8 ms·

Oh boy, millions of ad-ridden, pay-to-win, copy-pasted virtual casinos, right from the convenience of my PC. Gotta get me one of those beta invites!

by hbn 3y ago

Asooka 3y ago
Yeah, it's not a very good proposition right now, but if we have the android platform available for all desktop OS, perhaps companies writing games or other software for the desktop form factor could target android as a universal platform instead of electron. Finally fulfilling Java's promise of write once, run everywhere. Who knows, maybe we could compile android to web assembly and have android applets on webpages!
jeroenhd 3y ago
Rollercoaster Tycoon has an excellent version of RC2 for tablets (and I suppose phones). There are also plenty of other games on the Play Store that are decent ports from desktop games or even purely mobile. I've bought a copy of Super Hexagon for Android at some point, and that's still an excellent game. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to play that on desktop as well now that Windows has native Android support. Then there are games like PUBG mobile that will easily run on cheap laptops with integrated graphics, unlike the full games. Those types of games even come with full controller support. Sure, the Play Store home pages likes to peddle the stalkerware scamfest that is microtransaction based minigames, but there are actually decent games on the platform. When it comes to Android apps and games, you get what you pay for. The situation isn't very different on iOS, except that people are more willing to pay for their apps. You don't see a lot of $10 Android games (which are perfectly fine games) featured on the front page because people WANT the free crapware. If anything, Microsoft preinstalling Candy Crush on Windows should be a signal that the market wants these types of money wasters on their computers, no matter how much techies and "gamers" despise those types of predatory games.
- NegativeLatency 3y ago
  Open Rollercoaster Tycoon is free and cross platform https://github.com/OpenRCT2/OpenRCT2 https://github.com/OpenRCT2/OpenRCT2 (been having fun going back to play older simulation games)
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    OpenRCT2 still requires the original game files according to the README. Plus, RCT being RCT, if you have access to the original game you can probably just install and run that. I haven't seen an x86 compatible system yet that doesn't run RCT2, especially with Wine and QEMU providing fast enough Windows/instruction set emulation to play 2D games from that era on just about any device.
kernal 3y ago
Or, you know, you could just pay a dollar or more for an ad free version or even get a Play Pass. Of course, if you enjoy playing ad-ridden, pay-to-win, copy-pasted virtual casinos, right from the convenience of my PC then it's totally on you.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  Most games don’t give you that option because they make a lot more money on ads and loot boxes than a single payment.
  - kernal 3y ago
    All of the games I own on Android gave me that option. Also, that logic doesn't really make sense because you'll alienate people that don't like ads from even playing your game.
Kiro 3y ago
Millions of bad games do not make the few good games bad. You could use the same argument against Steam.
- diffeomorphism 3y ago
  False equivalence. The scale of the problem is not even remotely close.
  - dagmx 3y ago
    But the problem is irrelevant. You don’t have to play those bad games, and their point is that bad games don’t make good games worse. I don’t get why gamers get into this tribal mentality of only one good thing may exist.
    - wzy 3y ago
      How will I know the bad games without wasting time playing them? Should I trust those reviews on the Play Store?
      - dagmx 3y ago
        How will you know the bad games on *any* platform without having some kind of trust in the creator or reviewers?
        grumbel 3y ago
        It's a lot easier to trust reviews on a platform that doesn't allow solicited reviews, than one where that is standard practice.
- hbn 3y ago
  You know full well Steam's library is not at all comparable to what's available on mobile. There are thousands of quality games on Steam. How many mobile games are out there that are quality crafted experiences, and not just endless grinding to squeeze as much money as possible out of the user? I recall seeing a handful come out ~10 years ago, like The Room and Monument Valley. These days the best ones to come out are PC/console games that just so happened to get mobile ports like Papers Please or Slay the Spire.
UlisesAC4 3y ago
Basically the experience of asian MMORPG since 2006. Source, played MapleStory alot in the past.

