GDC 2007 Mobile Keynote: Making Mobile Phones The Ultimate Game Platform
After my brief but delightful stroll with the GameJew, I sneaked into the GDC Mobile keynote address, given by Electronic Arts co-founder Trip Hawkins, currently the big cheese at mobile gaming's great cocoa hope, Digital Chocolate. Hawkins addressed the failure of the previous generation of mobile gaming to capture the heart of the people - specifically, the 3 billion people with some form of mobile handset. He also reminded the audience that the reason most of the public thinks that mobile gaming sucks is because, for most of its history, it has.
Hawkins implored the mobile gaming industry to "quit blaming the carrier," a tricky problem for an industry which depends on various carriers such as Cingular, T-Mobile, etc, along with the vagaries of their software, hardware, and pricing structures.
To overcome the carrier conundrum, the industry must change its self-image from a content media provider, like television and film, wherein consumers opt in to "kill time," and adopt instead the viewpoint of a "social media" provider - one that merges with trends like mobile email and SMS to help encourage mobile gaming to become a more social experience. Over and over, Hawkins stressed the increasing personal isolation of our society, and the idea of the mobile device as a palliative for this condition. In the dark ages, we gathered together around the hearth; in the 20th century, we gathered together around hearth of the television; now that we're mobile, Hawkins would like to be able to say "the hearth is in your hand." It's a great idea, but it's got a long way to go.
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To overcome the popular bias against mobile gaming, mobile games must take advantage of this need, speak more than the language of Tetris - which Hawkins described as the most elegant of games in terms of purity of design. But he cautioned not to make the mistake of thinking of Tetris and its ilk as the pinnacle of mobile-style gaming, comparing it to Gone With The Wind while encouraging the mobile community to work towards its version of The Matrix.
To that end, there were some impressive technical displays outside the room - Nvidia had a dev kit displaying the power of their new GoForce 5500 technology, and while the screen was quite a bit larger than your cell phone, the visuals were easily on par with the DS. With newer devices devoting more room to screen size, the concept of playable, enjoyable mobile gaming isn't strictly out of the question.
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany on 5 March 2007
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