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Does the hatred against mobile gaming partially stem from jealously at "cool kids"?

W

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
I saw this brought up in the Witcher 3 thread, and I thought it deserved to be talked about on its own...

Basically, there's a common element I've noticed among people who play mobile games where they see "video games" and "mobile games" as completely distinct entities. For example, using my own experience, I'm known at work as being a gamer of sorts, and sometimes teased about that. Yet, there are people at my work who don't consider themselves gamers, yet spend all day on shift playing Clash of Clans.

I think for a lot of us traditional gamers, we've always sort of experienced a marginalization in part due to our hobby. Most of the popular kids I knew in school grew out of gaming by Middle School more or less, and while gaming wasn't a totally death sentence for your popularity, admitting to playing anything other than like sports games or shooting games usually didn't go over well.

I feel a lot of the push against mobile gaming is partially due to the fact that a lot of traditional fans sort of feel like the hobby they've loved, and were mocked for loving, is now becoming more mainstream through different avenues, and the people who mocked them in the past now carry a lot of sway in the industry. And, because women typically were pushed away from traditional games in the past due to peer pressure and societal expectations, an unfortunate side-effect of this I think is that the idea of mobile gaming invading for many folks also goes hand-in-hand with the idea that feminism is attacking and destroying their hobby.

Now, that's not to say anyone who dislikes the rise of mobile gaming is a jealous nerd, or a woman-hater---there are plenty of real issues to dislike mobile gaming for which have been discussed such as the reliance on monetization schemes. But, I really think a lot of the dislike for it is rooted in insecurity and folks unable to let go of past slights against them.

I'll finish this by saying I don't mean to insult anyone here. I myself have definitely had these feelings in the past, much as I dislike to feel that way, and I think it's important to come to terms with them. For me, the "popular kids" moving towards mobile gaming is a very real barrier when it comes to me enjoying mobile gaming as I have trouble letting go at times. But, I think we have to try and come to a middle ground where we accept that things are changing, and we can't necessarily prevent that just because we think it's unfair because we were "loyal" to gaming or some other self-important justification.
 
M

MikeE21286

Member
It's because traditional games are hard to play on mobile and people who have grown up loving traditional games feel threatened that they may go away. And they don't want them to go away.
 
P

Pankratous

Member
No, I think people just see a distinction between real games and mobile games because mobile games are generally low budget, have bad writing (if any), have cheap and heavily recycled mechanics and are generally boring as all hell.
 
N

Nightbird

Member
It's up to yourself if you want to call yourself a Gamer or not, but if you play a lot, even if it's just CoC or Candy Crush, you are qualified to be called a Gamer. It really doesn't matter if your first choice of Gaming is your Phone, or your 400 Bucks Gaming Device
 
W

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
Pankratous said:
No, I think people just see a distinction between real games and mobile games because mobile games are generally low budget, have bad writing (if any), have cheap and heavily recycled mechanics and are generally boring as all hell.
Click to expand...

But let's be fair, traditional gaming was filled to the brim with equally low budget shit for years.

The people making shit games for traditional systems just moved on to mobile since it's even cheaper.
 
M

mclem

Member
One of the reasons I'm not bitterly against mobile gaming is that I thought pretty much the same thing back in 1995 with Playstation. History's repeating, and I've matured since then.
 
F

FluxWaveZ

Member
I do not think so. It's because of the platform and its software, not its audience. If it were the audience, you'd be seeing more blanket dismissal for many of the more "popular" platforms such as the PC, or the PS4 as opposed to the Xbox One than you do now.
 
undu

undu

Member
Pankratous said:
No, I think people just see a distinction between real games and mobile games because mobile games are generally low budget, have bad writing (if any), have cheap and heavily recycled mechanics and are generally boring as all hell.
Click to expand...

I'm confused, which one of the two are you describing?
 
J

J-Rzez

Member
Nope. I just don't like most of them because they feel like cheap cash ins with low quality presentation, poor optimization, and poor responsiveness. That said, there are a few fun games out there, but they are rare fish in the sea of mediocrity of mobile games. I don't really "hate" those games, more so rather disinterested in them. But most of those devs don't make games for consoles/PC anyways, so it's little to no impact to me.
 
