Why the love for mobile gaming?

When I first came across this comic on reddit last week, I had a chuckle, gave it an upvote, and moved on. It wasn’t until I was playing Book of Heroes while watching TV last night that the concept really sank in. The living room I was currently in had my “huge TV” with multiple gaming consoles attached. I have a $1500 gaming rig in the next room with dual 22″ monitors. On it, I have spent many hours playing a bevy of games (I really can’t even look at my /played in WoW anymore for sake of sanity). Yet here I was, playing a game with mediocre graphics on a 4.8″ screen. Why?

The number of mobile gamers jumps 35% in the US year-on-year. The games offered up though, differ greatly from our typical expectation of video games. A while back, when this site was still in testing phases, I wrote a Weekend Brunch about my dislike of “freemium” games. I’m not going to get on my soapbox about that again, but rather look at what makes mobile gaming so captivating: the amazing innovation in from year-to-year.

It wasn’t too long ago that gamers rejoiced at the ability to play simple games on their mobile phones (and let it be known that I was da’ man when it came to Nokia’s Snake game). Today though, we look at games like these either through nostalgic lenses or like the village leper,  The graphical offerings available now make these old games laughable. Back when mobile games started to emerge, most of us were still in the N64, Xbox, PS1/2 generation. We knew that gaming consoles would continue to evolve. We had seen it. But there were very few of us that thought games on a mobile phone would ever get to the level they are now, let alone us having the desire to even use them. Today, we can take all the offerings of the above mentioned console’s libraries with us anywhere in our pockets.

Aside from graphics, the part of mobile gaming that pulls me in, is the constantly innovative gameplay. With traditional consoles, controlling the game is relatively easy. You pick up the controller and press the dedicated buttons. Unless you spring for a Bluetooth controller for your phone/tablet though, mobile gamers are left with having to use the same screen they are playing the game on to control it as well. Developers have overcome this time and time again by creating new methods of control that are usually fun and intuitive. The games can become oversimplified, but I’d rather take a point and click like Book of Heroes, or Where’s My Water than a game whose controls eat up more than half my phone’s display.

These innovations have lead to a huge surge in new gamers. Grandma and Grandpa weren’t very likely to pick up a DS, but these days everyone needs a mobile phone. “Oh and look,” Grandma Gamer says, “there’s those cute little Angry Birds that little Timmy told us about at Christmas.” Bam. New gamer. Free and cheap mobile games have removed much of the “nerd” stigma that was associated with gamers for so long because it has made gaming more accessible and less expensive on average.

Here we are, 2013. Mobile gaming has gained so much market share that dedicated handhelds from Nintendo and Sony struggle to keep up. Gaming consoles are still selling well, but mobile games have such an influence on the gaming market as a whole, that console makers have taken cues from them in the form of motion controls and touch devices. The Angry Birds franchise is so huge that it’s actually spawning a movie! Yet I’m still left to wonder, is it the convenience of mobile games that keep me entertained? Is it the freshness?  The melting pot of genres from complex MMO shooters to simple puzzle games? I’m not sure I have a definitive answer to that, but one thing is for certain; I sure do love helping Perry the Platypus from the comfort of my porcelain throne.

Credit to Shoebox Blog for Chuck & Beans comic above.