Game On or Game Over: Mobile gaming

Microsoft versus Sony, Battlefield versus Call of Duty and Forza versus Gran Turismo. These are some of the rivalries that can get people talking about console wars. “Game On or Game Over” is your place to get inside the minds of Nicholas and Andy as they seek to find the true meaning of gaming and tackle some of gaming’s most controversial subjects. Both are award winning authors – although the awards haven’t been mailed or created yet — but trust them. Would they lie to you?

Nicholas: Last week I was visiting my grandmother and thinking of a topic we should discuss for this week’s article, and then it hit me. A commercial came on for a new mobile game called Pet Rescue Saga, and as I was watching it I was thinking “who the hell would buy this?” At this point I turned and saw my sister playing a simple game on her iPad where she was throwing balls to break oncoming structures/barriers so she could progress through the level, and here we are.

In the past we’ve covered a whole lot of topics but we’ve always tended to stick to console and PC games, so this week I wanted to take a look at what appears to be a growing segment in the gaming industry – mobile gaming.

For me, mobile gaming has never really been appealing. I remember a few months ago I was playing a racing game on my smartphone while at work but after a few days I got bored and uninstalled it. Prior to this, the last time I can remember downloading and playing any mobile game was Angry Birds when I was meant to be studying for university exams. So to kick things off this week I’d like to get your opinions on mobile gaming, and what was the last mobile game you played?

Andy: I don’t think the mobile gaming segment is growing, I think it’s exploded. Gaming on a phone or tablet, for me, has always just been a time-waster. I mean that in terms of when I need something to pass the time, like waiting for an appointment or something, it’s easy to pull out my phone and dink away at a game. If I’m looking for a real engaging gaming experience on the move, I’ll always turn to my Vita. Sure I have a couple mobile games on other devices such as Temple Run 2, Super Stickman Golf, and Zombie Gunship but none of those are what I would call great games. Sure they are fun for five or ten minutes, but anything longer than that and I’m looking for something else to do.

I think the success and appeal of mobile gaming is it’s cheap, a lot of games are free to download (not counting in-app purchases) and more people than just hardcore gamers play them. More people have a smartphone than have a DS or Vita, and the learning curve for most of the mobile games is non-existent. Kids, mums and grandmas can all download the latest version of Jelly Splash and have fun with it. It’s not like playing The Witcher 2 or Diablo 3 and being punished for choices you make. I know I have seen the term “casual gaming” when referring to mobile gaming, and think that’s accurate as well.

Before I go on a long rant about mobile gaming, let me ask you a seemingly easy question. What is the reason that mobile gaming, on phones and tablets, is so popular right now? Is that popularity going to keep increasing, or do you think that it will level off soon and possibly start to decline?

Nicholas: I think you hit the nail on the head. I initially started by suggesting that mobile games were a growing segment of the market because it seemed to start with Angry Birds and now it appears there are thousands of games to choose from on the various app stores (that is of course not to say that mobile games didn’t exist before then), but to suggest it has simply exploded seems far more accurate and appropriate. That said, do I think it’s going to level off and decline? Quite possibly. We both agree that mobile games are little more than time-wasters, and while I don’t think they’re going to disappear forever (can anyone remember how awesome Snake  was on the phones over a decade ago), I think the appeal will eventually wear off. I look at Rovio and how they continue to make new Angry Birds games and I just don’t see it working forever.

To go back to your first question though, I feel the answer lies in what you’ve already said. Mobile gaming seems to be so popular for a whole host of reasons. Firstly, there’s a ridiculously large install base – almost everyone has a smart phone and a lot of people also have tablets. Unlike your traditional home and handheld consoles, buying a new phone or tablet doesn’t mean you have to use your old phone to play these games – you just download them again and off you go. This leads on to the next point– it’s convenient. Unlike traditional games you don’t need to go to a retailer to buy them and nor do you need to wait hours to download them if you decide to go digital. Each game is small and usually takes seconds to locate on an app store and even less to download/install. You also aren’t restricted in where you can play them either. While the Wii U allows you to play games off the GamePad, you’re still required to be in the vicinity of the console itself, but all this is irrelevant with mobile games. Whether you’re at home, in the office, on public transport or even in a park you can just whip out phone out and off you go.

There’s one final reason why I think they’re popular though, and that’s the price. As you mentioned, most mobile games are free, and of those which aren’t usually only demand a few dollars at most. When you’re looking for something to kill time, a $2 game doesn’t seem like much and that’s probably why they’ve worked so well this far. This leads on to my next topic though. You mentioned in-app purchases and I think we’d be silly to ignore this when it comes to mobile gaming. We’ve all heard stories about phone bills that come back unusually high because someone’s decided to buy too many lives or items for their mobile game. What are your opinions of in-game purchases when it comes to mobile tiles? Do you think it’s a fair practice or a sneaky method trying to pray on the unaware?