P

Platy

Member
MikeE21286 said:
It's because traditional games are hard to play on mobile and people who have grown up loving traditional games feel threatened that they may go away. And they don't want them to go away.
Click to expand...

And it sounds as "women will kill our games" as other ridiculous stuff like that


So yeah, basicaly cool kids
 
K

Karsticles

Member
MikeE21286 said:
It's because traditional games are hard to play on mobile and people who have grown up loving traditional games feel threatened that they may go away. And they don't want them to go away.
Click to expand...
This, but not just this. Some of them have gone away thanks to mobile, as developers see mobile as the more profitable arena.
 
S

SeanTSC

Member
No, I despise mobile gaming, because a massive chunk of it is a bunch of Skinner boxes designed to prey upon unhealthy tendencies that people can have. Also because there's literally thousands of new games per month thrown at the App Store wall to see what sticks, usually all of them being absolute pure trash. Both things are completely deplorable.
 
S

Skellig Gra

Member
Come on man. Look at the most popular games. These are just dumbed down rehashes of ancient console games with scam techniques to con you out of extra money.
 
D

Dr. Benton Quest

Banned
Watch Da Birdie said:
But, I really think a lot of the dislike for it is rooted in insecurity and folks unable to let go of past slights against them.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's because the vast majority of them are quite different than traditional games (touch controls, bite-sized, etc). Some players may have moral objections to micro-transactions as well.

Gamer-gaters are more on the nose with their misogyny and racism so I doubt it's for the reasons you listed.
 
G

Garibaldi

Member
Hahahahaha. Ok. The cool kids? Haha I really hope the 'hatred' of mobile games isn't based on something as petty and juvenile as 'cool'. But then again this is video games we're talking about. Serious god damn business apparently.
 
M

Moon_frogger

Member
Man people are bitter about being teased over their gaming hobby. Seriously, I can't imagine holding on to that kind of bitterness about something that just doesn't even matter.
 
D

Dreamwriter

Member
Mobile games tend to be stuck with prices of $.99 to $2.99, and that leads to ultra-low-budget games, coupled with low platform standards and a "mobile gaming gold rush" attitude means the platforms are chock full of crap. Nothing but crap as far as the eye can see. There are some very good games on mobile devices, but they have a bad reputation because almost everything you see on mobile will be crap.
 
C

Chastten

Banned
I doubt it's anything that deep, really.

Most people just feel the need to belong to a group and hate on everything that doesn't fit in that group. Same reason console wars exist.

Most people that 'hate' mobile games (or Nintendo games, or Sony games, or whatever) have barely played any of them whatsoever.
 
I

I Wanna Be The Guy

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
MikeE21286 said:
It's because traditional games are hard to play on mobile and people who have grown up loving traditional games feel threatened that they may go away. And they don't want them to go away.
Click to expand...
It doesn't help that on handhelds they already have gone away to an extent. Western third parties aren't doing anything on handhelds anymore.
 
J

jackal27

Banned
No.

I love several mobile games that utilize the platform's particular strengths well, however I feel that many of the types of experiences that I love to play don't fit well on mobile. That and the mobile market is overcrowded with money-grabbing, shallow, poorly executed "games".

Like I said though, there are many mobile games I enjoy. Some of my favorites right now are Card Crawl and MicRogue. Still, the platform is flawed in a lot of ways and needs better input options in my opinion. This is all coming from someone who loves handheld gaming above everything else. I see what the platform COULD be and what it currently is and it really disappoints me.
 
J

JD_Lars

Member
I just don't like mobile gaming because it's directly resulted in budget cuts for full console titles. Also, I can't sit comfortably and play things on my phone for hours at a time, but that's just me.
 
S

Shining Sunshine

Banned
I played plenty of mobile games and almost all of them are crap.

There's hatred for it because mobile games are accessible to a larger, casual crowd, and it detracts companies from making higher budget games, which means people who don't like mobile games get less games in general.
 
S

Skii

Member
I don't get this... Was gaming unpopular during your teenage years? Is this genuinely a thing? I'm a 90s kid and have never heard anyone being bullied or losing popularity for playing games at any age.
 
