Atari Co-Founder: Mobile Games Make Me Want To Throw My Phone (theguardian.com) 76
Will Freeman, reporting for The Guardian (condensed): One industry veteran sees arcades and mobile gaming as almost indistinct. He is Nolan Bushnell, co-founder of Atari. Often referred to as the godfather of video games (a phrase he dislikes), he is just about to make his debut in mobile game development, having established a partnership with Dutch publisher Spil, where he will help deliver at least three as-yet-unnamed titles. "When you look at mobile and arcade gaming, they're identical," Bushnell says. "Mobile has some of the same game constraints for the player, and that 'easy to learn, and difficult to master' metric." [...] "Generally, a tremendous number of mobile games are poorly designed," he says. "They can be so focused on graphics that they forget they have to get the timing right, and they have to have proper scoring constructs. I have been so pissed off with some mobile games I've wanted to throw my phone, even if I'm only going to hurt my phone there, and not the game."
sorry, Android only (Score:2)
I've wanted to throw my phone
Then I would recommend the game Send Me to Heaven [google.com]
another mobile game for Nolan (Score:3)
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I would also recommend Get Off My Lawn [digitalleisure.com].
Lol, now that looks like it's about my speed.
Rather like an arcade game after all (Score:2)
> phone games esigned poorly
(sshwuff shwuff shuf sha doingi doingy doingy fwah fwah) "We think you need a better weapon. Only $2.99! Bonus 500 Vapor Coins!"
Sounds we-designed to me.
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Well-designed. Unlike this Google Chrome-on-phone keyboard entry system.
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It never really occurred to me, but the design is actually remarkably alike. Both arcades and phones make their games artificially time constrained or difficult to suck money out of your wallet.
I wish I had mod points to vote this up. I never considered the similarity before either... but absolutely, the arcade game design and mobile game design to encourage quarter-pumping and micro-transactions, respectively, for additional play time or unlocks are really similar.
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Only mobile games I play are tower defense or RPG (Score:3)
>> "They can be so focused on graphics that they forget they have to get the timing right
My kids mostly play PvP games involving decks and armies (rather than "punch" buttons, etc.) on their phones. The home console or PC emulators are what we all use for action/arcade games.
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Other than Square games, which tend to be worth the cash, I've found that after Apple introduced IAP, it entirely destroyed game quality on iOS, with Android quickly following when Google introduced their IAP API. Tower defense games went from decent to impossibly hard, expecting people to pay a few bucks for powerups every game. Virtually every game out there changed to F2P/P2W.
Sorry, I'm not buying $100 in smurfberries/brains to actually play a game to its conclusion. I'd rather just not bother playing
Insert coin to continue (Score:2)
Tower defense games went from decent to impossibly hard, expecting people to pay a few bucks for powerups every game.
Likewise, arcade games used elapsed time or distance (such as number of rounds won) to set difficulty. They temporarily became slightly easier after the player bought a continue.
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For free (no purchase needed to win) tower defense games on Android, I recommend Castle TD, ToyDefense and (Dragon) Lair Defense. I won all three and have still never spent a penny at the Play store. (I don't even have a credit card hooked up.) A good free RPG is Gurk. (I never play anything online on my phone.)
Gen Z (Score:3)
Gen Z is missing out and going backwards. Soon they'll be back in the Black and White era, trust me it'll be the next big thing for them.
Re:Gen Z (Score:4, Funny)
Gen Z is missing out and going backwards. Soon they'll be back in the Black and White era, trust me it'll be the next big thing for them.
That in itself will provide the opportunity for some bonding moments.
"It's okay, son. I couldn't get the giant cow to stop eating my villagers either."
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Already done... Cuphead comes to mind, although it isn't exactly B&W, it does have that 1930s mystique to it.
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RIght - next they'll be playing football on LED game machines. how I fondly remember these single purpose machines. Also remember figuring out a bug that if you played a split offense and moved the QB down one row you could stand still and wait several moves and the defense would move past you. Leaving the goal wide open.
Image of one such device: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.eng... [blogcdn.com]
When a phone, is anything but. (Score:3, Insightful)
The irony of a game developer pissed at a platform designed and intended for communications.
