Why are most mobile games trash?

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ryujin470@fedia.io⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://fedia.io/m/games@lemmy.world/t/1422191

They usually are free to play with predatory monetization mechanics. That was especially back in 2016 when thanks to these games, the mobile gaming revenue outpaced PC and console gaming revenue.

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dustyData@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Have you ever sat in front of a casino’s slot machine. They are also trash, awful and disgusting. But they’re also engineered with the worst dark pattern psychology to manipulate any human being that sits on it to keep playing and be so addictive that people will burn their money just to keep playing. The qualities of fun, and additive are independent of each other. A game can be very addictive and really bad at the same time. Unlike slot machines, they have the advantage of constantly sitting in your pocket and going with you everywhere you go.

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- HeyJoe@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I played a new gacha game 2 nights ago that was so overloaded with crap to do I found myself not even playing the game but just clicking the stupid rewards buttons for everything i “accomplished” and I hated it. I continued to play for another 4 hours… thankfully, once I closed the game, I removed it. I also didn’t pay a dime outside my wasted time.
  
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- borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Idk. I got extraordinarily drunk, but a twenty in a dollar slot machine, thought I would get 20 pulls, pulled once, lost all my money, them never touched a slot machine again.
  
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  - USSEthernet@startrek.website ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Lmao this was my experience as well. What a waste. At least I know casinos are not on my list of things to do when I go places now.
    
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ch00f@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Most mobile game developers just want to attract whales. People who spend thousands of dollars in their app. They don’t care about everyone else because they don’t make any money off anyone else.

For some games, 20% of players spend $1800 or more a year. One of those people spent $90k.

So if your game sucks for everyone else, it’s not a big loss.

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- Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I wish I had 90k to just throw away
  
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  - Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Take a loan!
    
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v4ld1z@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Shoutout to Slay the Spire, Balatro, and Slice & Dice. They all cost a bit (around 10€) but are excellent ports of the originals and among the best mobile games. Slice & Dice even started out as a mobile game and was ported to PC later.

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- OlPatchy2Eyes@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Pixel Dungeon
  
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- llii@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Also Peglin.
  
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- ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Cultists Simulator has a mobile port too
  
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- hopefull_cottonball@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Vampire survivors and among us are free on mobile.
  
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  - Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Add craft the world to the list too
    
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- xor@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Plus mini metro, terraria, don’t starve, wild rift, and TFT (last two are free to play, and only have cosmetic transactions)
  
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  - v4ld1z@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Wild Rift is my poor man’s League (although the skins are way more expensive than on PC). Don’t have a PC to play League on and WR is a good, chill alternative. Plus, I can play with my SO
    
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- rockerface@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Adding Dead Cells to the list. Handles surprisingly well with touchscreen
  
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- LavenderDay3544@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Also Minecraft and Stardew Valley.
  
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- USNWoodwork@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Meteorfall
  
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PunchingWood@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I feel like the best time for mobile games was back around 2009/2010 when touchscreen just became good and most stuff was either free or paid and without intrusive ads and monetization or other predatory bullcrap.

I recently tried Angry Birds 2, and I was baffled it would only take a few levels before I had to buy my way to more “ammunition” to keep playing. The original used to be good, I even wouldn’t have minded if there was like an ad between games, but even that isn’t an alternative option anymore. And they also pulled the original from the stores, I thought they had re-released it before, but couldn’t find it either. And also when I first opened the game there was so much shit on screen that it was even difficult to navigate to just even find the actual game, it’s absolutely fucking ridiculous.

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- catalyst@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Agreed. There was a fantastic time for mobile games before things went downhill.
  
  I have a strong memory of being in an apple store, finding a display iPad, and becoming enraptured by Plants vs Zombies. I would eventually get my own and put dozens and dozens of hours into the game.
  
  Then EA took it over and turned it into trash.
  
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icecreamtaco@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
There were thousands of good developers making respectable games. Most of them failed financially, and many of the survivors sold out later anyway.

