Why do people hate on mobile games, call them "not real games" and mock them, when some mobile-exclusive games are the best games I've played?
The Infinity Blade or Minigore series, for example, or anything made by Illusion Labs. These games are genius and most consoles don’t even have a touch screen or utilise it well like some smartphone games do.
Also why do people look at me weirdly 👀 when I play games on my phone in public while waiting for something?
Many mobile games are just thinly veiled attempts at monetization. Get people hooked, then start adding time-bound gates you can unlock, add PvP with loot boxes and multiple types of premium currency that’s hard to keep track of. Doesn’t matter what the game is about - you can do this to racing games, fighting games, gardening games, whatever.
That said there are still mobile games that are fun and genuinely good gameplay - I used to love Minigore too, after it was available on Android. But these are few and far between.
The only reason I can imagine people actually caring enough to look is if you’re playing with sound enabled in a public place, put your headphones on if so. No one wants to hear the sound from someone else’s phone.
I guess the only other thing I can imagine is if you get too into it, maybe? If you’re frantically tapping your screen, that’s gonna draw attention too.
People just like to dunk on things to make themselves feel better. And this can be especially a thing in gaming because lots of gamers are badly-adjusted and desperately need to feel better. It’s nothing really to do with mobile games specifically at all, you see the same thing with anything outside of the very narrow window of “real” games ie the games these people happen to be into.
It’s one thing to have a preference, it’s quite another to look down on other people for having a different one. We’re all just choosing to spend our time staring at pixels on a screen.
We’re all just choosing to spend our time staring at pixels on a screen.
So true lol. Slightly unrelated but I had an epiphany once that we use our touch devices so frequently, and of course we’re interacting with data in different ways, but physically we’re just sliding our fingers around on a pane of glass with lights behind it all the time. Must look so weird to monkeys 😂
Monkeys, and old people who never learned it! My grandma can just about manage to call me on WhatsApp but sometimes I’ll try and demonstrate basically anything else and she genuinely can’t see the difference between gestures I’m using, or which parts of the app are interactive or not.
Same in gaming. She saw me playing WoW once in about 2008 and I remember her being genuinely confused about how I could possibly tell what was my character and what was everything else. Even though, you know, your character is always in the middle of the screen. Just couldn’t grasp it no matter how long she sat and watched!
Sure there is a ton of elitism in gaming but are we going to ignore mobile games are the birthplace of the shit monetization we see in modern AAA gaming. There is a reason why sports games and mobile games were the only gaming related things Konami wanted to do for the longest time (now they are just cashing in on lazy ports). Low expenses, high turnout! Like there are a likely a ton of great games on mobile phones but we can't ignore the market is filled with glorified slot machines. Many mobile gamers have been pushing for this unfortunately.
That wasn’t really OP’s question though. I’m not a fan of mobile games either, mostly for the same reasons as you but also tbh just because I don’t like using my phone for much when I could get a better experience on a bigger screen.
But “I have some problems with the choices of the mobile gaming industry as a whole” is a very different statement to “lol mobile loser why don’t you try some real games?”
While yes that is the level headed answer but gamers aren't level headed. People associate people with their game choices with the decisions of the developers/publishers all the time. We see this with people who do Gacha, COD, Etc. Where people's hatred is for these people for supporting said things. The "true gamers" see most mobile gamers as gamblers and children because of the industry/monetization around it.
But I enjoy those mobile-only games 😅 How would I play them otherwise? And I think touch interfaces allow for some gameplay you wouldn’t ever get anywhere else, like swipe actions and multi-finger gestures, which you can see in games like Infinity Blade or Fruit Ninja (or even True Skate, which seems to have quite a following, not my fave personally but I can’t imagine that on any other device)
I also have some Sim City game on my phone. It’s great for when you have a couple of minutes to waste waiting on a train or something. I have nothing against mobile games itself, but I wouldn’t consider that gaming.
As someone that used to be a somewhat competitive gamer back in the days, I don’t like being lumped in with people playing mobile games. We are not the same. Call me a gatekeeper, but my aunt playing candy crush just isn’t a “gamer” in my book.
Well, I guess it’s time for my biannual reinstallation of true skate!
Mobile games get a lot of shit for some very valid reasons, but so many have written them off entirely because of the microtransactions and/or touchscreen controls when there are some very good games that don’t suffer from either of these issues.
