Board 8 > POLL: Should phone games be taken as seriously as PC/console games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

More and more people play games on their phones. Including many people one certainly wouldn't call "gamers." But are they getting gaming experience comparable to what we, who have played games way before phone games were a thing, are used to?
---

I mean it depends on the phone game but if you look in the right places they're out there. Langrisser Mobile for example basically plays like a console game with some optional repetitive grind elements to get people to get in the routine of playing daily, but if you just play the main scenario and time rifts there's plenty enough content there to make it competitive with console games. Heck I basically played it like a console game and stopped playing it when I was done.
---

I know Clash of Clans is taken very seriously by some. It has a competitive presence.
---

Potentially yes but the quality of the games simply isn't there as things stand. The entire platform is far more focused on f2p money milking than finely crafted experiences - 99.9% of the games don't stand up beyond their place as time killers when you have a few spare moments.
---

I guess the big inherent issue is the touch screen. Don't tell me you can use a controller. Nobody's getting out a controller to play a phone game. The bigger, non-inherent issue is that most of them are designed like mobile games.
---

The main problem is that the immense profitability of the F2P model means that even developers who could make good games choose to deliberately ruin them in order to support the need for constant IAPs. Decent strategic setups and interesting stories that could make fantastic games if they just sold them are turned into soulless, padded grinds with zero balance, because you've either got worthless equipment/characters that can't achieve anything, or ultra-mega-hyper-rare stuff out of the gacha than renders every challenge moot (for a month or so, then they roll out the new, harder challengeds and new, even rarer, even more overpowered gachabait).

And, of course, half of them shut down with no story resolution a couple of years after launch, leaving all the money you poured into it even more wasted than it already was.
---

BlackMageJawa posted...

The main problem is that the immense profitability of the F2P model means that even developers who could make good games choose to deliberately ruin them in order to support the need for constant IAPs. Decent strategic setups and interesting stories that could make fantastic games if they just sold them are turned into soulless, padded grinds with zero balance, because you've either got worthless equipment/characters that can't achieve anything, or ultra-mega-hyper-rare stuff out of the gacha than renders every challenge moot (for a month or so, then they roll out the new, harder challengeds and new, even rarer, even more overpowered gachabait).

And, of course, half of them shut down with no story resolution a couple of years after launch, leaving all the money you poured into it even more wasted than it already was.

Sounds like Fortnite, lol, except the twist is that the IAPs cause no competitive advantage
---

As it currently stands, no.
---

Not yet but they're catching up

---

BlackMageJawa posted...

The main problem is that the immense profitability of the F2P model means that even developers who could make good games choose to deliberately ruin them in order to support the need for constant IAPs. Decent strategic setups and interesting stories that could make fantastic games if they just sold them are turned into soulless, padded grinds with zero balance, because you've either got worthless equipment/characters that can't achieve anything, or ultra-mega-hyper-rare stuff out of the gacha than renders every challenge moot (for a month or so, then they roll out the new, harder challengeds and new, even rarer, even more overpowered gachabait).

And, of course, half of them shut down with no story resolution a couple of years after launch, leaving all the money you poured into it even more wasted than it already was.

Why even play them?
---

It was closer early on.
---

Yes and it is undeniable

Anyone saying no needs to go play some mobile games now and then go play the latest AAA games and see which one takes more from the other
---

Vlado posted...

It was closer early on.

For as terrible as the N-Gage was, at least it made an honest attempt to be a gaming system. The future looked brighter back then, like it was some sort of a stepping stone for mobile gaming to be the next big thing, and then it never came.
---

NO currently

YES when Stadia launches in November


---