Mobile Gaming Decline

If you read this article, you are legally skilled

Only 0.01% of players can survive mobile gaming’s recent decline in quality!

Nate Albin albinnat000@hsestudents.org

For me, the 2015 edition of “Madden Mobile” served as the game that got me into and “Subway Surfers,” these games were easy to spend endless hours playing. mobile gaming. My friends and I would discuss strategy, perfect lineups and tell stories of great triumphs and heartbreaking defeats. Each year, as Electronic Arts (EA) released a new edition, the magic of the original slowly slipped away until the point where not even I still played it. The reasons why dedicated players like my friends and I quit playing altogether is emblematic of industry-wide issues that are hurting the quality of mobile games. Before one can discuss the current mobile gaming issues, it is worthwhile to look at their meteoric rise. The beauty of mobile gaming is its appeal to people who would not play video games otherwise. Worldwide, there are 2.2 billion mobile gamers, according to Tech Jury. A staggering 43% of all mobile phone use is spent playing games. This number has been growing consistently for a decade, with a turning point being the 2009 release of Rovio’s “Angry Birds.” Huffington Post found that it had already been downloaded more than a billion times in its first four years. The game’s easyto-play mechanics alongside its novel crossovers with mega brands like Star Wars helped it succeed among non-hardcore gamers. With other early hits like “Temple Run” Of course with this popularity came the corporations ready to milk it dry and drain all the money out of the player. Gamemakers have many avenues through which they can monetize a game, but two of the main ways have raised legal questions. First, the ads have been notorious for their outrageous claims about how few players can beat their levels or that the player must download the app to help a character survive. It is nearly impossible to avoid ads that say that the player is “legally skilled” or “the alpha human” if they can pass a level. These ads break up gameplay, can be hard to exit and can crash the game, but they are not as bad as ads that mislead the player. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned multiple ads from the popular mobile game Gardenscapes and Homescapes due to the ads not accurately displaying “core gameplay.” These ads showed puzzles that never appeared ingame. Matthew Bailey, a games analyst, said that companies like Playrix, who made the banned ads, intentionally target certain types of players to mislead. Despite not being the only company to get ads banned, they are the only one punished thus far, although people have spotted the barred ads in use even after the ban. The main problem within the games are the microtransactions. Microtransactions allow the player to download the game for free, but then charge players for add-ons as the game continues. Madden Mobile is a prime example of this. It is free to play, but it will cost the player if they want the best stars on their team. This model is one that games like Madden have increasingly leaned on. NPR reported that some popular mobile games, such as Krafton’s PlayersUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), allow players to buy cosmetics, but those offer no ingame advantages. Other companies, such as EA, force players to decide between spending money to get better or saving their money while falling behind. Between the constant ads and the pay-to-win model, mobile games have declined over the years in quality. Regardless, they are as popular now than ever, with VentureBeat forecasting that the mobile game industry will generate nearly $100 billion in revenue by 2024.This profit will undoubtedly come at the expense of the player. While actions of the ASA with the federal government looking into the legality of such ads and microtransactions, they have not brought any change. It will become even easier to long for the days when my Kirk Cousins-toMohammmad Sanu touchdowns did not have a price tag on them.