Andy: I would like to say that the practice of in-app purchases is sneaky and the term ‘free-to-play’ is deceptive, and there’s evidence suggest that. I think everyone who plays, or has played a mobile game understands that there is a give and take to having the game for free. At the end of February there was a report done by Swrve that I found really interesting. In a nutshell the report says that 98% of people who play mobile games never make an in-app purchase. Of the remaining 2% a mere 0.15% of them are responsible for 50% of the in-app purchases. Those 0.15% people single-handedly making those free games profitable. Based on those numbers, it sure seems that people understand in-app purchasing and are just flat-out not doing it. It also makes sense why developers of these games and practices refer to those 0.15% as ‘whales’.

Personally, in-app purchases don’t bother me all that much unless it boils down to a situation where the developer basically says “if you don’t buy item X then you won’t be able to beat this level unless you get really lucky.” That is the second quickest way for me to delete something from my phone or tablet. The quickest way for me to delete something is by having overly intrusive ads. Ads that pops up, play automatic videos, or are so frequent that you see the ad more than actually time spent playing the game. If a game is, in my opinion, too ad heavy and drastically impacts my ability to play it I’ll cut it loose fairly quickly. I understand that when releasing a free game that a developer needs to include a way to generate some type of revenue and I’m OK with that, it’s just a give and take between the player and the developer. With the amount of ads in some games though, it doesn’t always appear that the developer is taking into account the gaming experience, and that’s frustrating to me.

I think for a lot of mobile gamers many would say that ads and in-game purchasing are frustrating for them. Just scrolling through reviews on some games on the Google Play store is evidence of that. For you personally, is there anything else about mobile games that frustrates you, or influences you not to download a game? What was the reason that you deleted that racing game so quickly off your phone?

Nicholas: The in-game advertisements are probably what gets me the most to be honest. Being prompted to purchase an additional bottle of nitrous or fuel for a racing game doesn’t faze me that much because it’s a simple matter of pressing ‘No’ to dismiss it, but seeing random ads in-between loading screens or popping up along the top/bottom of the screen does annoy me. It’s most likely just an OCD-esque sort of thing, but it looks ‘ugly’ and it does spoil the gaming experience for me. In addition, nothing is more annoying than accidentally clicking on an ad, then having to furiously press the back button on your phone so you can close the tab it’s now created so you can return to the game.

The only reason I delete apps on my phone is because I get bored of them and I go through a clean-up of sorts. That said though, I haven’t downloaded a mobile game to my phone since I switched to a new handset last year, so for me mobile gaming is a very rare occurrence. Even on the more grander games on my iPad (think Need For Speed Most Wanted or even Grand Theft Auto III) I’ll really only ever play them once and not touch them again. It really is something that just doesn’t appeal to me, nor do I like spending what little free time I have on them.

You mentioned this give-and-take relationship between the developer and the gamer, and if we can, I’d like to delve into this a little more now. We’ve just mentioned irritating features like being prompted to buy in-game items and bonuses as well as (sometimes) intrusive ads, and a lot of this comes at the expensive of the game being free, and as you said, acting as some way for the developer to earn money. Now we’ve both agreed that mobile games are for the greater part time-wasters, given that neither of us take them ‘seriously’, would you prefer that you were charged a few dollars for these mobile games to avoid things like in-game ads, in-game purchases and having to wait for content to become available, or are you happy to put up with them at the expense of not having to pay for them? Do you think this ‘freemium’ model is the right way to go about mobile games?

Andy: I can say with 100% certainty that if mobile games were a couple bucks and eliminated ads and in-game purchases I would probably never download one again. You touched on the reasons already though. One being that I find myself becoming bored with almost every mobile game fairly quickly. Because of how fast I move on, I’d never pay money for them, so I’d never download them in the first place if they cost money. Secondly, I look at games on my phone as a time-waster for when I need something to do, and I’m not going to pay money for something that is intended as just a time-waster. I’d be willing to bring my Vita to more places than I do now because those games have some substance to them. With the sheer amount of things vying for my attention and money, I’d have a hard time paying good money for something that won’t keep me interested longer than 5 to 10 minutes.

That leads into what I’d call a darker side of the mobile gaming. One of the reasons for all those in-app purchases is because of how fast-paced the mobile game market is. We’ve said it ourselves, we only play a mobile game for a very finite amount of time, so those developers realistically only have a short window to make as much money from each person as they can. So, I’m not even sure those developers would be OK with a $2-$3 fee to play a game with no in-app stuff or ads. The thing I really dislike about a lot of mobile games now is it seems like they aren’t really about being a game anymore. They are just an avenue to try and get money from people and the actual ‘game’ part of it comes second. It’s frustrating as a gamer to constantly be bombarded with in-game ads and constant messages about purchasing boosts, lives, or what have you. But, it seems it’s the nature of the beast that mobile gaming has become.

