Video games: going mobile

After my last article I will say that I really haven't had time to play video games as much as I used to. There's a "new" form of gaming, though, that has taken the world by storm. I put marks around new because mobile gaming has been around since the game boy days, love me some pokemon, but it's blasted off to new heights with smart phones. Take the anger inducing Flappy Bird for example. The creator made over a million dollars a day on ad revenue alone in the short time it was on the app store. Mobile gaming now fulfills the same area of the brain that holds addiction because, just like txting, every time we get a notification we feel the urge to play it.

Is mobile gaming bad for us? Well, yes and no. No because there are some fun creative titles out there that help grow the brain, but also no because there are many games that just turn our brains into mush. Just like anything else there is a good and bad so it is up to us to be responsible and have self discipline not to not only control how much we play, but to make sure we don't spend outrageous amounts of money on it either. Games that are labled "free-to-play" really aren't free if you want to get an edge over everyone else or just flat out don't have the patience to wait to harvest your crops. In game purchases are something that needs to be stopped, but will only continue to grow and as even reached console gaming as well.

Now quickly relating this article to my last, yes, mobile gaming can also be considered art. I look at the recent Angry Birds, Transformers, and I can't help but feel nostalgia for the 80's. The music is great and the animation is as well. Reminder that art will always be to each his own though.

So, mobile gaming. What does everyone else think on this subject? Does it lesson are abilities to focus or are they a nice quick escape from reality given controlled perimeters?