You’re absolutely right though, it allows for things like true skate to exist which is brilliant. And if you can be bothered to hunt out the good paid games you can avoid microtransactions entirely. Bloons Td6 is arguably the best value game I’ve ever paid for given the hours I’ve sunk into it over a year or so. Cost me £6 once and has never asked for another penny.
Also the room series is fantastic, as is monument valley. The good ones are out there, but people will download a few free games, get bombarded by ads and microtransaction “deals” and write off the whole genre.
Those touch mechanics are things you don’t need on any other platform as opposed to literally the only option via mobile. Games as shallow as Fruit Ninja, seriously? You ever pay a Nintendo Wii? Or any of the Xbox Kinect type motion tracking games (i dont remember the Playstation variant)? That’s a hell of a lot more immersive than twitching your finger on your phone. Lets not even get into the world of VR gaming that’s been around for years now.
Multi finger gestures- like an entire PC keyboard…while moving your mouse? Can you use 10 fingers on your phone at the same time? Or multi button/direction combos on a controller? Plus the fact you can program multi-function macros on a PC.
Pinch zoom- mouse wheel: faster, more control, & way more range.
Swipe- like move your mouse? Or a controller joystick? Or the arrow keys? RTS or any top-down games have been using “swipe” variants to move around maps basically as long as the game genre has existed. Most mice come standard these days with thumb buttons that are pre-programmed as literally Forward and Backwards buttons (think page turn, or swipe left/right). Even the mechanic of hotkeys that most games have.
Add in the ability to right-click, or hold any button and click and you open literally endless opportunities for any sort of “finger” or “swipe” type control. A PC mouse is literally your hand with a LOT more fingers.
But lets go deeper…there ARE touch interfaces for other platforms. Not used much for gaming, but how do you think digital artists draw and paint?
Basically, these touch gestures you’re so hung up on are literally all you have- and it ain’t much. Anything else i could add has been said multiple times from all the other comments….
None of the examples you listed would be a good version of true skate, you swipe with two fingers simultaneously in different directions and at different speeds to get the tricks you’re looking for, the idea being that each finger is a foot on a skateboard. It is pretty unique and one of the better mobile games out there.
A PC mouse is your hand with one finger and lots of buttons… How would I use the multiple fingers you refer to to simultaneously move up with one and down with the other?
I don’t think anyone is arguing that mobile does everything better… Obviously a keyboard can make more use of multiple buttons than a touchscreen, that’s also true vs a controller but that exists too. Simplicity is sometimes what people want or need, I like being able to play games on a train journey so finding the decent mobile ones is very worth doing for me.
Also why does this comment read so angrily? We’re talking about casual gaming, just chill.
The default control scheme for the game Sessions is using a controller with 1 foot per analog stick, so that’s covered. I think Skate XL has a control scheme like this too.
But that doesn’t replicate feet on a board. In true skate you literally position your fingers on the screen so they mimic feet on a board, and the movements required for your fingers are moreorless that of your feet in real life skating.
I’m definitely not saying there isn’t a way to control the game, or that games don’t exist with similar play styles, but taking away the actual placement of fingers on the board onscreen would take away an awful lot of the reason people enjoy it, and it wouldn’t be the same game.
the movements required for your fingers are moreorless that of your feet in real life skating.
Have you played Sessions? This is how it works in that game too, literally the only difference is your fingers are on analog sticks rather than on the sheet of glass that is your phone screen. The developers ended up including an alternative control scheme more similar to EA’s Skate series because of how intense the learning curve on their control scheme is.
but taking away the actual placement of fingers on the board onscreen would take away an awful lot of the reason people enjoy it
I guess this is where we just have to agree to disagree. I can’t think of any reason I’d find blocking part of my field of view as an enhancement to the experience.
I haven’t no, I would argue you’re not blocking the screen though, you’re part of it. And using analogue joysticks doesn’t sound even slightly intuitive in the way true skate is. I’m sure it’s fun but doesn’t sound like the same experience at all. When I say they’re moreorless what your feet would need to do that’d because it’s based on where you place them on the board and how you move them in relation to that.
Perfectly happy to disagree though as that’s kinda my point in this thread, everyone likes what they like but a lot of people in here stating things as if their preference is just a fact.
Mobile games have a place and don’t need to be the cash grabby advertising hangers that a lot of people think of when you say mobile game. You just need to hunt them down a bit more to find the good ones.
I like games of almost all genres and will happily sink 100 hours into a console/PC game too, but it feels like an oversimplification to write off mobile games as a whole.
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