Mobile Gaming is Becoming More Appealing to PC and Console Gamers
Nearly a decade ago, if you had told me that one day I’d be enjoying gaming on my mobile device, I would have laughed. Probably would have thrown in a witty quip for good measure. PC and console gamers had attached a stigma to mobile game apps at the time and for good reason. The majority of the gaming experiences on smartphones were of the “dirty” free-to-play variety. Labels such as time-wasters, tap-to-win, and casual mini-games were commonly prevalent when core gamers discussed the ever-growing mobile gaming market. It’s hard to say why. After all, games don’t have a single paradigm they fall under. On the contrary, the beauty of the hobby is that its space has room for all kinds of tastes and playstyles. If I were to pinpoint my own personal reasons for not getting into mobile gaming, they mostly revolved around lack of depth.
Mobile games, for the longest time, were extremely simple in nature. While games like Plants vs. Zombies offered a modest challenge, I didn’t feel like I could really sink my teeth into them. It didn’t help that the experience was also hampered by conveniently placed time limits that locked me out of progression unless I opened up my wallet. Pro tip: a surefire way to get a gamer to stop playing your game is to stop them from playing more of your game. It also didn’t help that the rote repetitive nature of these games meant I was quickly bored. When you spend most of your life getting lost in vast magical worlds, dispatching enemies in a variety of manners, and experiencing complex and multi-faceted stories, the strategic shallowness of a standard tower defense game becomes apparent all too quickly.
This is how the negative stigma surrounding mobile came to be for me and I suspect it’s the case for most other PC and console gamers. But that has started to change.
So, yes, dear reader. This avid console (and occasional PC) gamer has finally been convinced to brave into the mobile gaming frontier. In all likelihood, this doesn’t mean myself and my peers will be spending endless hours tapping away at idle RPGs. We probably won’t suddenly feel an urge to give Candy Crush another whirl either. What this does mean, though, is that we are starting to acknowledge our mobile devices as possible destinations to indulge in our favorite hobby. What greatly helps is the fact that a lot of game apps now support bluetooth controllers, which we also happen to have. A current limitation of mobile screen controls is they lack the tactile feel most PC and console gamers are used to. Having the ability to use our favorite controller is a big boon. The only worry I have is that all of this may be the final nail in the portable console’s coffin. Suffice to say, though, that mobile gaming is becoming a more appealing platform for core gamers and that can only be a good thing.
