IMAGES SUPPORTED BY GOOGLE[dropcap style=”style1″]P[/dropcap]laying video games has been a major type of entertainment for a long time. Everyone could play games, from elementary kids to office workers. It also doesn’t have a border of how to play, since we could play game on arcades in gamezones, on a luxury PlayStation 4 at home. It could even be a gaming laptop or a handheld system like Nintendo 3DS.

To reach a wider range of audience, videogame continues to search for a certain platform, which has vast affection to the general users. Not until 5 years ago it could attain the solid answer: smartphones. Playing games on cellphones isn’t a new conception, but we could hardly define anything better than “Tetris”or “Snake”.

Gradually, with the better technologies, the once well-known PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) have finally evolved into smartphones – and turn the history of mobile games a new leaf. We here at Vietgame.asia would like to share our point of view about 5 reasons that we play mobile games.[space space_height=”40″]

Most of Vietnamese gamers are in the range of middle-schoolers to college students, and so the price to buy genuine games is definitely a headache. Common gaming platforms such as PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo… sell games with expensive prices, and even the “God of Steam” on PC – who always offers a lot of great deals – couldn’t satisfy the thirst for games.Unconsciously, they began to search for a viable method, and all came to the conclusion of mobile games – since there’s no other platforms which offer as many free games as this. Unanonymously, we all agree that Free-To-Play games actually benefit from In-App Purchase, but in general, they all could be played for free, as long as you don’t intend to invest your wallet seriously.

There’s also the piracy problems, since the system security level of common OS of mobile, such as iOS and Android, is very low. Even amateurs could hack into the core system of a smartphone after a few attempts – and that make the games on mobile platform, especially Android system, completely FREE.

You can say that video games are addictive on the same level of drugs. The urge to play games could emerge anytime: between classes, meals, when travelling and even when you’re answering the “Call of Nature”. In those time of crisis, the luxury of a PC or a console definitely is out of the question – while handheld systems such as PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS takes too long to boot up.

In that case, the obvious choice is a smartphone with a lot of games, and most of them could be played almost instantly after a few touches. And the genres are all casual, so we could stop playing at anytime and doesn’t really need to reach a checkpoint.

People always say that playing games on mobile doesn’t have the “real” sensation, due to the lack of physical activities on touchscreens. Actually, there’s no other platform that allows us to play games just by one hand – or even, one finger, like mobile systems. We can easily spot a student writing her lessions while secretly playing Candy Crush Saga beneath the table, or a guy on bus playing Flappy Bird with his arm around the safety pole. On console systems, we always find it hard to play RTS (real-time strategy) or FPS (first-person shooting) – mostly due to the lack of a mouse/ keyboard. On the other hand, playing J-RPG (Japanese role-playing game) or hack ‘n slash action on PC is definitely tough without a gamepad.

This pointed out the fact that each platform was created to run certain types of game. If you look at this fact, then mobile platform has the greatest arsenal of gaming genres.

From RPG, action, fighting, RTS/TBS, J-RPG… to visual novel, puzzle, sports, simulation games – there’s not a single genre that we couldn’t name on mobile platform. And miraculously, every single one of them could be played with ease, thanks to the omnipotence of the touchscreens.

Not to mention that mobile platform itself already has a rich collections of unique genres that we couldn’t find on other platforms, such as social communication, collectible card game, tower defense, music…

In the very first days of videogames, most of the players only focus on single gameplay to enjoy themselves in the fantasy world. Gradually, with the improvement of society and technology, people began to crave for playing games with others. Startinng from the racing and fighting games in which 2 – 4 players can play at the same time, following by MMORPGs in which thousand of players could live another life.

But, those numbers are no big deal, in comparision to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Weebo… in which hundred millions of people could connect together at the same time. Taking advantage of the social networks, mobile games bring people closer to each other by encouraging players to share their gaming results for others to follow.

These days, it’s common to play the same game on both smartphone and Facebook – and so, we don’t feel lonely anymore. The feeling to have someone praising your achievement, even just for playing a game – is indeed satisfied. This is also the motivation that encourages people to play game, and to play better. For “mainstream” gamers, playing game should be done with “ultimate” supporting gears like mouse/ keyboard set of Razer, Steelseries… or a luxury Dual Shock 4, or even a steering and paddling to play racing games.

But after all, those heavy stuffs are for the old generations, who play games with… strength.

For mobile platform, taking advantage of the smartphone’s technologies to experience new ways of gaming is normal.

Touch, press, slide, rorate, shake… almost every kind of motions people could think of could be implanted into mobile gaming.

It’s undeniable that playing games with physical gears would provide a better sensation, but we need to try and experience newer methods, no?