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hey u wanna ply a game w me?
March 13th 2003, 02:27 CET by Caryn I know a while back we discussed games on cellphones and whether or not they'd take off. I believe the general consensus was that it would never fly. But I am here to shamefully admit that I, your humble author, am getting addicted to cellphone games. I recently bought a new phone and upgraded my AT&T wireless to include data and their fancy shmancy mMode service. I did it partly because I'm a wireless gadget freak, and mostly because it allows me to get my work email on my cellphone when I'm away from the office. But I find myself utterly addicted to playing with the internet access I have on my phone, which is surprisingly robust. One of the many features, of course, is games. I'm not talking about Snake and other games that come standard with your cellphone, with or without internet connections. There is a whole host -- about twenty, last time I looked -- of games you can access and play on your wireless phone, and many of them are multiplayer. There's trivia games, casino games, even games that are something like speed dating. I'm currently very into a wireless multiplayer version of Tamagotchi -- I care for my pet, and I can enter him in pet shows against other cellphone players, see their pets, etc. Many of us have probably seen ads for Tony Hawk and other color graphics games on some of the next-gen Motorola phones. So I wanted to revisit this topic and talk about a few things. Are there game concepts that you think could and possibly will fly on a cellphone? What sort of game concepts is the cellphone platform perfect for? I'd love to see what the collective Crap imagination has to offer here. And finally, has anyone else seen games in cellphones on the rise since we last talked about it? Points docked to anyone who points out how lame I am for playing games on my cellphone because I'm already aware of it. |
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Topic: hey u wanna ply a game w me?
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(remember nokias MP3 phone?) I have that phone... Picked it up for $100 at a fire sale. Nice because I don't like T9, but the software for putting music on that thing... Oh, the agony! Oh, and it's a kludge. There's the body of a 3310 inside the case. Not bad for $100, though. So, first, let's kill all the marketing people.
Who's with me? |
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Quick offtopic rant: I just downloaded Bandits: Phoenix Rising SP demo and had one of the worst gaming moments ever. The voice-overs are sad, the music is so wrong, wrong, wrong, that you have to hear it to believe. And the first mission starts out with "You must protect the convoy". However, during my five minutes of frustration, nothing happened, the convoy never started moving, and nobody attacked us. WTF? |
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This one time I rented Wall Street Kid for the NES. |
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Bantumi is the best phone-game I've played. I tried playing it in real life with chocolate peanuts, but we just ended up devouring all the pieces before the game ended. |
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When a cell phone can change my tampon, I'll buy one. Until then, I'll stay here using the ole hand method. " ..and Trolly McTroll is the best name EVER. I laugh every time I see it. " - Wudi
"It doesnt have enough dicks to be a gaymobile." - bago |
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My phone I have now doesn't even have any games. Same here, DAMN YOU NEXTEL/MOTOROLA! He and his girlfriend are making out in his car in a trailer park, when he suddenly has to run to an outhouse to make an emergency, uh... deposit.
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As an argument for the types of games on cellphones... One of the popcap guys said that they've made over 10mil$ on Bookworm. What I don't like about mobile games, however, is the costs associated with it. A lot of the cellphone games I've seen (friends' phones, since I don't own one) cost an activation fee, and then a monthly cost. Even if the game is single player and runs only on your phone. Hell, even the N-Gage developer manual that I snagged from their booth recommends that pricing scheme. Hello? There is a difference between paying monthly for a MMO where they are providing a service, and paying monthly for a chunk of software that is no longer costing the dev anything. FIGHTING FOR PEACE IS LIKE POSTING ON PLANETCRAP FOR INTELLIGENCE! --morn |
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Petri: That was an interesting article, thanks for the link. IMO Snake is a better game for a cell phone than DOOM. Yet, the manufacturers and game devs keep saying how l33t it is that they can now run 3D stuff on the phones. And that's why I'm glad to see that there are 30 games listed in my mMode guide that are not 3D games like DOOM. I think that trying to put games like Splinter Cell on a cellphone is just the wrong route to take. The development costs are going to be so much higher than games I've mentioned like Wall Street Wizard. Why not use the quick, one-button nature of cellphones to their fullest advantage and develop small, quick-to-play games that won't cost you much to develop, so therefore could reap a little more profit? Another game I'm going to check out on my phone: Alien Fish Exchange by nGame. You breed exotic alien fish and and compete against everyone else on the network who's playing to see who has the most valuable