends serve a specific purpose or were highly studied to provided the "best" outcome.

I.E - Energy forbids you to explore the whole game in a couple of days (unless you pay) and plays with your min-maxing head to return to the game several times a day (you energy usually takes 4 to 6 hours to fully replenish)

Re: Atari co-founder: mobile games make me want to throw my phone

#110

Post by bigtunacan »

joezydeco wrote: post #97
mikestew wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly you do not know who is Nolan Bushnell I would argue that he knows who Bushnell is better than you do. What you posted in no way invalidates what you quoted from the parent post. Yes, Bushnell started Atari. Since he sold, he's done...golly, I'd have to go look it up because all I remember is a string of forgettable (duh) games that he put his name on because "founder of Atari".

Yeah, I'm not on the bandwagon either. Bushnell has started more than twenty companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry. Okay, sure. How many are still going, and how many didn't completely sink the money of the respective investors? I get that Bushnell is a smart game guy, but IMO Atari was a lightning strike he's been trying to replicate ever since.

First I think the original parent is spot on about this being an ad spot for Bushnell's newest venture.

On the lighting only striking once though you are certainly off base. Chuck E Cheese was big in it's own right and I'm sure you have heard of at least one of the other companies he started; it's called Pixar.

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