3 ms·

>How do you discover quality games? You can't because the discoverability is terrible and the various app stores just care about raw sales, not quality. So tha

>How do you discover quality games? You can't because the discoverability is terrible and the various app stores just care about raw sales, not quality. So that means that devs who want to make quality games never get noticed and that's a major disincentive to produce such games. Mobile gaming doesn't have the tech press, steam-like reviews, etc other gaming has. Its a lot of impulsive buyers feeding a market that delivers crap because crap is good enough for them. This is like asking where the chess table at a casino is. The casino and the people who go there have no interest in chess. They just want you to toss your money into a skinner box, which is what freemium games are. Google and Apple could fix this, but prefer to lean towards the 'popular' discoverability than the 'quality' discoverability. I think they're wrong and have turned mobile into a ghetto in so many ways - its not just games, but obviously they prefer this method, which I imagine is more profitable. See the recent reports on how freemium games are powered by 'unicorns' who pay vast sums of money for in-game purchasing, all of which Google and Apple get 20-30% of.

pavel_lishin 11y ago
> You can't jwcooper did > Mobile gaming doesn't have the tech press, steam-like reviews, etc other gaming has. I was going to say [citation needed], but then I just literally googled "mobile game reviews" and hit two matches at the very top: http://www.polygon.com/games/mobile/reviewed http://www.polygon.com/games/mobile/reviewed and http://toucharcade.com/ http://toucharcade.com/ > This is like asking where the chess table at a casino is. Ballrooms A through C: http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/schedule/ http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/schedule/
- drzaiusapelord 11y ago
  Exceptions don't disprove the general trend. Its pretty disingenious to find small exceptions and pretend they're the standard. The reality is that app store discoverability is terrible and p2w and other freemium games dominate sales. These types of sales demotivate devs and publishers from treating the mobile world like consoles or PC, where very good games exist and are easily found. This is a solved problem almost everywhere else? Why is it such a massive problem on mobile? When HN-level people are asking "Geez where are the good games," then you have a problem. If they're struggling then Joe User absolutely is.
  - pavel_lishin 11y ago
    Discoverability is terrible, but so was the "chess table in a casino" analogy. You don't look for a chess game by randomly wandering around a casino, and you don't look for quality games by randomly going through the app store. You're right that there's a problem there, but while it's a problem that ideally needs solving, solutions do exist, and so do quality games.
  - st3v3r 11y ago
    Those aren't exceptions, though. Those are easily available. You're just too lazy to look for Touch Arcade.

pavel_lishin 11y ago

> You can't jwcooper did > Mobile gaming doesn't have the tech press, steam-like reviews, etc other gaming has. I was going to say [citation needed], but then I just literally googled "mobile game reviews" and hit two matches at the very top: http://www.polygon.com/games/mobile/reviewed http://www.polygon.com/games/mobile/reviewed and http://toucharcade.com/ http://toucharcade.com/ > This is like asking where the chess table at a casino is. Ballrooms A through C: http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/schedule/ http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/schedule/

drzaiusapelord 11y ago
Exceptions don't disprove the general trend. Its pretty disingenious to find small exceptions and pretend they're the standard. The reality is that app store discoverability is terrible and p2w and other freemium games dominate sales. These types of sales demotivate devs and publishers from treating the mobile world like consoles or PC, where very good games exist and are easily found. This is a solved problem almost everywhere else? Why is it such a massive problem on mobile? When HN-level people are asking "Geez where are the good games," then you have a problem. If they're struggling then Joe User absolutely is.
- pavel_lishin 11y ago
  Discoverability is terrible, but so was the "chess table in a casino" analogy. You don't look for a chess game by randomly wandering around a casino, and you don't look for quality games by randomly going through the app store. You're right that there's a problem there, but while it's a problem that ideally needs solving, solutions do exist, and so do quality games.
- st3v3r 11y ago
  Those aren't exceptions, though. Those are easily available. You're just too lazy to look for Touch Arcade.