tank at the end of a month. Wall Street Wizard is made by PicoFun, a company who's web site is currently down but a cached version at Google says that they're a company focused on games for mobile devices. Wireless Pets is made by Wirelessgames, another company that sounds like it's focused primarily, if not exclusively, on small games for small devices. There are text adventure games, casino games, and something called Zobmondo, which is akin to Family Feud with bizarre questions. These are all quick to play, easy to pick up and more importantly, easy to put down when you have to put your cellphone away. I can't do that with DOOM or Tony Hawk, so I don't see those games as desireable on my cellphone. (The GBA's controls are already inferior to other platforms for these games -- a cellphone's controls will likely be terrible.) I think that gaming with the phones will (at least for the near future, say 3-5 years) stay as a passive entertainment. Sure, you might play a game while waiting for the bus, but you're not really prepared to pay for it. I disagree! I think that the nature of the cellphone makes it incredibly easy to pay for it, to the point where you hardly think about it. As I said before, it costs 99 cents for me to play a month's worth of Wireless Pets or Alien Fish Exchange. The only, only thing I have to do is click "accept" when the phone asks me if I want to pay for it. It already knows my credit card because the phone company has my account, and it will automatically tack it on to my monthly bill. That's even more convenient than using a check card at the register. You can't get any more convenient than that when you pay for something, I think. So because of both the ease and the cheap price, I'm quite amenable to paying for a single game on my cell phone for a month. Hell, maybe two. It's only $2 to play for a month. You just can't beat that price. So I think that in this regard, cell phone companies have a leg up on everyone else when it comes to getting people to pay to play your games. I'm curious to know if that makes it profitable for the companies that make them. "That's an interesting viewpoint supported by many factual references, but you failed to note that I really don't care." - Bailey
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Another thing that I think these games have going for them is the ease of multiplayer. For many of these games, I'm automatically playing against other people on the network and I didn't have to find a server, I didn't have to set up a game with my friends, I just started playing. People like the idea of competing against real people, and this makes it very easy to do that. "That's an interesting viewpoint supported by many factual references, but you failed to note that I really don't care." - Bailey
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Yum. President Bush dismissed last week's worldwide antiwar protests, which some estimate were the largest in human history, and said they would have no effect. "Size of protest — it's like deciding, well, I'm going to decide policy based on a focus group."
-- Harper's Weekly Review (February 25, 2003) |
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Goggles: Integrated into the frame of exciting, stylish sports eyewear, I disagree with what they wrote. What?
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HOly crap are those devices ghey and ugly. " ..and Trolly McTroll is the best name EVER. I laugh every time I see it. " - Wudi
"It doesnt have enough dicks to be a gaymobile." - bago |
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Bluetooth ear-phones. Give me! a silent moment
for the king of fools he dies today on a cross he made himself |
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I'll side with Leslie. I like 'em, especially the goggles. "That's an interesting viewpoint supported by many factual references, but you failed to note that I really don't care." - Bailey
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yeah... i've got blackjack on my sony C5 and i love it; leaning on a lamp post waiting for a bus, that kind of thing... I think they need to think about some kind of pokemon thing where you train up a monster tamagochi style then phone your friend and watch the fight on the display.,.. I mean it worked for battlemail.com! I dunno - i'm just trying to think of ideas.. |
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#69 jim I think they need to think about some kind of pokemon thing where you train up a monster tamagochi style then phone your friend and watch the fight on the display.,.. On my service there's a Kung Fu game you can play against other players, but you can't train your character as far as I know. I'd love to see Monster Rancher on the cellphone, I think it could work very easily. "That's an interesting viewpoint supported by many factual references, but you failed to note that I really don't care." - Bailey
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jim: I think they need to think about some kind of pokemon thing where you train up a monster tamagochi style then phone your friend and watch the fight on the display.,.. Samsung are halfway there. My S105 has a built-in game called MyPet that's not unlike Tamagotchi. |
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oh, and here are some screenshots from the european version of the S105. |
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Combine those goggles, the display, the integrated camera, with some strong computing power, say, 10-15 years down the road, and you'll be able to do some seriously cool shit with that. I want to see that stuff proliferate like mad. FIGHTING FOR PEACE IS LIKE POSTING ON PLANETCRAP FOR INTELLIGENCE! --morn |