Anytime people want to stop calling it a fucking phone, I'm ready. It's not like we actually talk on the damn things anymore, and voice is about the last priority with smartphone development these days, as evidenced by the mood of a game developer driving next-gen phone software.
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Only if there was a word for that (Score:2)
say call it a "communicator"
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Anytime people want to stop calling it a fucking phone, I'm ready. It's not like we actually talk on the damn things anymore, and voice is about the last priority with smartphone development these days, as evidenced by the mood of a game developer driving next-gen phone software.
Speak for yourself, I use mine as a communications device all the time. So do most others. Just because you dont have any friends to call does not make your phone any less of a phone.
Also you need to get a better phone, voice quality is a huge component of mine and quite good too (Nexus 5X). If people didn't require voice, they'd get a phone that didn't have the voice component, they've been around for some time now but still haven't overtaken phones... they're called tablets.
Mobile Nothing Like Arcade (Score:5, Interesting)
Firstly, arcade games have a physical joystick and buttons which allows for high skill games, while mobile games have to do with imprecise touch screens with laggy input, which limits how challenging you can make the game (which is why most mobile games are dumbed down crap).
Secondly, arcade games allowed for other novel forms of input, such as light gun games, dancing games, and racing games where're physically on a jet ski or motorcycle and are leaning to steer. Mobile games don't offer anything like that.
Thirdly, arcades were as much about the social experience as they were about the gameplay. You'd be playing a fighting game and someone would come along and challenge you to a match. You'd get to know them and you'd meet the same people on a regular basis. I'm extremely unsociable but I always enjoyed the social site of the arcade.
The only comparison between mobile and arcade is that both can burn through your money at an alarming rate, but at least in the arcade you were having fun while most mobile games try to exploit human psychology to get you addicted to doing boring and repetitive tasks in exchange for a false sense of achievement.
Comparing mobile games to arcades is frankly an insult.
Angry Bush (Score:2)
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I prefer the PC because you can make a game allow for an xbox 360 joystick.
But what fraction of PC gamers are likely to actually own an Xbox 360 controller? I'm told many only have the mouse and keyboard, and I'm told PC gamers on the whole tend to be uninterested in games that work better on a joystick than on a keyboard. Am I wrong?
but I prefer the PC because you can make a game allow for an xbox 360 joystick.
Some Android games can use an Xbox 360 controller through a USB OTG adapter, which has a USB micro-A or C plug on one end and a USB standard-A receptacle on the other.
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I suspect that hardcore PC gamers use controllers along with keyboards.
Anecdote: In my gaming group of about a dozen, I'll guess that 50% use XBOX controllers. Many of them used to use PS2/3 controllers with USB adapters. All are quite adept with the mouse and keyboard but prefer controllers for slower-paced or more indie games. Most of them have gaming mice, gaming keyboards, etc. I recently joked that some of us bought XBOX Ones, discarded the console, and kept the controller for PC gaming. :-)
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But what fraction of PC gamers are likely to actually own an Xbox 360 controller? I'm told many only have the mouse and keyboard, and I'm told PC gamers on the whole tend to be uninterested in games that work better on a joystick than on a keyboard. Am I wrong?
Yes, you are. Maybe it used to be that way, but not anymore.
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>But what fraction of PC gamers are likely to actually own an Xbox 360 controller? I'm told many only have the mouse and keyboard, and I'm told PC gamers on the whole tend to be uninterested in games that work better on a joystick than on a keyboard. Am I wrong?
Not from where I sit. I hate controllers. I only play games that are playable with keyboard and mouse. Nobody I know uses controllers unless they are required to by the lack of options on a console. One has a PC joystick and uses it occasionally
More than 8-way movement with a keyboard (Score:2)
I only play games that are playable with keyboard and mouse.
How do you finely change your movement speed and direction with a keyboard? I agree that aiming is more precise with a mouse than with an analog joystick. But for moving, WASD emulates an 8-way joystick, not an analog one.
Nobody I know uses controllers unless they are required to by the lack of options on a console.
