Skip Navigation
Remote View
Games @lemmy.world
atomicpoet @lemmy.world

Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

Old gamers often misunderstand the quality of mobile games.

I realized this a couple of weeks ago when I asked my 12-year-old daughter whether she wanted to bring her Nintendo Switch or her Android tablet on our two-week vacation. She chose the tablet.

Why? Because her Android has Genshin Impact, Fortnite, Roblox, Candy Crush, Wuthering Waves, and Sky: Children of Light. She simply prefers those over her Switch library — which is decent but doesn’t compare to what she’s got on the tablet.

Adults tend to dismiss mobile gaming by saying things like, “There’s no 1:1 equivalent to Super Mario Odyssey, Tears of the Kingdom, or Cyberpunk 2077 on mobile.”

Fine. My daughter has access to all those games. Our family owns over 8,000 games across PC and consoles. She can play Super Mario Odyssey any time she wants, but she doesn’t. She’d rather play Genshin Impact.

And she’s not alone. Most of her friends are on their tablets or phones. It makes sense — gaming is as much about socializing as playing, and iOS and Android dominate for a reason.

Sure, we can scoff and say, “Kids these days don’t recognize a good game when it hits them in the face.”

But I remember feeling that way about Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. They’re still thriving today, with now-grown adults still playing.

I also think back to my own childhood. My mom hated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yet, I snuck a TMNT Game Boy game into the house and played it behind her back. TMNT never disappeared — it’s still around.

With the original Switch’s price rising (at least here in Canada), it just makes sense to consider Android tablets — especially for kids. Sure, you can’t play Black Myth: Wukong on Android, but that’s why I have PCs ready for that. Kids? They just want to have fun and connect with friends.

124 comments

  • Why? Because her Android has Genshin Impact, Fortnite, Roblox, Candy Crush, Wuthering Waves, and Sky: Children of Light.

    These games are all great examples of everything I hate about mobile gaming: full of incessant ads for microtransactions. Literally every mobile game I've ever played (outside of FDroid) is this way.

    Plus you need a controller anyway, at which point you might as well just carry a handheld ging system.

    You could buy whatever your favorite Anbernic device for $50 and have access to a library of thousands of fun ad-free games.

  • I'm not sure why you're on a crusade to convince people to like mobile games. I've always got my phone on me, and I frequently find myself on a subway ride that's too short to bother with a Steam Deck. Mobile games would fit in great there. My options are pretty terrible. For the kinds of games I like to play, the only ones that actually have mobile versions are basically digital versions of board games and a small handful of roguelikes. I tend to just read on the subway instead. It's not for lack of trying. The library just sucks, and it offers less value than other places I can buy games. Your daughter is playing games designed to keep you "engaged" and addicted with all of the greatest tricks of the gambling industry; you can find the GDC talks with a quick search on your favorite search engine.

    • Whenever I see an echo chamber where people parrot the same shallow talking points—no nuance, no real analysis—the contrarian in me kicks in.

      You claim there’s “no library” on mobile, but even a basic look at the stats and available titles proves otherwise.

      If you actually want fun, premium mobile games with zero microtransactions, they’re not hard to find. You just have to look beyond the surface—and actually try.

      • I'm not parroting anything. I've looked. Sure, sometimes you get a port of XCOM or Slay the Spire, but then it's not going to carry over progress back to my PC, where I'm more comfortable playing at home, and my reluctance to buy a version of the game like that explains why there isn't enough money in trying to port the kinds of games that I like to mobile. Sometimes a game has a port, but it fell out of compatibility with modern Android and never got updated; and let me tell you, that's a great way to convince me to stop looking. Even crazier is when something like Fire Emblem Heroes happens, because it's adapting a traditional handheld/console game into an interface that makes way more sense for controlling the game, but it's not a proper version of that series; it's a gacha game. If I have any kind of extended anticipated desire to game on the go, my Steam Deck is just a better answer than trying to find the few games I would like that also got Android versions, because I'm going to spend more time playing them at home anyway.

  • I just feel bad for a lot of kids because maybe their phone or tablet has the game they want but often they are playing using just the touchscreen and that interface sucks for anything that requires joystick or button controls (where the touchscreen just has vague areas with pretend joysticks and buttons).

    It just does.

    I get that kids get used to it, but it's like getting used to being kicked in the nuts when you have the option of not being kicked in the nuts.

  • Sky is fun but you know it hooks you with those candles. The only evolution you make clear here is they've gotten better at disguising the loot boxes and cash grabs.

  • Mobile gaming, on Android, is an interesting space right now. I used to buy flagship phones exclusively, as high spec as I could just...because I could. I played a few emulated Nintendo Switch games on them, as well as the odd Game Pass title (with a telescoping GameSir Xbox mounted controller thing) and then I realized I really had no use for them. I rarely played, and my most recent phone purchases have been mid-range.