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Do any cellphones use Dasher yet? Cause they should. If I could get a dasher enabled cellphone, I'd be sooooo there. FIGHTING FOR PEACE IS LIKE POSTING ON PLANETCRAP FOR INTELLIGENCE! --morn |
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#73 Charles Combine those goggles, the display, the integrated camera, with some strong computing power, say, 10-15 years down the road, and you'll be able to do some seriously cool shit with that. I want to see that stuff proliferate like mad. Aren't we geeky enough now without all that shit?? "Folks, you can't walk into a bar holding a porcupine, set it on fire and expect to make liquorice!" --Dana Carvey as Ross Perot
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#74 Charles Do any cellphones use Dasher yet? Cause they should. If I could get a dasher enabled cellphone, I'd be sooooo there. What is Dasher? "That's an interesting viewpoint supported by many factual references, but you failed to note that I really don't care." - Bailey
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Dasher Download it and give it a try on your PC, when a company decides to integrate this shit, Graffiti, Keypads, both will end up obsolete on PDAs/Cellphones. FIGHTING FOR PEACE IS LIKE POSTING ON PLANETCRAP FOR INTELLIGENCE! --morn |
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#77 Charles Dasher Download it and give it a try on your PC, when a company decides to integrate this shit, Graffiti, Keypads, both will end up obsolete on PDAs/Cellphones. Hmm, I'm curious so I'll download it later and give it a try. In the menatime, I use T9 text prediction on my phone and have really gotten to love it. I think it works great. "That's an interesting viewpoint supported by many factual references, but you failed to note that I really don't care." - Bailey
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Dasher is already available for Pocket PC Phone Edition. |
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Petri What about it? I doubt that HDB has sold more than 10k. The conversation was about space delivery games at the time. That's all. Why must you be so aggressive and bitter towards me? Words hurt, Petri. Words... hurt. (soulful soaring music embodying the will to live on as displayed by the the bruised desert flower that is my soul) I, Complainicus
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I think the glasses look pretty decent, but this gargoyle shit is, without a doubt, going to speed up the fall of mankind. You think people have short attention spans now? Think they drive poorly now? Wait until they are viewing data coming off one of these HUD-glass systems every waking hour. Bleh. 2000/XP is better than Win9x in every way.
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It'll be like living in a Gibson novel. I can't wait. FIGHTING FOR PEACE IS LIKE POSTING ON PLANETCRAP FOR INTELLIGENCE! --morn |
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Anyone else notice that most of Gibson's work is, you know... dystopian? -chris |
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It'll be like living in a Gibson novel. I hope not. I have enough trouble relating to people as it is. It would be that much harder relating to a bunch of poorly contrived, one-dimensional character stereotypes. |
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Your favorite writer sucks. What?
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Dasher makes me dizzy, literally. 2000/XP is better than Win9x in every way.
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#75 Ergo #73 Charles Combine those goggles, the display, the integrated camera, with some strong computing power, say, 10-15 years down the road, and you'll be able to do some seriously cool shit with that. I want to see that stuff proliferate like mad. Aren't we geeky enough now without all that shit?? Geeky enough isn't going to be achieved until the human brain is capable of being utilized a processor to our whimsy. "And I'm saying without a relationship with God and those strong convictions HE put in me I wouldn't be a 42 year old who hasn't had sex with anyone today."
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Neural implants? I, Complainicus
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Speaking of Gibson, the first 100 pages of his new book are great. Reminds me alot of PlanetCrap. We are the goon squad and we're coming to town. Beep beep.
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#89 Chunkstyle Speaking of Gibson, the first 100 pages of his new book are great. Reminds me alot of PlanetCrap. What, it talks about marketing and warez ad nauseum? "Folks, you can't walk into a bar holding a porcupine, set it on fire and expect to make liquorice!" --Dana Carvey as Ross Perot
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#89 Chunkstyle Speaking of Gibson, the first 100 pages of his new book are great. Reminds me alot of PlanetCrap. I have it sitting on a shelf at home haven't had a chance to read it. 'Night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
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Marketing, yes. Warez, notsomuch. FIGHTING FOR PEACE IS LIKE POSTING ON PLANETCRAP FOR INTELLIGENCE! --morn |
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Actually it does talk about marketing alot, and the main character frequents an online forum. We are the goon squad and we're coming to town. Beep beep.