With a keyboard and mouse, how do you let players 2, 3, and 4 play a PC game with you? Which games do you play that support Raw Input API for use with more than one keyboard and more than one mouse? Or do you make them wait their turns until you have finished playing? Or do you live alone
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but at least in the arcade you were having fun while most mobile games try to exploit human psychology to get you addicted to doing boring and repetitive tasks in exchange for a false sense of achievement.
Arcade games were more fun because time was limited and there was a challenge to get more value out of it. The games needed to be rewarding but quickly ramp up in difficulty to empty the most pockets.
That scarcity is central to the experience, and it's impossible to replicate that when everyone has unlimited access to the platform. That's why MAME or purchasing the game for your platform of choice just doesn't feel like it used to in the pizza parlor. It's like playing poker without stakes.
That said, you
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The only comparison between mobile and arcade is that both can burn through your money at an alarming rate
I think the Arcade signed its own death warrant when they introduced pay-to-continue games. Gauntlet being the main herald. "Warrior needs food, badly"
The great days of arcades were when a new player burned through a stack of coins, but as they became better, they lasted longer and longer. Sure, the good player would hog a game for a long time, but that wasn't a concern, because there were plenty of other games there. And the good players attracted people, who would watch, and then go waste a handful
Mobile Gaming (Score:2)
I've actually been doing much more mobile gaming than anything else. My "gaming time" is very limited. I might have 10 minutes here or 20 minutes there. I can load up a game on my phone where ever I am, play a few rounds, and then close it out. I'll agree that many games are pure junk, but there are so many mobile games out there that it's inevitable that many wouldn't be good. There are some gems out there, though.
Look Like Shit (Score:2)
...anybody in technology can go to work looking like shit.
Well Mr. Bushnell... (Score:2)
... Back in the day I punched and kicked many an arcade cabinet in frustrated rage, so I don't think the problem is a new one.
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Yeah, but that was due to normal player frustration and immersion in the game, not out of disgust that you'd been suckered into a useless time-wasting session of having your soul and money sucked up.
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"useless time-wasting session of having your soul and money sucked up"
The "insert coin to continue" thing that started about 1988 had that in spades.
How much did you pay? (Score:2)
Nolan has a point... (Score:2)
I grew up with Pong and Atari VCS 2600 (the original 6 button version) and eventually I programmed my own video games on Commodore 64 when I was 12 years old, unfortunately I had NO clue one could make a living out of it - I just thought it was fun so I gave my games away to friends.
Arcade games where my inspiration for purchasing and coding games in the first place, I loved those big awesome sounding machines for the entertainment they provided, all
It really is sad (Score:2)
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HEAR HEAR!
Mobiles are prett much PERFECT for a turn-based RPG like the old Pools of Radiance and other "gold box" game's of the 90s.
Sure, there are ports of Dungeon Warrior and Final Fantasy, but there are no new, original turn-based RPGs available. Something you can lose yourself in for weeks, but only need to play for 10 minutes at a time. The closest I've found is Great Little War Game series.
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You could always download Easy RPG [easy-rpg.org] and use it to play any of hundreds of freeware RPG Maker 2000/2003 games. Compatibility is not perfect though.
so... (Score:3)
when is E.T. getting released ;)
TILT (Score:1)
TILT detected
Mobile games follow one creed in general (Score:3)
Download for free, then pay through the nose for everything you want to do.
Graphics or gameplay are essentially secondary. It's basically all the same game.
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Get off my three blades of grass.
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I'm going, I'm going, just stop wiggling that ... thing at me!
Yea yea (Score:1)
Nolan has this habbit of showing up every year or so, letting out a nasty fart of an opinion on today's games and then vanishes
Who cares what a dude that hasn't been remotely close to video games in damn near 40 years really thinks?
Especially when it's all bile and hate
There have always been bad games (Score:2)
If he thinks the Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, or any other platforms that are fondly remembered didn't have libraries loaded down with absolute shit games, then he doesn't remember the era he comes from. We only remember the good games, it's called survivorship-bias. The only difference now is that the market for games is bigger.
Citations [youtube.com].