Why does android gaming suck so bad?

[Ravynmagi]

I love mobile gaming because I always have my phone in my pocket and can get a quick time killer anywhere, such as waiting in a bank line or something.

I definitely don't try to compare my mobile gaming experience with what I get on a console or PC. I know the hardware's limitations and my limitations. I don't try to play PC ports. I don't play games that have a virtual D-Pad on the screen. I don't play games where I have to tilt the screen to turn the race car. Some mobile gamers are probably great at that stuff, I'm not one of them. I can't play Infinity Blade or Asphalt on my phone. But I do love games like Fallout Shelter, Sim City Buildit, and Dungeon Boss.

 

[JeffMD]

but it's considerably more rampant on the Android side.

I really find this hard to believe. between root, hacked google play, and lucky patcher there are a lot of steps and alot more chances to kill your phone. On iOS, just jailbreak.

I believe it is the narrow hardware scope, and I also believe there is hard data still that says iOS owners spend more money on their apps.

 

[shortylickens]

I'd rather use my smartphone for productivity.
If I wanted serious gaming, I'd get a DS and have 50 Pokemon titles at my disposal.

 

[Zaap]

As for phones: meh, it's a phone, not a PS4 hooked up to a 70" HDTV.

It's never going to be the best gaming possible, it's mostly play when it's convenient, often when/where you'd never play anything else, costing a few bucks or free.

Sure, there's a lot of garbage (there is for all platforms) but there are plenty of "decent enough" games, and a few awesome games.

There's only so many decent spec'd and sized phones that'd make more involved games enjoyable/possible in the first place. Most people are probably playing on average to crap spec'd devices, with piddly screens. Certainly it was the case before phablets became more common.

As for tablets, I haven't kept up with Android lately, but it seems to me similar. More people probably have lower-spec'd/cheaper devices, rather than higher end hardware that could support more advanced gaming.

Personally, I like mobile games that lend themselves to the form factor, not trying to dumb down a console or PC game onto a small screen.

And Android kicks ass for things like emulators, allowing one to keep a pocket full of classic arcade games from multiple old school platforms. Many I've found perfectly enjoyable to play, even on my phone.

 

[JeffMD]

Your last paragraph kind of negated everything you said before it.

 

[Raduque]

Horizon Chase is a really fun racing game that's basically an Outrun clone (if anybody remembers that arcade).

I've mainly been playing that and Treasure Bounce (peggle clone with a cat instead of unicorn) and OTTD.

I also keep going back to Skyforce and CSR Classics.

 

[Commodus]

I really find this hard to believe. between root, hacked google play, and lucky patcher there are a lot of steps and alot more chances to kill your phone. On iOS, just jailbreak.

I believe it is the narrow hardware scope, and I also believe there is hard data still that says iOS owners spend more money on their apps.

Nah, it's true. I spoke with id Software's mobile lead (back when it was really involved in mobile) and he said piracy was a major reason why it wasn't writing for Android. Other developers have cited it as a factor, too. Remember how Angry Birds launched on Android only in an ad-supported version where you could get a paid, ad-free version on iOS? That's because Rovio knew there would be pirated copies of the paid version where it was harder (at least, at the time) to try that on iOS.

Again, this isn't to say piracy doesn't happen on iOS; it definitely does. But it's easier and more commonplace on Android, and that makes it hard for some developers to justify either pursuing certain business models or supporting Android in the first place. The gap has narrowed a lot in recent years, but it's still true that some big-name games are either iOS-first or iOS-only.

 

[BUTCH1]

I've found mobile games to be mostly mindless tapping. If I'm killing time on public transportation or sitting in a waiting room, I'd rather read news. I imagine the only decent games are the ones that are direct console/PC ports like the Final Fantasy games.

As was mentioned, the ones that let you play for 5 minutes a day before requiring you to buy more "lives" are bullshit and get deleted immediately.

Clash of Clans was amusing for a while, until getting to the point that I couldn't progress because I'd get raided daily for a huge chunk of resources by someone vastly more powerful, and I wasn't going to be able to move ahead without paying for resources to upgrade my stuff.

I haven't found a single mobile game that's worth my time. I'll stick with consoles and PC thanks.

"hill climb racing" is fun and I've unlocked every track and bought/upgraded every vehicle without spending a dime.

 

[JeffMD]

Remember how Angry Birds launched on Android only in an ad-supported version where you could get a paid, ad-free version on iOS? That's because Rovio knew there would be pirated copies of the paid version where it was harder (at least, at the time) to try that on iOS.

I assumed it was because it was released a year after it came out on iOS, and that asking for money for it at that point was going to be silly. The following releases like seasons were pay WITH IAPs.

 

[Zaap]

Your last paragraph kind of negated everything you said before it.

If you were talking about my post... only if someone can't figure out the difference between playing a vintage 1980s/90s arcade port vs. say Far Cry on a phone.

 

[Face2Face]

With devices like the NVIDIA Shield TV, we should see some more HQ PC ports coming over to Android soon. As for mobile gaming, I've been playing Star Wars: Heroes on my 6s. Reminds me of JRPGs of old.. a little bit.

 

[sweenish]

I want to say mobile gaming, but I've never used iOS so I can't be sure.

The top games on the playstore are like something a 10 year kid in somalia put together for his homework. If they were on the PC or console they'd be compared to Big Rigs Over the Road Racing (maybe even worse) but on the playstore they get a rating of 4 stars out of 5. The playstore gaming category is a desolate wasteland. There is not a game there worth playing for more than a few minutes before you uninstall it (except piano tiles 2, that game is sick).

