5 ms·

This makes me sad. I played a ton of video games as a kid and can look back on those experiences and stories as fond memories. I wonder if folks mostly gaming o

by harles 5y ago

This makes me sad. I played a ton of video games as a kid and can look back on those experiences and stories as fond memories. I wonder if folks mostly gaming on mobile will be able to do the same. For anyone that does mostly mobile gaming: I’m curious if you feel it’s enriched your life or has just been there to pass time?

falcolas 5y ago
Both could happen. I'm sure many people have fond memories around Angry Birds. And Cut the Rope has an adorably memorable avatar.
nullspace 5y ago
Haha, I don't mean offense, but your comment sounds like "back in the day we did things better". There's a huge variety of really games available on iOS that cater to all but most hardcore gamers. Even the games that seem trivial on the surface (Candy Crush) can provide hours of deep entertainment, and best of all you don't need to commit 30 minutes to 1 hour to it in a single sitting. Personally, I think the best games on iOS are better than the best games of the 90s. Reasonable people may disagree, however, it's definitely not far. > For anyone that does mostly mobile gaming: I’m curious if you feel it’s enriched your life or has just been there to pass time? Yes.
- AlexandrB 5y ago
  > Personally, I think the best games on iOS are better than the best games of the 90s. Reasonable people may disagree, however, it's definitely not far. I think the best iOS games are on average much more polished, but less deep/engaging than what we had in the 90s. Some of this is due to the nature of the platform - iOS games are often designed to be played in short sessions instead of sucking you in for hours like a SNES era JRPG. The elephant in the room though is micro-transactions. Early console games were a complete experience that you bought (or convinced your parents to buy) once. A lot of top grossing iOS games are constantly trying to get more money out of their audience. This skews the design of these games in all kinds of ways like unnecessary timers, pay2win multiplayer, unfair difficulty curves that require "boosts", or repetitive, daily chores to keep people coming back. I think it's these elements that make me long for 90s era video games.
  - nullspace 5y ago
    Yeah, I agree. Microtransactions are indeed the elephant in the room. I purposely spoke about the best games, because once you go below that you run into developers who build games that strongly incentivize you to spend lots and lots of money on microtransactions, and completely ruin mechanics of the game that make it engaging.
mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
The element that is missing from mobile games when comparing to gaming in decades prior with older consoles is people. You could grab the disc/cartridge and go to a friends house and have a blast trying to beat a game or beat each others high scores. That type of nostalgia and enriched experience of having fun with friends, food, staying up late, trash talking, etc. is going to be more memorable than playing a mobile game by yourself. It doesn't matter the complexity or hardcore-ness of a game, its comparing a social experience to an anti-social experience. Social elements of mobile games, to my understanding, are mostly asynchronous like sharing a score or turn-based games. The asynchronous part eliminates the enriching factors of making it memorable.

by harles 5y ago

falcolas 5y ago

Both could happen. I'm sure many people have fond memories around Angry Birds. And Cut the Rope has an adorably memorable avatar.

nullspace 5y ago

Haha, I don't mean offense, but your comment sounds like "back in the day we did things better". There's a huge variety of really games available on iOS that cater to all but most hardcore gamers. Even the games that seem trivial on the surface (Candy Crush) can provide hours of deep entertainment, and best of all you don't need to commit 30 minutes to 1 hour to it in a single sitting. Personally, I think the best games on iOS are better than the best games of the 90s. Reasonable people may disagree, however, it's definitely not far. > For anyone that does mostly mobile gaming: I’m curious if you feel it’s enriched your life or has just been there to pass time? Yes.

AlexandrB 5y ago
> Personally, I think the best games on iOS are better than the best games of the 90s. Reasonable people may disagree, however, it's definitely not far. I think the best iOS games are on average much more polished, but less deep/engaging than what we had in the 90s. Some of this is due to the nature of the platform - iOS games are often designed to be played in short sessions instead of sucking you in for hours like a SNES era JRPG. The elephant in the room though is micro-transactions. Early console games were a complete experience that you bought (or convinced your parents to buy) once. A lot of top grossing iOS games are constantly trying to get more money out of their audience. This skews the design of these games in all kinds of ways like unnecessary timers, pay2win multiplayer, unfair difficulty curves that require "boosts", or repetitive, daily chores to keep people coming back. I think it's these elements that make me long for 90s era video games.
- nullspace 5y ago
  Yeah, I agree. Microtransactions are indeed the elephant in the room. I purposely spoke about the best games, because once you go below that you run into developers who build games that strongly incentivize you to spend lots and lots of money on microtransactions, and completely ruin mechanics of the game that make it engaging.

mattbrewsbytes 5y ago

The element that is missing from mobile games when comparing to gaming in decades prior with older consoles is people. You could grab the disc/cartridge and go to a friends house and have a blast trying to beat a game or beat each others high scores. That type of nostalgia and enriched experience of having fun with friends, food, staying up late, trash talking, etc. is going to be more memorable than playing a mobile game by yourself. It doesn't matter the complexity or hardcore-ness of a game, its comparing a social experience to an anti-social experience. Social elements of mobile games, to my understanding, are mostly asynchronous like sharing a score or turn-based games. The asynchronous part eliminates the enriching factors of making it memorable.