Today's blog is going to be a relatively short one- probably not any longer than yesterday's, and if it is shorter indeed, no more than three or four paragraphs worth of information. At least, that's the plan. As the title would suggest, I will be talking a little bit on one of the more touchy and picky subjects in gaming- mobile "gaming". Whereas some people think mobile gaming (in reference to phones, not handheld or portable game devices) has no merits whatsoever, and is complete trash, while others think it is the best thing since Tetris- I find myself more so along the middle ground than anything else. I can see some merits to the technology, as well as the drawbacks and the time wasters out there. So, without further ado, allow me to first talk about some of the pros on the matter, and second, talk about the cons. Keep in mind that these are solely reflections of my opinion pertaining to mobile gaming on phones and like devices, as well as only a few points I've chosen to bring to the table.
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Le Pros
1. Portability and ease of access for the majority of people. +1
2. Relative accessibility or like settings for more accessible options for those otherwise impaired or chagrined enough to utilize them while not. +1
3. Short stories and simple, fun gameplay. No overly complex thoughts or ideas (usually). Enjoyability is thought of first. +1
4. Interesting touch and adaptive controls (on most current devices). +1
5. Graphics improve with each new upgrade and each new phone, as does the experience as a whole with each quick fix and patch released for apps and games alike. +1
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Le Cons
1. Portability and ease of access sometimes equate to experiences that are mindless romps or wastes of time, or too simple in concept so as to not even remain enjoyable. -1
2. While there are many accessible settings, for many people with impairments or other said "issues", the size of the screen, or lack thereof of room, is often going to be an issue regardless of options provided to "make up for it". -1
3. Occasionally you have a game that comes around and wants you to think and presents a complex idea, but they don't often correlate as easily or bridge the gap from mobile to mind because of the breaks in reality due to bugs and gameplay. -1
4. Said "interesting and adaptive" controls are usually still abominable in the vast majority of games, and most games share the same touch to move controls that are often hard to work with whilst simultaneously firing weapons or moving characters. -1
5. While graphics improve often, they are still world behind those of consoles and computers, which is to be expected I suppose for such a little device with little to no memory. However, they are also generally worlds behind the new handhelds we currently have- the Vita especially. While closer to the 3DS, it's still a stretch between pixels... -1
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And so you see, as I stated at the beginning, I am literally caught in the middle of the two points of view, as can be seen from the five points for and against I just showed to you. I balance out evenly to where I could flip flop either way, for the purpose of this blog. Sure, there are some games I really have enjoyed over the past few years- such as (but not limited to) Infinity Blade and Plants vs. Zombies, however, there are even more that I have been extremely dissatisfied with and turned my nose up at. So it's just a need-to-play basis I guess for the most part in terms of differentiating between good mobile experiences and bad ones that are wastes of money... Some games make the mobile transition well, and some just never really pick up speed.
