A little while back, Netflix started putting out some games through its app. No further microtransactions, just a game (I think). It gets some good-hearted efforts like Valiant Hearts: Coming Home and Oxenfree. I feel like the best thing for genuine mobile games could be some kind of App Store that curates just to things like that, and disconnects from the past of cheap crap.

Imagine a popular subscription service like Game Pass tying into well-built story-based games, for instance. I think it could work out well.

It pretty much has to be a portrait orientation for me to play

They stopped being fun 10-15 years ago. Back then people started figuring out the new touch input for games which lead to many simple, but creative games.

Nowadays, it feels like there exists nothing noteworthy in this space. Most are just boring clones of clones of clones riddled with ads and other garbage. I was unable to find even one game worth installing on my phone the past few years.

I don’t know what I am looking for at this point. I love casual games and play a lot on PC or my Steam Deck and it is so much easier to find something there which isn’t just a cheap money grab.

As a teen I used to game a lot on mobile, until I got a gaming pc

I stopped playing games on mobile as I have more than enough to play on pc and ps.

Also I hate the free to play skinner box model that took over the mobile industry.

I hardly ever play on my mobile, the market of games I enjoy is saturated with ‘free games’ that you can buy to get rid of the ads. Which however are completely designed around the ads. ‘Watch this ad for 30 more gold’ , or shit like that. In other words completely and utterly pay to win, because instead of ads you can just pay for the gold with ingame currency that is ridiculously overpriced in relation to what the ad money would have been. And in order to compensate: more ads.

Guess what, I lost joy. We live in a capitalist hellscape. Nowhere is that more clear than in Google play store.

They are cool. 👍

And i don’t mind making a one time pay to get rid of ads and supporting the developers. 😃💵

But i really hate pay-to-win games with a passion. 🔥

I like the AAA and pc games that have come to mobile. I prefer to buy games outright upfront over getting Nickle and dimes or constrained by time limits which is so pervasive in mobile gaming. Like I like games like Grid Autosports and retro ports like the rockstar collection.

I prefer to play with an attached controller like my razor Kishi. I hope more developers will port their games to mobile because I hate made for mobile games

I got so frustrated with mobile gaming and it’s ads i bought myself steamdeck and now I’m happy

I’m addicted to NIKKE Goddess of Victory and Blue Archive

They keep me sane during work I guess…

But they also make me want to spend money on cute moving PNGs

…

There are quite a few genuinely great mobile games, especially when you include ports of retro/pc games. The trouble is you have to wade through enormous piles of mtxn shit to find them

Mobile games used to actually be decent before the advent of touch screen phones. Microtransactions were the final nail in the coffin though.

I only play arcade type games, the kind that you only play for 20 minutes while you’re in the waiting room at the doctor’s office.

Mobile gaming has become too money hungry. The OG Angry Birds and Plants Vs Zombies games were enormously fun. They were worth buying. But now I wouldnt touch them with a 10 foot pole with all the microtransactions.

Kimd of funny story though, back when R6 came out I was a seriously good competitive player, but I started to take it a little too seriously and I had pretty bad emotional control skills back then so I decided to cool it and play something else for a while. I decided to play Angry Birds again for a while and just goof. Well I got talking to one of my wifes workmates husbands at a thing and he was like “Im a GAMER!” I said yeah, me too and he got all enthusiastic and asked what I was playing now I said “Ah Im playing Angry Birds right now, I was pla-” and the guy went full 4chan copypasta autist and started giving me a lecture about how that isnt gaming and if I was a real gamer like him Id play something like Siege. “Really, maybe I should get it and you can show me a thing or two” so I got his deets and added him on steam… and I spent an evening casually steamrolling his ass across every map we played while he gradually got less and less condescending over chat as he figured out it wasnt luck and I really was just casually making him look like a total scrub. When he was like “Im gonna go for the night man, have a good one” I just said “Yeah, catch you… Im just gonna play some Angry Birds before bed”

In my mobile I use only games from F-Droid (puzzles, boardgames) for in between. My wife use Eternium, a free single player RPG old school (Optional cosmetic buys in the game menu, no Pay2Win), very nice on Mobile (Gesture driven) and PC (Mouse, keyboard), infinite gameplay. In the stores and in Steam