Mobile Phones ushering in new technically adept players?

[Alf-Life]

Watching the young people of today getting so adept at texting and technologically 'advanced' through their mobile phones, I just caught the end of Cybernet and I thought that while 'mobile gaming' may not be the big revolution a lot of companies forecasted and hoped, the mobile revolution itself has ushered in a new age of technology whereby it's not that geeky to know your way around a fairly complex menu and system.

Sorry, I'm all incoherant at the moment (it IS past 4am) but I just caught sight [on the telly] of people playing say Red Faction on an N-Gage and it reminded me of playing Doom on PC for the first time and the feelings that rushed over me, and I got all excited about how these 'early' games now reproduced on phones for bored youngsters to play on would be a second tidal wave of converted gamers who played the things on handsets deemed cool rather than hulking behemoth 286s.

It made me think of how once handheld goes 3D through market/casual gamer pressure, the 2D genres will be exclusive to mobiles for a time (until they go 3D or whatever)... Bah... there's a point in this post somewhere, I'm off to bed.

[Sketcz]

Sorry to be pessimistic, but technically adept players? Not that Ive seen.

Technically adept fashion/trend setters who wouldnt know a good game if it bit them in the buttocks? Yes, I saw them everyday during my time at school with their little mobile phones.

Apart from being a total luditte when it comes to mobile, and absolutely hating them, I dont think they can, nor do I want them to take over from the standalone handheld system. N-Gage is rightly so being shunned, too pricey, and lack of comon sense when it comes to a game system.

A new mobile phone can preform 101 different actions from new JAVA games, to MP3's, dedicated games, PO etcETCetc
but I still cant freakin make a crystal clear phone call anywhere I please, from the African continent to Indocine China.
(relative went to both places on business, and their latest over priced phones refused to work so they had to use landlines.)

Modern mobile phones seem to be a:

Jack of all trades, master of none.

Id be very willing to finally buy a mobile, for around ?200, with NO games, or ANYTHING else at all, as long as I could phone FROM anywhere, and PHONE to anywhere, with the kind of crystal clear pure clarity that would make Ludwig himself get sweaty.

I can only hope that proper games companies do not go the way of Nokia, and making hybrid systems.


Sorry about that rant, but its not been a good morning for me, my water pipes have frozen due to the cold. ft:

[yashiro]

Being good at 'Snake' does not correllate in anyway to being good at PROPER games.

These mobile games are pathetic, look and play like **** and are a step backwards. If you're already a keen gamer I can see how some will see them as an amusing distraction though, especially as they keep publishing 'retro' games.

Let's be honest here... The only reason we're seeing a big push for mobile phone gaming is because mobile phone coverage is at saturation point. They need a new gimmick to push these pices of crap out of the door, and gaming is now it.

[Sketcz]

well said.

[charlesr]

I know and see hundreds of people at work who have upgraded their mobile phones countless times in the last few years and still don't use them for anything other than making phone calls and sending texts. Not one of them plays games on their phone regularly, although they all download them and try them once and only come back to them when they are showing off their phone. Even those with 3G never use them for video calls. Always just voice. So no, games on mobiles are not contributing to anyone getting better at games because almost no-one plays them.

[Smeghead]

I dunno, I must have spent hours perfecting Moto GP on my Motorolla T720 then realised it was crap and I'd wasted my time...

[Alf-Life]

CharlesR: What I was getting at was that with mobile phones and the internet being so popular, society in general has tech'd up - compared say with the teenagers whos generation didn't have mobile phones from the age of 12 or the internet at school. And, therefore, if these new 'potentials' could be/are hooked on games at the same technology-level as many of us early-twenty-somethings were - the Dooms and the Super Mario 3s. Not that it has made people into amazing gamers.

[yashiro]

I see what you're saying about the general technical level being higher. I don't think it affects their gaming skills to any great extent.

However, I see those of us born around Pong/8bit time as children of a revolution.
Kids these days have the all gadgets and toys but they don't have the love and appreciation. Not at all.

This Playstation generation of 'cool kids' know feck all about decent games.
They can send a text message, use msn, play the Sims but they don't have the inquisitive minds that we had. ****, the buggers can't even use PC's outside of their limited little MSN worlds. They're not 'there' learning new stuff and being amazed by games like we were.

We wonder why games today are getting a bit ****? Because they're made for these useless buggers who want nothing more than flashy polygons and some tunes remixed by the Ministry of Sound.

[charlesr]

I would say that I agree, but then I'd sound like an old man too. (I agree).

[Sketcz]

This topic is turning into a congregation of misty eyed old men.

Sign me up.

I agree with yashiro, and Ive talked with MaxM on this, kids today are a totally different breed to what we were when we were kids.

Alot of us grew up with gaming after the crash, so we were slowly absorbed by it. Learned to know what was good and bad, we cut our teeth on gaming really. Today, kids and newcomers to gaming all have it at their fingertips, they really dont know, or care about gaming history.
From what Ive seen anyway.

[Magnakai]

Hahahahahaha.....ha........ha?
right?
You guys are kidding, right?

[Lyris]

We wonder why games today are getting a bit ****? Because they're made for these useless buggers who want nothing more than flashy polygons and some tunes remixed by the Ministry of Sound.

Congrats man, you just described the stereotype of the British PlayStation generation in two sentences
Sadly it usually seems to turn out true which only makes it funnier...