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The Wireless Arcade
KeelSpawn writes "Techreiview has an article on Wireless gaming through handhelds. Quoted from article: "They don't have fancy 3-D graphics, but video games for handheld devices stand poised to capture a huge U.S. market. Why? Because we all have to wait." There are a lot of "Small" games that could be great time killers in lines if ported to cel
phones, and made multiplayer, and cheap. Perhaps something like the Game Boy's Pokemon Crystal, but with hooks to play perhaps the people within X miles of you ;)
People run MAME and NES Emulators (even Atari Emulators). Graphics do *NOT* define the game!
Take Doom3 for example. Sure it looks pretty, but if its just another FPS DM game, no one will enjoy it. Its all about gameplay and innovation. These wireless games could become very popular as long as they have good gameplay and innovate the game for the new platform.
I hope this sparks gameplay and innovation on all platforms...
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Great games dont need great graphics, they need great playability. Take Monkey Island, KSirtet, Sokoban and Supaplex.
Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
I'm not sure multiplayer as described would be that big of a hit. My guess is that most people who'd play games on their cell phones want something they can pick and put down quickly, with a minimum of hassle. Unless you can streamline a matchmaking interface so that it takes less than 30 seconds, I doubt you'll see much use for it. If you only have five minutes to play a game, and 3 of those are spent finding someone to play with, you're not going to bother.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
Imagine how much this will cost you - without you knowing it. Here in Belgium, these SMS games cost you 1 per message. A simple Login-Question-Answer-Score round would cost you 4. There was a guy who lost 6000 because he played a lottery 3000 times. Now he's complaining he didn't read the fine print.
We need flat-fee access! How long will it take before we can get mobile Internet for a fixed price?
Teenagers these days don't have as much sex as they want each other to think they do.
Game Boy and GBA's biggest market segment has always been adults and not children. Now we are talking about a cell phone, something most people spend excessivly already, adding games is a logical extension if they are not compromising the rest of the system.
Arcade game players who have learned to milk hours out of a few quarters will also likely find wireless gaming a far less congenial experience. Wireless distribution means that gamers essentially get punished--instead of rewarded--for their skills. "If you're successful at a network game," says Ovum analyst Roope Mokka, "you end up paying more in airtime charges because you have a longer session."
This would be the largest stumbling block for me -- my Palm, with it's games stored locally, would win out over my phone every time. This is probably going to be the same for everyone who doesn't spend massive amounts of time in multi-user games already.
Now if it was a flat rate access, then I'd probably go for it.
"In my values, freedom is more important than 'serving users' in a mere practical sense." -- RMS
It may bring snickers and jeers from some of you,
but a very portable machine that had a 100% working
implementation of the game Nethack would be wonderful to have.
I would actually like to buy a portable for the express
purpose of running nethack 3.4. That's the killer app for me,
and the only app that has to run to satisfy me, but it must
run well, and be both stable and playable. Any other addicts
out there who can point me to a machine worth buying for this purpose?