It amazes me how the most ignorant comments spawn multi-page discussions on this board. Just let it die, people.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I've found mobile games to be mostly mindless tapping. If I'm killing time on public transportation or sitting in a waiting room, I'd rather read news. I imagine the only decent games are the ones that are direct console/PC ports like the Final Fantasy games.

As was mentioned, the ones that let you play for 5 minutes a day before requiring you to buy more "lives" are bullshit and get deleted immediately.

Clash of Clans was amusing for a while, until getting to the point that I couldn't progress because I'd get raided daily for a huge chunk of resources by someone vastly more powerful, and I wasn't going to be able to move ahead without paying for resources to upgrade my stuff.

I haven't found a single mobile game that's worth my time. I'll stick with consoles and PC thanks.

Clash is actually a great example of a game done right and not requiring IAP to progress. Not sure if you're just not playing right, but you honestly only need to log in twice a day to prevent getting raided.

 

[sweenish]

That's got to be it, huh.

Maybe I should be more like zaza.

 

[ControlD]

That's got to be it, huh.

Maybe I should be more like zaza.

You need to set the bar a little lower to start. Baby steps. Take it slow.

 

[pm]

I picked up Pixel Dungeon for the iPhone because of DaveS's clever spam campaign. Notably not free on iOS ($3). Which is typical.

I recognize that the thread expliciting calls out Android, but in the opening post, the OP mentions that he's not sure how it is on iOS and I'm mostly iOS nowadays. As a mixed iOS/Android user, I don't think that iOS gaming totally sucks and it's a bit better - just a bit though - compared to Android. "Don't Starve" is a top-notch title (if you like that type of game... I do) with good controls and plenty of content. And "Monument Valley", while a bit short, is excellent. "Hearthstone" is good - although at $20 for the expansions that take an hour or so to play through, it feels a bit pricey... but I guess you are paying for cards too. XCom is good. There are good games... but not great games.

My hypothesis is that it's about the controls. People aren't buying separate controllers in volume so developers are developing for touchscreens only and the interface is hard to pull off so that you can't make a really great game with great controls and make it fun, so they don't bother. But I don't know and that's just my guess. It does feel like people are willing to pay for games - on iOS anyway - so there's money to be made.

 

[stockwiz]

nobody does anything out of the goodness of their hearts anymore... which means the games are all silly difficult trying to get you to buy stuff... I played clash of clans to town hall 6 at which point their update came along, the one that took away town hall sniping, which made an already grind of a game 2-3x longer to make any progress in because they hide dead bases (after I logged off I did not get attacked in 14 days and had full collectors which don't even make a dent in what you need to upgrade) so I pretty much quit the game almost on the spot... they get too greedy for their own good... my favorite android game so far is plants vs zombies the original... fun without being really hard like the second one before they got all greedy on people...

plus you've got 10 different clones of the original games that all pretty much do the same thing.. combined with the lack of an actual controller to do things and it's not really that appealing to me and mostly a waste of time these games.. I'd rather spend the time these days researching stocks and doing positive affirmations.

 

[BoberFett]

Clash is actually a great example of a game done right and not requiring IAP to progress. Not sure if you're just not playing right, but you honestly only need to log in twice a day to prevent getting raided.

It's been many moons since I deleted it, but as I got to the higher levels I would log into find myself cleaned out of a vast amount of resources. I'd have them taken faster than I could collect them, even with attacking and taking some from others. Could I have pressed on? Sure, I suppose. But it wasn't worth the effort to me.

But that's not really the point. I agreed that Clash was a decent mobile game, it just wasn't for me at high levels.

 

[ignrock]

My experience with android games is bad. Not because of the games themselves but because of the resources the game uses. Some simple games use a lot of main memory.

 

[Ettitt]

I am a big fan of Android games. Honestly, I have more games than other apps. So in my view android games are attractive to me.

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

I dont know about games from the play store but i play pokemon and various NDS games on my phone all the time.(using an emulator)
I believe a few big PC triple A tites have android ports too. You can find games like GTA vice city, GTA V, among lesser known titles like bard's tale

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

nobody does anything out of the goodness of their hearts anymore... which means the games are all silly difficult trying to get you to buy stuff... I played clash of clans to town hall 6 at which point their update came along, the one that took away town hall sniping, which made an already grind of a game 2-3x longer to make any progress in because they hide dead bases (after I logged off I did not get attacked in 14 days and had full collectors which don't even make a dent in what you need to upgrade) so I pretty much quit the game almost on the spot... they get too greedy for their own good... my favorite android game so far is plants vs zombies the original... fun without being really hard like the second one before they got all greedy on people...

plus you've got 10 different clones of the original games that all pretty much do the same thing.. combined with the lack of an actual controller to do things and it's not really that appealing to me and mostly a waste of time these games.. I'd rather spend the time these days researching stocks and doing positive affirmations.

If you are willing to root your phone, then you wont have to pay at all. Although for server sided games like clash of clans, you still need to pay for the in app purchases.

 

[GoodEnough]

Uhh, because it's a PHONE ?

 

[AMDisTheBEST]

Many mobile games are server based multiplayer which require you to buy loads of in game currency. Examples:Hobbits Kingdom of Middle Earth
There are decent ones out there, they are mostly PC titles ported to android. Examples: bard's tales. Dont expect the same graphics and performance as that of a PC tho.

 

[QuantumPion]

Monument Valley was awesome. Too bad it was short and there are not many other games like it.