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MGF 2009: What actual mobile gamers think about mobile games

Or why Snake is The Future :o(

MGF 2009: What actual mobile gamers think about mobile games
Today's Mobile Games Forum had a panel of consumers being quizzed about their habits and preferences. Check out a snapshot of their quotes below. We've made them anonymous, but they were all young - teenagers and students.

“The type of games I like to play are quite simple card games on the phone that don't take much time. I don't actually sit down at home playing the games.”

“I don't really have a favourite game. There's only two games on my phone at the moment, one is Cannon Ball and the other... I can't even remember. It's kinda an adventure, a prince or princess game I think.”

“Snake is probably my favourite game. It's a really old game, but it's still classic.”

“I like to download my game from the browser, I don't even know what the provider is. I don't like to text numbers I find in the newspaper, because I find that sometimes I get charged extra to what I'm expecting. There's a company where I'm from called Jamba...”

“I've never actually downloaded a game, I just stick to the ones on my phone. But I have played games on friends' phones which they've downloaded before.”

“I've only downloaded one game, because the games that are provided on the phone are more than enough for me to enjoy during my travelling time. I find it annoying when you get demos with only one minute playing time, and it stops in the middle of a level.”

“If I do have time to play a game when at home, I would rather not play a game on my mobile phone. Handheld consoles these days are a lot better.”

“The only time I would play a game on my mobile is when I'm travelling, but if I'm travelling overground, I would probably rather use my phone to call people, so it's just when I'm underground that I would play a mobile game.”

“Another time I play is when you're having a family reunion. They can be quite boring...”

“Games on mobiles these days are not normally that attractive. A game like FIFA, there's not much to it, so I'd just play a game at a time.”

“I find the games with a lot of introductory talk to them very annoying. When I want to play a game, I want to play a game. If there's a lot of introduction, I don't play them. That's why I like Snake. I just want to play. I just want to play the game between one and ten minutes, I don't want to have to stick at it for an hour.”

“I'll play one game for ten minutes, then get bored of it and change to another.”

“Basically short and simple games are likely to be the most addictive. Whereas if you're playing a game with a long story mode, you're more likely to lose your patience. Snake is probably one of the better ones to be playing with.”

“I love playing on the iPhone, it's just touch, touch, touch. When I'm playing on an N-Gage, I sometimes press the wrong button, and it's quite frustrating.”

“If a game is easy to understand, it wouldn't really make a difference to me whether it's touchscreen or uses the keypad. As long as you can get into it straight away and play, it doesn't matter. Don't overcomplicate it.”

“I don't like touchscreen. When you're pressing buttons it feels like you're doing something.”

“It seems that there are a lot of great games out there, but I didn't know about them. I would like those games to be more available to me, so I know they exist!”

“If I was sent a text saying you've won a free game... ah, I couldn't be bothered.”

“When companies tell me something is free, I don't believe them.”

“Personally I haven't [downloaded a game illegally] but people I know have, and they say 'do you want it?' That's how games get passed around.”

“I don't download illegal games, but I know people who do. They're mainly boys. And they download hundreds...”

“An iPhone being a PSP? I don't think that's possible really. The main attraction to iPhone is the touchscreen, and the PSP is button-based. To fit buttons on an iPhone and have a touchscreen at the same time, moves away from the whole intention of what it is.”

“If I were to have a DS or an iPhone, I think I'd choose an iPhone because I can do a lot more things with it.”

“If the quality of games on my iPhone was just as good as the games on DS, then I would be more likely to play the ones on my iPhone. But until I think that, I'll probably stick to my DS. There's more choice.”

“If I had a choice [between iPhone and PSP or DS], I would probably choose the iPhone.”

Contributing Editor

Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)