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PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
A couple of major factors:

Users who expect low prices - This partly because of the history of mobile games being smaller and/or ad-funded but also because the vast majority of people playing games on their phone are looking for a low barrier to entry, time waster, not specifically a game.

Lack of regulation or enforcement - other gambling heavy fields tend to be at least somewhat regulated, but mobile games are very light on regulation, and even lighter on enforcement. This allows them to falsely advertise their games and how they function (both in terms of misleading ads, and lying about chance based events and purchases in-game).

Monopolistic middlemen - On other platforms, theres more direct competition (IE, Sony and Microsoft’s generally more direct competition) or companies that prioritize long-term growth and stability (IE Steam or Itch.io). Apple and Google, on the other hand, largely compete on brand perception and hardware specs. These means that their app stores, where they make most of their money, have zero competitors. See as they have no reason to make the stores better, they can instead promote whatever makes them the most money; that being exactly these manipulate, sketchy, virtual slot machines.

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inlandempire@jlai.lu ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I use MiniReview (minireview.io) to have better sorting options for games on Google’s Play Store, you can specifically sort for screen orientation, monetisation (or lack of), genre, ads or not, etc

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iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
There are good mobile games, but you typically have to pay for them.

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BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Making a good game is hard. Making brainrot garbarge is easy, and people play it just as much. So what is the point? I knew a guy who was cheap as fuck. I didn’t know his girlfriend as well, but people said she was pretty much the same. Once i remember he made fun off someone spending like 60 dollars on a video game and he said he’s not a “gamer”. A few month later we talked about some video games that we liked and i didn’t really include him in that conversation because of what he said before.

He chimed in and said that he’s been playing clash of clans since release. Now i hardly even know what coc is, except mobile pay to win garbage (imo) so without even thinking, i asked if that game is even playable without spending money. He said oh no, he spends around 500 buchs a month. We were all shocked a bit, and he realised how ridiculous that is and immediately threw his girlfriend under the bus saying that she spends at least 1k a month for candy crush.

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superkret@feddit.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
They’re trash because they’re free.
Traditional games need to be good, so people buy them.
You don’t need to buy mobile games. But developers need to eat. So the money needs to be extracted from the people while they play.
So you need to implement microtransactions and design the entire game around making them necessary for success.
But most people stop playing a game at some point when they’ve beaten it, or are getting bored ot it.
So you need to make your game addictive instead.

The same principle applies to so many things (for example news).
If you don’t pay for it up front, the entire thing will be designed around extracting money from you during use, which means it needs to be designed to keep you hooked.

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misk@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you own an iPhone just get Apple Arcade through Apple One, it’s really worth it if you game on your phone. No predatory monetisation, regular self-contained games, plenty of high quality titles.

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- BossDj@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Or do the trial, find some games you like, then buy them for a couple bucks when the trial ends
  
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  - misk@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Most of the games in AA that I played have been reworked to remove monetisation while their regular App Store versions offer freemium model only.
    
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furzegulo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
capitalism and greed

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- slumberlust@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You repeated yourself
  
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Zikeji@programming.dev ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
There are some great mobile games out there. A few of my favorites include Dawncaster and Slice & Dice. Personally when I’m looking for a new game I use www.darkpattern.games to check if they are exploitive.

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TomAwezome@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Mobile games are designed like junk-food: take it out, eat some junk, then put it away to go do something else, throw away the bag or seal it for a quick snack later. Normal games are designed like a full meal: sit down somewhere with good atmosphere, nutritious, good conversation, get full and go home with plenty of leftovers and good memories

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IMNOTCRAZYINSTITUTION@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
what shocks me is that nintendo never made some new pokemon games in their old GBA or DS style. it would be perfectly suited to phone limitations and expectations and there is a huge potential market for that style of game.

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- icecreamtaco@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  And it would have instantly deleted 50% of their 3DS hardware sales.
  
