Ideas & Opinions, Products & Services
The beauty of mobile gaming
By Mike on 25 August 2009
GLOBAL -Over 750 of you voted in our most recent Conversations poll, in which asked what is the most important feature in a mobile gaming device? This was an immense response, matched by a stack of smart comments, so thanks for getting really stuck in with your opinions and voting in such great numbers.
Read on to find out which mobile gaming feature gained the highest score.
Top of the tree, with a staggering 46% of the vote, is ‘great graphics and sound’. As an avid mobile gamer, I can totally understand why this has risen to the surface as a core (and age-old) gaming requirement, because aside from brilliant gameplay (which is, of course, crucial yet far less definable and not a tick-box feature), great visuals and audio help deliver the most immersive experience possible by seductively removing the barrier you otherwise face by poor graphics and sound, no? That’s not to say I entirely agree with this, see I still love the retro classics, such as Tetris and PacMan, and can get just as immersed when playing that sort of game on the move. What do you reckon? Either way, this time beauty wins.
In second place is a ‘large catalogue of games’ with 16% of the vote. Choice and variety is clearly a key feature when it comes to mobile gaming. I can currently count a catalogue of 44 games on the N-Gage site. Is this still too few? What constitutes a large catalogue would you say – hundreds, thousands?
Next up is ‘dedicated easy gaming controls’, as found on the Nokia N97, with 9% of the vote. ‘Multiplayer gaming’ landed the fourth spot with 5%, alongside ‘other answer’ which also gained 5% – a couple of top suggestions here being ‘3D graphics chip (it’s all about the graphics folks), ‘online multiplayer games’ and our old friend ‘all of the above’.
Nokia’s ‘N-Gage’ service came in next with 4%, with a ‘big screen’ also gaining the same number of votes.
I was surprised to see ‘long battery life’ only land in 8th place. Especially after it was voted the most important feature in a music phone. Are gaming and music so very different in terms of how we use them on the move and our experience expectations?
‘Big name games’, the ‘ability to move bought games onto a new device’ and ‘cheap games’ each earned 2% of the vote. Leaving ‘large comfortable numeric keypad’ and ‘Java game support’ languishing at the bottom of the pile.
Share your thoughts, as ever, in the comments section directly south.
Related posts:
August 25th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Must say that I disagree with the link between “dedicated easy gaming controls” and the N97. I have one and am just left frustrated with the poor useage of the N97’s capabilities when it comes to ngage. The touch screen support is less than poor the game resolution is poor and the screen size usage is disapointing. The only reason that I have ngage installed is that I have already paid for games that I transfered fomr my old N95 8GB, which I prefered gaming on as I didn’t feel short-changed. Hopefully at some point in the not too disctant future ngage will begin to use the full capabilities of the N97 and not just run like an ngage for S60v3 emulator, whic is how it feels at present.
Reply
August 25th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Gaming on mobile is intended for a quickly, 5-30 minutes while waiting on a line or in the bathroom. Maybe taking the train.
Music is often listen to at a longer period of time, like working out in a gym with good beats. Typically 30 minutes plus… People keep their headphones and music on while working, so it needs at least 12 hours to last through the day.
Hope this makes sense. Maybe you should do a poll on when people listen to music and when people play games on their mobile… that should help Nokia make better phones. =)
Reply
August 25th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
the ngage “one” is the best graphic game i hav seen in mobile……..
Reply
August 25th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Mobile gaming is beautiful….but not on the N97. The words I want to use to describe aren’t socially acceptable so I’ll say “frustrating at best” to describe my thoughts.
One of the reasons I bought the N97 was for n-gage (I actually loved my NGage QD) and it was a big disappointment. My vote was for reliability of the games and software. Why?
Games worked great in test mode, yet once I bought them they all crashed (Bounce, Pro Series Golf, Asphalt 4). And as there is no support at all I had a choice. Keep the frustration going and hope future releases would fix the problems, or as we all know C: drive space is limited, I could free some up by removing n-gage. I chose the latter and I don’t miss it at all.
I am sticking with java games for my N97 and my PSP for a truly enjoyable gaming experience (I wish Sony would make the PSP a phone!!!). I don’t see Nokia as a true player in the gaming market and they may be better served focusing on their core competencies instead of trying to compete in an already saturated market.
Reply
August 25th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
First: The “all of the above” thing is one thing to ignore. Guys, if we’re asked on what’s the most important thing, we will not reply “all”. That won’t take us anywhere. Step by step we’ll get what we need.
Second: Graphics is the most important thing, and will allways be, on gaming..
Third: Battery, on gaming, isn’t that important because when we listen to music, we can do anything we want with our hands, and when we play games, we have our hands full.. can you imagine our hands right after playing for about 8 hours? lol
Reply
August 26th, 2009 at 3:44 am
you comment about 44 games in n-gage catalogue is it enough is a bit of double edged sword b/c i would go for quality over quantity but quality is lacking on n-gage as the 3rd party java ports are killing it,
the nokia publishing games plus 1 or 2 3rd party games are awesome but the bad third party ports far out weigh them.
the current state of n-gage is sad as it started on such a high with system rush evolution, creatures of the deep, golf, space impact, reset generation and one, but the months since them games being released as been all down hill sorry to say
Reply
August 28th, 2009 at 7:06 am
I have to say that this pole was quite frankly pointless. Defining one thing as most important in mobile gaming is impossible. Its the entire experience that counts. Good graphics are pointless if you can’t play the game.
I have to agree with columbus that poor 3rd party ports are ruining n-gage. The nokia first party games are quite simply superb. Good gfx, great gameplay along with the originality of the games make them stand out.
Nokia unfortunately in trying to bring n-gage to the masses have killed the platform. The 5320 is not a capable gaming device and sadly neither is the N97. Nokia should have built the next QD and once again been the world leaders in mobile gaming.
Reply
August 28th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Have some respect for n70 and n72…. i could not see a mobile game that’s perfect for the N-70/72 series…
ain’t there someone who could put in perfect games for 70 and 72. ( i guess there’s no onw who goes (Old School)to get some cool games for the N-70/72 series.
Reply
August 29th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Yea, this poll was pointless. I voted for N-Gage feature, because I knew most of people will go with good graphics.
Once you review the results, you can see n-gage features was only 4 % so it may seem not needed. On the contrary it’s the part of the whole experience.
I am waiting for the older games to be ported to n-gage 2.0.
Reply