We haven’t even talked about, what I think is the darkest, most sinister side of mobile gaming yet though, and I think we would be remiss if we didn’t at least touch on it. I can’t remember the game, but there was one I was curious about a week or so ago and went to the Google Play store and clicked ‘install’. I got a pop-up about what permissions the game wanted over my phone and was shocked with what I saw.  A simple game that I intended as a time-waster or minor diversion wanted permissions on my phone to look at my contacts, email addresses, calendar, location and a couple other things that I can’t recall off the top of my head. It struck me as being incredibly intrusive for something so simple. So I did a little bit of rudimentary research and found these developers are then turning around and selling your information to other companies for ads and spam emails. I mentioned it to a couple friends and for the most part was met with “Oh, I just click accept I don’t even read those things.” I think this is a rather insidious practice by these developers that is often overlooked by people looking for a quick distraction of a game.

So, a couple questions for you. Have you paid attention to these permissions, or are you one of the ‘just click and not pay attention’ crowd? Second, are there any other things regarding the mobile gaming industry that you think of as negatives or at the very least concerning to you?

Nicholas: I won’t lie, I’m one of those people who never bothers to read the permissions and changes list when downloading new apps or upgrading existing ones – games included. What you’ve said about companies selling your information to third parties really doesn’t surprise me to be honest, but there’s no denying that it’s a sly and slimy action. Going off on a slight tangent if I may for a second – I don’t think people really understand the range or consequences of their actions yet when it comes to how we use social media and online devices. Sure everyone has a Facebook account and everyone has a mobile phone, but I don’t think most of us are bothering to read that fine print to see just what we’re agreeing to each time. This all said, how often did we read the fine print before anyway? *hint* Terms and Conditions *hint*

Like I’ve mentioned already, just given how rarely I’ve played mobile games in the past, and how little I’ve played them recently, it’s not really something I’ve concerned myself with much to be honest, so there aren’t many negatives other than “that ad looks ridiculous in the bottom corner of my screen.”

As we near the end of this week’s discussion though I wanted to take a look at something you’ve been mentioning a few times now – your PlayStation Vita, but more specifically, handheld gaming. Before mobile games, the only way we could really game on the go was with handhelds like the Nintendo Gameboy or the PlayStation Vita. For me, no matter how compact a Nintendo 3DS becomes, it’s still too bulky when compared to my phone and it’s just something I can’t be bothered lugging around in my pocket. We know that mobile games are for the greater part time wasters, and they don’t really compare in terms of quality to the likes of a Nintendo 3DS or PlayStation Vita title, but if developers put in more effort, do you think mobile gaming will ever take over handheld gaming?

Andy: I’m not sure handheld gaming has to worry about mobile gaming to be honest. For the most part I think they are two totally different player bases, or maybe it’s two bases where the gamer is looking for something different. I think that’s a much better way to say it actually. If I’m in a car (not driving of course), on a plane (I hate planes though) or traveling and want something that will occupy a good chunk of time I’ll play a handheld like my Vita. I can play Final Fantasy, Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank, Assassin’s Creed, etc. I know I’ll be occupied for a while and will feel like I am actually “accomplishing” something in the game. I don’t think I’d ever get that from a mobile title. I really doubt we’ll ever see anything of substance from a mobile game. I just don’t think they can offer that depth, and I don’t think the casual mobile gamer has the attention span, or time, to warrant a developer really doing it.

I mentioned before about the fast-paced mobile gaming market where developers try to latch onto the gamer for as long as they can and bleed as much money from them as possible. That’s even more evident when you look at the sheer number of clones, copies and knock-offs of games on the marketplace. I mean how many variants are there of Flappy Bird or Candy Crush? My mind is still boggled over how that is even allowed under copyright law. Imagine if when Battlefield released their next game, that a month later released the same game with minor tweaks and a slightly different name to confuse gamers and try to get them to buy that one instead. Yet it’s allowed, and almost encouraged on the mobile platforms.

At the end of the day mobile gaming is, and I think will remain to be, a thing that you can pass a short amount of time with. I don’t think we’ll have a mobile game with the impact of a game like Last of Us or Fallout. There are too many limitations that would make development worth it for anyone. For every decent game you find on the app store there are thousands that are only there to try and bleed you of your money one in-app purchase at a time. Mobile games are made to draw people in, much like casinos, with their cute sounds and colorful explosions. Much like Pavlov’s dog, people will continue to look for that next immediate gratification even if it means allowing that free game to have access to your phone to skim emails and see where you’ve been. Taking the actual game out of the equation, that’s the dark underside of that industry and one I’m sure not everyone has considered. I’d be willing to bet it’s only a matter of time before there’s a big news story on a security breach or underhanded thing that happens based off one of these seemingly free games. That’s what should concern people. But hey, it’s just five more lives for $1 right?

Tune in next time for the next instalment of Game On or Game Over. If you have any ideas for our next article, feel free to contact Andy or Nicholas on Twitter.