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  - ADTJ@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Now I’m picturing a pokémart with micro transactions to buy items and I’m glad this doesn’t exist
    
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  - Bezier@suppo.fi ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Just switch, 3DS is discontinued.
    
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Matty@lemmy.autism.place ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If I remember right, mobile games did tried to somewhat tried make console experience work on mobile phone but of course phones was way underpowered and not to mention that majority of mobile games have touch controls which compare to controller are just really naff. Only few people would maybe get an Bluetooth controller. That’s why more simplex game just works better on mobile and then it just riddle with clones and shovelware

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- WolfLink@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I played through the entirety of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within on my phone. That was a feature length PS2 game.
  
  Other feature length games with decent ports I know of:
  
  Transistor
  
  Bastion
  
  Ace Attorney
  
  Myst
  
  Riven
  
  Minecraft
  
  Terraria
  
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  - AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Adding Stardew Valley to your list - on Android it’s even got mod support and the controls aren’t awful.
    
    I’ve also had a lot of fun with rollercoaster tycoon classic but I’d really only recommend that on a tablet.
    
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- acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  you can have simple games without predatory monetization. that’s what OP is talking about.
  
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  - superkret@feddit.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Only if people are willing to pay for them.
    There’s no reason a mobile game would be cheaper to develop than a PC game.
    And there’s also no one paying $50 for a mobile game.
    The market has decided.
    
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WhyFlip@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Because dweebs like you keep throwing money at garbage.

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Jestzer@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Because they make a lot of money.

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LANIK2000@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
There are plenty of good mobile games, the problem is none of em get promoted on Google Play, finding em is like a fucking treasure hunt.

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mp3@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Small screen, combined with poor/touch screen controls, and wanting to make money no matter what by pushing ads everywhere because no one wants to pay $10+ for a mobile software.

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- Peffse@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I still miss my Xperia Play. It’s been over 10 years… Still my favorite phone.
  
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  - ADTJ@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Sony really screwed over the play after promising Ice Cream Sandwich
    
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ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I think it’s just because it was the dominant monetization scheme when they were introduced, people got used to spending nothing up front on their mobile games. Then there are other barriers. Like why would I pay $15 for Stardew Valley when it probably won’t work with a controller or output comfortably to a TV. You can do some of that stuff sometimes in mobile, but there’s no enforcement of it, so that means you’re getting a lesser version of the game, which drives the price down. I wanted to revisit Planescape: Torment on mobile, but they ported it to Android too long ago, and now it just doesn’t work with modern Android OSes. They’re really teaching me to not treat mobile as a place where people like me should expect to find stuff to play.

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Brewchin@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I think it’s cultural differences. In the west, we abhor pay to win and predatory aspects. But in Korea, China and other countries in that region, players demand it.

So then it comes down to which market region you’re targeting. If you’re not a NA/EU mobile developer, how do you choose? 🤷‍♂️ Can’t keep everyone happy.

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Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Not that it succeeded long term, but I salute Apple Arcade’s venture on this. It’s a subscription service that aimed to highlight iPhone games that had no monetization, and were usually small indie games with a fun idea.

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Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Because people seem to lap that garbage up enough for it to be profitable to make barely functionable shit, as cheaply as possible.

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Psythik@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
CoD mobile is good… when played in an Android emulator on PC. It’s basically CoD: Greatest Hits, and it’s way better than Black Ops 6 (or any console/PC CoD, for that matter). All the best maps from the old games are there.

The only issues is that it takes some tweaking and the right emulator (Gameloop) to get a steady 120+ FPS, and it can take some time for the game to match you with other mouse and keyboard players (instead of just bots or controller/touchscreen users), but once you’ve established your rank, it becomes ton of fun cause you’re not just destroying everyone you match against. It becomes a legit challenge.

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Sproutling@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yep, getting people to pay $40-60 bucks for a mobile game is basically impossible, and as a result the business model is either F2P or $3-5 bucks with egregious monetization to earn back the costs.

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