Mobile Gaming

I picked up my first Android phone a while ago and I've been extremely happy and surprised by what modern smartphones are capable of.  I had a smartphone previously, but it was well over 3 years old, so it would almost be considered a smart 'dummy' phone today.   In any case, getting this new phone has opened up a whole new world for me that I had never really given much thought about before.   I'm late to the game I, but phones running Android, IOS, or Windows mobile are just pocket computers.   And...beyond that marvel to me, computers run games, usually really good looking games and of all crazy varieties.   Firing up this phone the night I got it, I hit up the Android marketplace.  It's NEVER been so easy to just browse games instantly and try out so many free or pay.

I was checking out the marketplace, which had a UI that was much easier to use than I had expected.   I realized one of the top free games was "Angry Birds."  This is the fabled game that has stolen headlines for the last 6 months for how amazing and addictive it is.  I would guess the attention is more around the cost of development relative to the download and retention rate by consumers.   In the end, yes this game is a lot of fun, but for hardcore gamers it just a time filler when you're mobile and don't have much else to occupy you.  When I was on the road traveling for work, I would turn on the game and play while at dinner or waiting around at the airport.  I received quite a few comments by random strangers at how much they enjoy the game, or called it addicting.

GDC 2011 is coming up next week, and although the focus will be on game development specifically, I wonder if new news around mobile gaming and devices will pop up.   Microsoft has built their windows mobile 7 platform to integrate with Xbox Live, and I think this is excellent.  This helps them attack the market in the best possible way.  They can hit the casual gamers and yet still offer games or just game add ons to their hardcore market.   I personally would have loved to try a Windows phone 7 but they are not yet available for Sprint wireless.  It's Microsoft's loss, and its quite odd that they skipped the opportunity to attack cellular markets that still do not have the Iphone(Sprint and T-Mobile) .    Lets also look to Sony.   They have a huge grasp in the mobile gaming market.   The PSP has been an incredible advance in mobile gaming.  Sony is planning to release a newer version of the PSP and it looks to be quite the device.  However, a rumor to shadow all this though, is that Sony supposedly is working to release a  PSP phone.    There have been images shared over the net, but as far as I can tell, Sony has not come forward to acknowledge anything.

Finally we hit the mega mobile gaming winner, Nintendo!  I remember the original gameboy from the late 1980s.   Spinach green side scrolling love.   Nothing could beat it, back then.  Today however we have the Dual Screen, better known as the DS.   The device is simple and very fun and versatile, but Nintendo really showed it gaming poignancy through the great library of popular games developed for the DS.   The latest Nintendo version of the DS soon to be released is the 3DS.  This will be a 3D mobile gaming device.  You won't need glasses, the device will somehow be able to create 3D images through the default screens without add ons.  It seems interesting, but I'm still fine w/ my current DS version.

Just as in our console, PC, and other standard gaming, mobile gaming has a plethora of options.  My personal level of mobile gaming is purely casual.  I will hit a game for 5 minutes or less just to fill time when I'm in transition or just bored and away from a PC or book.   I'm not one to get an itch and just dive into Angry Birds while I'm sitting at home.  My guess is that the majority of gamers are in this space, so I have a guess that mobile gaming will turn less from dedicated devices and more towards the mobile phones we have in hand.  Major hardware and software makers in the world have already come forward and stated that mobile phones are the new PC and will be the future of personal computing in the world.   I'm excited to see how technology advances for both the HW and SW side beyond gaming.

Gamer Rage

I want to write about this topic for a number of reasons, but I've struggled to get this topic onto paper properly, and even now this still hardly feels complete.  When it comes to quitting a game due to rage, I sometimes wonder.  Is it just the gamer?  As in, is it in their own fault for how they played the game that they ended up so upset?  Was it just coincidence and circumstance through their experience (typically through online) Or is it possible the game design brought out an unfavorable experience for the gamer?

I had a bout of gamer rage this morning.    As I was up early this morning to pack for travel and to get ready for Superbowl XLV, I found a few friends playing Bad Company 2 online and decided to join them to see how things would fare.   30 minutes later, red faced, I barked up some curse words, gave a bitter farewell and shut off the game.     I was actually really enjoying the gameplay but felt I was performing so terribly that I felt I was of no use and just got upset to the point that quitting the game was all I could do.    In this match up in particular I had 2 major issues.  1) I was dying exponentially more than I was killing and unable complete objectives, and 2) it seemed as though the same 1 or 2 guys were always killing me.  

Sometimes, it just seems all you can do is quit.    I've quit games (prior to rage) because I can just feel the struggle of playing on a bad team isn't worthwhile, and then there is quitting because you're getting absolutely destroyed and nothing is going your way.   The experiences inferred here are from online play which can vary on many aspects.  Besides shooter and FPS games, I wonder how many other online games and even single player games burn players to the point of rage quitting.   I often find the excuse of just online action through coincidence, but at some point gamers may feel the game played is just poorly designed.   

I can say however, I've definitely had more gamer rage in regards to campaign play than online play.  It's also a totally different feeling.   Playing a game this is difficult and makes you replay portions over and over just make you feel cheated as though nothing you do can overcome the AI's superiority or other game parameters.  For instance, anyone who played COD World at War campaign on veteran must have run into the grenade spamming AI soldiers.   I mean, it was ridiculous, you could hardly duck, hide or move w/o being directly shot at, and if you sat still for anything longer than 3 seconds you would constantly be hearing the 'chink chink" of grenades landing and rolling around by.   You were meant to fail, and not just fail, but suffer along the way.   That is how that game felt after I finally finished it up.   I've run through quite a few other games that have similar play circumstances that just feel impossible.  It's really, really, not fun.    Truth be told though, most of these struggles are when playing games on their most difficult setting.  For any game that is this hard on normal play though, the designers were either insane or purposely wanted to create a difficult game to frustrate their user base.  Who knew?

Gamer rage is likely inevitable.   I'm conscious of it in mostly in my play online w/ friends, since its instant feedback.  It just seems to come w/ the territory.  I do wonder if there is a way to curb it, but I can only guess that would require me changing my play style preference or changing the game altogether.     At least in gaming when things seem to be going terribly, you can just shut it off and try again later.  In life its not so simple and if you're the kind to rage quit, you're also likely to end up YouTube.  Speaking of...my flight's just been delayed 2 hours.   I'm stuck w/ this and no quitting now.