Oh boy, millions of ad-ridden, pay-to-win, copy-pasted virtual casinos, right from the convenience of my PC. Gotta get me one of those beta invites!

by hbn 3y ago

Oh boy, millions of ad-ridden, pay-to-win, copy-pasted virtual casinos, right from the convenience of my PC. Gotta get me one of those beta invites!

Asooka 3y ago

Yeah, it's not a very good proposition right now, but if we have the android platform available for all desktop OS, perhaps companies writing games or other software for the desktop form factor could target android as a universal platform instead of electron. Finally fulfilling Java's promise of write once, run everywhere. Who knows, maybe we could compile android to web assembly and have android applets on webpages!

jeroenhd 3y ago

Rollercoaster Tycoon has an excellent version of RC2 for tablets (and I suppose phones). There are also plenty of other games on the Play Store that are decent ports from desktop games or even purely mobile. I've bought a copy of Super Hexagon for Android at some point, and that's still an excellent game. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to play that on desktop as well now that Windows has native Android support. Then there are games like PUBG mobile that will easily run on cheap laptops with integrated graphics, unlike the full games. Those types of games even come with full controller support. Sure, the Play Store home pages likes to peddle the stalkerware scamfest that is microtransaction based minigames, but there are actually decent games on the platform. When it comes to Android apps and games, you get what you pay for. The situation isn't very different on iOS, except that people are more willing to pay for their apps. You don't see a lot of $10 Android games (which are perfectly fine games) featured on the front page because people WANT the free crapware. If anything, Microsoft preinstalling Candy Crush on Windows should be a signal that the market wants these types of money wasters on their computers, no matter how much techies and "gamers" despise those types of predatory games.

NegativeLatency 3y ago
Open Rollercoaster Tycoon is free and cross platform https://github.com/OpenRCT2/OpenRCT2 https://github.com/OpenRCT2/OpenRCT2 (been having fun going back to play older simulation games)
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  OpenRCT2 still requires the original game files according to the README. Plus, RCT being RCT, if you have access to the original game you can probably just install and run that. I haven't seen an x86 compatible system yet that doesn't run RCT2, especially with Wine and QEMU providing fast enough Windows/instruction set emulation to play 2D games from that era on just about any device.

kernal 3y ago

Or, you know, you could just pay a dollar or more for an ad free version or even get a Play Pass. Of course, if you enjoy playing ad-ridden, pay-to-win, copy-pasted virtual casinos, right from the convenience of my PC then it's totally on you.

scarface_74 3y ago
Most games don’t give you that option because they make a lot more money on ads and loot boxes than a single payment.
- kernal 3y ago
  All of the games I own on Android gave me that option. Also, that logic doesn't really make sense because you'll alienate people that don't like ads from even playing your game.

Kiro 3y ago

Millions of bad games do not make the few good games bad. You could use the same argument against Steam.

diffeomorphism 3y ago
False equivalence. The scale of the problem is not even remotely close.
- dagmx 3y ago
  But the problem is irrelevant. You don’t have to play those bad games, and their point is that bad games don’t make good games worse. I don’t get why gamers get into this tribal mentality of only one good thing may exist.
  - wzy 3y ago
    How will I know the bad games without wasting time playing them? Should I trust those reviews on the Play Store?
    - dagmx 3y ago
      How will you know the bad games on *any* platform without having some kind of trust in the creator or reviewers?
      - grumbel 3y ago
        It's a lot easier to trust reviews on a platform that doesn't allow solicited reviews, than one where that is standard practice.
hbn 3y ago
You know full well Steam's library is not at all comparable to what's available on mobile. There are thousands of quality games on Steam. How many mobile games are out there that are quality crafted experiences, and not just endless grinding to squeeze as much money as possible out of the user? I recall seeing a handful come out ~10 years ago, like The Room and Monument Valley. These days the best ones to come out are PC/console games that just so happened to get mobile ports like Papers Please or Slay the Spire.

UlisesAC4 3y ago

Basically the experience of asian MMORPG since 2006. Source, played MapleStory alot in the past.