The Shallows

On this very blog, there have been a few postings regarding mobile games.  Anyone who reads them would probably get a good idea of my stance on such forms of entertainment.  I'd like to say that my experience of mobile gaming was positive over all, or that I'm excited about the prospect of more such games to come, or that these smaller games would make a good compliment to the bigger games I play today.  I want to say that I'm open to apps and mobile games, but, unlike Luke Skywalker, deep down inside I know that's just not true.  The following story should illustrate the point.  Since most of the participants' names start with 'J' and since they are all co workers, I'd rather not use real names.  Instead, I'd call them 'J-girl', 'J-guy' and 'J-dude'.

 

So here I was at work, and on my way to deliver some documents to another group.  I caught J-guy and J-girl chatting about iPhone games.  Knowing that I'm a big gamer, J-girl turns to me and says:

 

"Hey, have you heard of this game called Nemo's Reef?"

 

That innocent remark was enough to stop me in my tracks.  I literally stared at her and took a step back, like she just offered me a box of cancer sticks.  I said, "Um… I don't do those." 

 

There was a brief awkward moment where J-girl shot daggers at me with her eyes before J-guy says: "You could have been nicer about it."

 

Which is true, I could have, had the question came so suddenly, I was caught in the headlights.  There was no place to run.

 

J-girl:  "Well, the game lets you build a reef, and you have to spend real money to buy stuff like pearls and…"

 

I forgot most of what she said, but I saw my way out.  "Um… see, that's why I'm not into those things."  It was a feeble excuse, and I know it.  While it's true enough that microtransactions don't do much for me, it's not exactly a dealer breaker IF I really like a particular game.  I've 'invested' before in Dungeon Hunter…

 

It was then that rescue came from the form of J-dude.  He was passing by when he heard J-girl's explaination and nochalantely added, "Those Android apps aren't real games.  Just something to play for five minutes while waiting in line."  Bless you, J-dude, bless you!  The man took the words right out of my mouth, words that I was too scared to say but felt deep within my being.  Like Luke Skywalker, deep down inside, I know this to be true.

 

With J-dude on my side, I was able to snap out of my embarrassment and scurried off like a squirrel with a peanut.  But this exchange taught me something about my true feelings on mobile games.  Which is to say that I think they are rather shallow.  And this reminds me of something else.  A short while I after the incident above, I started and finished a book called The Shallows.  The author was writing about the way the Internet literally changes the brain to think a different way.  There were a lot of comparisons to reading.  By reading, I mean reading books.  It's no secret that web surfers do a lot of reading, same with avid book lovers (such as myself).  Yet, the type of reading is totally different.  Rather than deep reading required by traditional paper bound works, the internet with it's myriad of links is more 'back and forth' and more fragmented in its presentation of information.  The author of The Shallows concluded that web lovers are more capable of multitasking, but the trade off is that they become unable to focus on any one thing.  Book readers are the opposite, featuring laserlike focusing abilities but perhaps not so much good at doing more than a couple things at once.  That is also why the book's title is what it is, because Internet use involves a more shallow way to use our brains and memories.  They are great at picking out info by skimming the top, but not so much when deeper research is required.

 

This is generalization, mind you.  There will always be people more scatterbrained than others, without or without the internet but this is one analogy.  And I find the same when it comes to mobile games versus traditional PC and console fare.  A game that is meant to be played four or five minutes at a time is the definition of shallow and the proof is in the game itself.  My girlfriend recently told me about a mobile game she played called "Candy Crush".  From what I've seen, it like a puzzle game, like Tetris.  The game itself comes with five lives and once those are gone, you cannot play anymore.  To keep playing, you must go on Facebook and ask other users for more lives.  Otherwise, you will have to wait for a specific amount of time to pass before gaining lives back.  So the game itself comes with a caveat that it cannot be played for a long stretch.  It was designed that way! 

 

I can't help but make the analogy that mobile is to consoles as the internet is to books.  One is the shallower experience than the other.  Yet, I don't think I can ever play mobile games with the same enjoyment as I do on my consoles.  There's no way I can ever enjoy games like Candy Crush.  But I'm a bit scared that, by closing off the mobile door this way, it might make me, too, a little bit shallow.

Gaming Update:

Ni no Kuni:  Done!  After over 50 hours!  Absolutely fantastic game.  I wish it wasn't so long, but now that it's done, I miss it.  Such light hearted fare comes along far too rarely these days.

DMC:  Started this again, from scratch, now that Ni no Kuni is done.

Fire Emblem Awakening:  Great game, and still working on it on my commutes and such.