What kind of visions did we all have when virtual reality was just around the corner with Oculus Rift and Co.? Gaming toa guide with a smartphone or tablet was also possible. Further technologies are on the advance, with which we should be able to smell even in games. Shouldn’t all this have become reality long ago?
MOBILE GAMING FUTURE – A MISBELIEF?
After all, such technology has been on the market for some time. At home and in use, however, there are probably still very few of them. It may be that on the one hand this is due to the price. On the other hand, another insight has come to my mind in the meantime. Unlike Peter Molyneux (Black & White), I’m not angry that gamers don’t accept mobile games.
Of course, this may be because I don’t develop games myself. But there’s nothing to annoy about: If gamers don’t like mobile gaming, there’s a reason. For me personally this seems logical, because I can’t imagine that most gamers like to gamble on mini-screens.
You want to experience a game, enjoy it, immerse yourself in it. Smartphones and tablets just can’t do it as well as a console or a PC with a large screen. I can also imagine mobile gaming devaluing the gaming experience by typing and wiping with the fingers.
MOBILE SUITABILITY YES, BUT NOT FOR ALL GAMES
It may be that strategy, brawlers and skill games harmonize well with mobile devices. However, I don’t see this potential for MMOs. If you imagine that you would control your character by typing and wiping on the screen in front of your PC, you might smile like I do.
Neither do I paint a picture, nor do I organize my calendar – I play and control my character. In my opinion there is a lot of atmosphere going on here. In statistics you can read again and again that the mobile gaming market is on the rise – but I only see a glorious future for certain sectors.
Lineage 2 Revolution will probably be an interesting indicator for all of us as to whether this thesis is correct. Instead of finally bringing a great MMO-ARPG with Lineage Eternal, the mobile gaming market will be teased first. Funny right at the beginning: On Youtube many gaming channels play it with emulator on the PC, instead of mobile (for which the game is actually made).
AND VIRTUAL REALITY?
There were also a lot of mistakes here (including me), I think. Instead of making this product accessible to the masses, they kept it artificially away from the ordinary gamer in terms of pricing strategy. But there’s hardly anyone left in mourning. I, as an MMO player, don’t see any game that would be great for me with VR glasses.
Furthermore, I don’t see any MMO in development that is specially designed for VR. It becomes clearer when we briefly think about why this could be so: MMOs, Hack and Slays and RPGs are usually not played from the EGO perspective. There’s a reason for this: Many don’t like it and prefer to watch their characters play.
Since we want to experience armor, combat animations and facial features, it’s understandable from my point of view. Virtual reality won’t be able to change that. What’s left are EGO shooters, simulators and shocker games.
EVERYWHERE MOBILE GAMING?!
Maybe VR glasses could also be useful for MMO fans. Although we continue to play as usual from the pursuer’s perspective, we don’t need a smartphone or a portable screen of any kind anymore. All that remains is the subject of control. Playing with gestures in the train should be a funny sight…
Accordingly, the question is how we can make mobile keyboards and mobile mice a reality. Mobile gaming would certainly spread further than before. All in all, I don’t really see much revolution with the pioneering companies’ strategy so far.
Rather, it seems to me like a creeping accessory that seeks its place in the mass of gaming in vain. Here I am curious to see what the next few years will bring. But in the next 2 years there doesn’t seem to be much revolution ahead.
So: A lot of hype around not much and certainly also some powerful budgets, which were wasted for the development of mobile games, which would have made more sense in other places. Old MMORPG hares can’t do much with such games at the moment. Maybe the younger generation already… because they don’t know what they’re missing on the desktop.
The great statistics and numbers for mobile games come in my opinion mostly from the Free to Play area. Especially from those where hardly any player will ever put money on the table. I am strongly predicting that casual gamers and extreme casual gamers will be thrilled and that money will come from them.