V

Verger

Banned
More devs/pubs see mobile games, which seem "inferior" to core consumers in terms of control schemes, design philosophies and focus on analytics, making millions of dollars per day or week so they'd naturally be more inclined to pursue that kind of development rather than traditional games which are now viewed as more risky.

That's one reason.
 
W

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
I mean, I don't think I'm making this up.

I don't think it's a coincidence a lot of heavy GamerGate communities often have a pretty strong dislike of mobile gaming.

And even on NeoGAF I've seen plenty of anti-mobile posts which usually left me with the impression there was a bit of insecurity at play with "cool kids" getting into games.

I'm not saying you're horrible for feeling this way, I just think it's a bigger driving force against mobile games than people would like to admit.
 
I

IdreamofHIME

Member
Seriously, it' because most people feel that...

[todays word count use has been exhausted. Wait 6hours for a word refill or purchase a word pack from the store front]
 
D

DocSeuss

Member
I don't particularly enjoy cynical games built on a culture of copy/pasting other peoples' ideas and addictive impulses. There's no market as blatantly uncreative as the mobile market, and it's infuriating.

But give me something like Threes! or Monument Valley and I'll give you my cash, no problem.
 
D

DryEyeRelief

Member
MikeE21286 said:
It's because traditional games are hard to play on mobile and people who have grown up loving traditional games feel threatened that they may go away. And they don't want them to go away.
Click to expand...

It's basically why a lot of gamers were opposed to Nintendo's blue ocean strategy when they were launching the Wii.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I watched someone pull out their phone to check their Clash of Clans game and it didn't feel like we had a single thing in common. I literally had no other question for them. I wondered if they had spent any money on it, but they didn't seem like the type.

I'm so use to what comes with games and everything. Mobile sometimes feels easy and simple. That's already been said. I feel like you're taking a screenshot and showing me that you are looking at it, but we aren't going to discuss it. I just don't feel very close to it.

I've seen people own handhelds and I knew I couldn't just walk up to them and talk about it. It's weird because I know what they're playing, but I save my enjoyment for games for later. I don't need to know if that's a new app or what level they are. It isn't like someone is sitting there with a Level 50 Wizard and is about to take out an area's boss. To me, mobile has shorten things up and it doesn't leave another party wondering what's going on. I've never seen people camp over a cell phone unless it was from pictures from Instagram or Facebook.

I'll be on an app and there's an ad for a game. I exit the ad and proceed. I don't feel like I want to check the app out until I'm finished or until I want a game to play. I've downloaded the popular free games, but I haven't put time into them. I guess their marketing works for the download. I won't download something with a Chicken or a Wizard that feels like it's on a geocities fan website about fantasy. I feel like they're targeting someone else when that happens versus a TV commercial for a console game.
 
N

Netherscourge

Banned
My only complaint with mobile games is the lack of a responsive and reliable I/O and interface.

The "standard" is just a touch-screen. So, immediately, you're limited to stuff like on-screen touch controls.

Some games accept the format and work well, like the Infinity Blade games for iOS. It's made for taps and swipes.

Other games attempt the virtual controller stuff and it's very clunky and unresponsive.

So, it limits the types of quality games you can play on them to stuff like Hearthstone and Infinity Blade and Angry Birds, etc... stuff that doesn't require split-second timing or multitasking.

The hardware inside the phone themselves are more than capable of great gaming. But it's the input methods and uninspired UI designs that's killing it for most mobile games.

For me anyway.
 
N

NotLiquid

Member
MikeE21286 said:
It's because traditional games are hard to play on mobile and people who have grown up loving traditional games feel threatened that they may go away. And they don't want them to go away.
Click to expand...

One and done.

Handheld games that I love to play on consoles like 3DS and Vita would have nowhere near the same level of feedback if they were on a smartphone.
 
S

SeanTSC

Member
Dr. Benton Quest said:
The majority of games are not good. Period. It's the same with all media.
Click to expand...

It is NOT the same at all. The signal to noise ratio of Quality Vs. Crap in Mobile Gaming Vs. Every Other Form of Media Ever Made in the History of Mankind is completely incomparable. That's not a hyperbolic statement. That's just how absurd the number of shit being thrown at the App Stores every single month is.
 
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