The Value of Small Things

This essay originally appeared in video form for clickbliss.net. It’s been edited to stand alone.

https://youtu.be/42gh2HHNmw8

I’ve been thinking the mobile and handheld spaces. There are a few games that work well on the PC space, but feel like something I want to own on my phone. Not necessarily because they are of lower quality, but because their pick up and play sessions feel like something that’d be welcome in the small waiting periods of everyday life. The kind of games that used to consume hours of web time in an earlier part of my life.

I bring this up because there’s a dimissive attitude that comes around now when anything even slightly resembles a mobile title. It’s a sneer that implies that a game is less valuable simply because of its format. But I strongly believe that there’s value in experiences like those, simple concepts that exist for small moments of enjoyment.

We’ve grown accustomed to sprawling, detailed experiences. Games that consume tens to hundreds of hours. Marketing departments are quick to sell you on the value of of life-consuming digital worlds. Players talk excitedly about convoluted systems that produce thousands of possibilites. But when I hear someone not simply lament the poor curation and quality of the mobile space, but declare “THERE ARE NO GOOD GAMES ON MOBILE” with finality, I question their intent.

While high production experiences such as XCOM or Bioshock exist on tablets and phones, these are largely unsuccessful because they don’t make sense for the platform. The best games for those devices exist in small play sessions, with smart concepts that take advantage of the unique inputs and functionality of those devices.

They exist as handheld spaces. Moments that draw you away from the hustle of everyday life without attempting to intrude on it. They coexist as small challenges, or moments of joy. There’s value in that. In a way, they can draw back on the energy of the arcade and the early consoles better than their big siblings can. That experimental energy that is willing to find a concept and run with it. They’re removed from the sense of dilution that often comes with the big production values.

Yes, there are reasons to those dismissive attitudes, yes the way we play games has changed, but to disregard the value of something so simple and fun…well, it feels antithetical to a love of games.