    That said, so much is now possible on Android. You can emulate everything from Switch to PS3, use pretty front-ends to use as a launcher station (a quick note of appreciation for the totally FOSS option - Lemuroid), and as unbelievable as it still is to me, you can even play full PC games like GTA V using winlator

    The scene for Android emulation is incredibly dramatic with frequent in-fighting, but also pretty impressive from a technical standpoint. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea - and that's fine, but the mobile scene which isn't just gatcha games hooking kids on the Play Store is so varied. Then you've got actually impressive games like DREDGE getting a Android release, replete with custom builds and changes for the Android system (no lazy ports!). Heck, even No Man's Sky is coming to Android soon!

  • Super fancy shinny quad AAAA game with photorealistic (2025 edition) graphics that You can talk about on dedicated forums, that maybe 5 other persons in Your area ever heard of.

    vs

    Common, whatever graphic, cube themed, low poly game with music in midi... that whole school talk about and every yt influencer too.

    It's all about blindly following the fashion. Again.

  • The potential has always been there for phone games, but its far a few between that are worthwhile. Touch screens suck for controls, really limits to a few good genres, but the stores suck too for any form of support. I'm still bitter that they updated iOs and not xcom so I lost that game and couldn't get a refund. Most good phone games are ports though, and otherwise so riddled with poor design and mtx its not worth the time. Honestly, the buggest disappointment with phones is that games could be awesome on them and they're not.

    Kids are easily entertained by all kinds of arguably crappy things. Similarly mine has access to tons of great games but will spend weird amounts of time on some janky web based crap. Its not a sign its good, he just has no taste cause he's an inexperienced kid. I similarly wouldnt look at his choice of mismatched clothes and chicken nuggets for every possible meal and think "wow that stuff's great!" Maturity and judgement take awhile to develop, so I dont think its bad that he does that, but roblox is still utter garbage no matter how much him and his friends love it. A lot of people love garbage - it doesn't make it good.

    • Kids are easily entertained by all kinds of arguably crappy things.

      Guys traditional games AND mobile games are going the way of the dodo because my 6 month old plays with their fisher price phone more than our phones or tablets. - OP

    • The inverse is just as true. Just because you and many “gamers” accept a rigid canon of what counts as “quality” doesn’t mean those games are actually good.

      Go to any retro gaming board and you’ll hear the NES era hailed as a golden age. I’ve played nearly all those games—and apart from a few true gems, most of them don’t hold up.

      Yet people still pay hundreds of dollars for cartridges like Action 52 and treat them like holy grails, even though we all know that some of the worst mobile games today are technically better.

      The truth is, I don’t think the average gamer really knows quality. I think most of their taste is just parroting what someone else told them to like.

      Quality deserves to be judged on its own merits—not nostalgia or consensus.

      • Its the age old subjective vs objective criteria, and for certain people of different perspectives one will outweigh the other. Nostalgia is very subjective - most of those classics are called classics because they were fantastic at the time of release. They dont hold up today on a technical level, so objectively their quality by today's standards is dirt, but whether or not someone still finds it entertaining or fun to play is entirely dependent on that person. The only way to measure that is to take an average of the judgemental reactions of many people - essentially consensus.

        The problem with phone games is that objectively the large majority of them are poorly made, with subversive mechanics meant to manipulate the casual audience into spending on them. Their goal isn't fun so much as addiction. It works because it is so largely available to a massive casual audience. The large majority of these people wouldnt bother to purchase a console or a PC for gaming. I've met people who actively say they think video games are a waste of time but they're on level 1000 of candy crush and spending money on power ups. These people do not visit gaming forums and are not gaming enthusiasts, they dont see an issue, nor would they care if you point it out. Subjectively, they like it, they're having fun, and that's fine, but that is not the audience you are speaking to here. For this crowd the issues are readily apparent. Its immediately obvious to use why these games are balanced poorly, why ads are shoved in our faces constantly, why the constant updates are anti-consumer. An enthusiast audience will always be more critical of such practices that the larger casual crowd easily ignores.

        Last time I went to mcdonalds it was because of that same kid who loves phone games. He was so excited for chicken nuggets. I tried one, it was horrible. I choked down a burger that is an insult to burgers. No food enthusiast would ever recommend this, no self respecting chef would ever endorse this, and I can easily make better food at home for cheaper. But they've served millions, and have franchises world wide! People love it, so it must be great! It sure as fuck is not, and I certainly have the capacity to be a more discerning consumer with that just like I am with video games or any other interest.

      • At least Action 52 never tried to financially ruin gambling addicts.

124 comments