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Right, so anyway about cell phone games... I think the thing game developers working on cell phone games have to remember is that the vast majority of their market are not gamers. They are people who need a cell phone for other reasons, and the fact that it plays games is a minor perk. Therefor games like Doom are a dumb idea, because no one who plays today's FPSs is going to shell out $500 so they can play a 10 year old game on a tiny little screen. Simple, addictive games that can be played in 5 and 10 minute intervals will do much better. Personally, I don't need a cellphone. But if I did get one, I'd rather have the smallest phone I can find that does nothing but phoning. I would rather have a tiny phone, a PDA, and a GBA all separate than one device that does each thing poorly. |
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#62 by Caryn So because of both the ease and the cheap price, I'm quite amenable to paying for a single game on my cell phone for a month. Hell, maybe two. It's only $2 to play for a month. You just can't beat that price. So I think that in this regard, cell phone companies have a leg up on everyone else when it comes to getting people to pay to play your games. I'm curious to know if that makes it profitable for the companies that make them. At least all the people that I know that are working on cell phone games are saying that the money is really tight, but that a small (2-3 guys) outfit can make a living writing games for the phones. I don't think that the situation will change anytime soon (I'm really sceptic about 3G stuff saving the day). #80 by Bailey The conversation was about space delivery games at the time. That's all. Why must you be so aggressive and bitter towards me? Words hurt, Petri. Words... hurt. Umm... ok. |
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I have it sitting on a shelf at home haven't had a chance to read it. Well Xero, take 20 seconds to read the damn book and tell us if it really is like PC. Also, give a synopsis. Thanks. |
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#93 by Chunkstyle Actually it does talk about marketing alot, and the main character frequents an online forum. So, I'm guessing Gibson is Dingleberry? |
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#96 CheesyPoof I have it sitting on a shelf at home haven't had a chance to read it. Well Xero, take 20 seconds to read the damn book and tell us if it really is like PC. Also, give a synopsis. Thanks. Heh, very funny. While speed reading hack authors saves me time, with people I like I generally extend the process as much as possible. I can probably make that Gibson book last a couple of days if I try. 'Night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
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Actually, I thought of PC when I read the book as well. It was kind of weird in a way. What struck me as odd is that Pattern Recognition is set in the fall of 2002. I'm not sure what it means when Gibson feels as though the real world has caught up with his visions of the future. Comment Signature
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Also, Gibson shed alot of light (for me at least) about the end of Neuromancer in his blog today. Comment Signature
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#94 Shadarr I think the thing game developers working on cell phone games have to remember is that the vast majority of their market are not gamers. They are people who need a cell phone for other reasons, and the fact that it plays games is a minor perk. Eh, I don't know about that. I'm totally armchairing it here, but I get the sense that the people currently buying the latest and greatest cellphones are Gen Y late teens/early twenties who use their phone for many things besides calling and who are more concerned about how their phones look rather than how well they get calls. Personally, I don't need a cellphone. But if I did get one, I'd rather have the smallest phone I can find that does nothing but phoning. I would rather have a tiny phone, a PDA, and a GBA all separate than one device that does each thing poorly. I prefer my GBA for gaming, but I've decided I'm willing to sacrifice full PDA functionality in order to reduce the number of devices I carry in my purse down to one, my cellphone. Hence why I got AT&T's next-gen service where I can get all my email on my phone, sync it with Outlook to get my calendar and contacts on it, and access the internet from it. The only thing I use my PDA for now is to carry Word and Excel docs around with me (and work on them) without carrying paper, and my task list if I need it (one thing I wish my phone synced with but doesn't), and so I only carry it around when necessary. "That's an interesting viewpoint supported by many factual references, but you failed to note that I really don't care." - Bailey
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I think the ideal would be a full featured PDA with a wireless earpiece and microphone so you can call people without holding your PDA up to your face. This makes more sense to me than taking current cell technology and trying to turn it into a PDA. I think you're right that the people getting the bleeding edge game-capable cellphones are doing it for the geek chic. However, they are not enough of a market to be worth targetting in my opinion. When you have a game that appeals to the real estate agents and investment bankers of the world, then you're selling to a much larger market. |
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Petri Umm... ok. I'm guessing sarcasm doesn't translate well into finnish. I, Complainicus
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I think you're right that the people getting the bleeding edge game-capable cellphones are doing it for the geek chic. Only in the US. Everywhere else in the world phones are fashion. Kids are switching out phones up to three times a year in Japan and Europe. However, they are not enough of a market to be worth targetting in my opinion. There are 140 million cellphone users in the US, 320 million in Europe, 34 million in Africa, and god-knows how many in Asia. When you have a game that appeals to the real estate agents and investment bankers of the world, then you're selling to a much larger market. Welcome to 2003. Cellphones haven't been the exclusive domain of the rich and powerful for 10 years. |
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