Hacker News Reader

The lesson for me from modern mobile games and microtransaction models is that addictive gameplay is actually distinct from engaging gameplay and very few modern developers are focusing on the latter. It seems to be very nearly the exclusive domain of indies nowadays.

View on HN

I can't think of a single mobile game that has any artistic value to me, but there are quite a few for the PC and consoles. A front-end for farming money and high quality entertainment should be considered different kinds of computer programs, and not lumped together as "games".

> I can't think of a single mobile game that has any artistic value to me

Monument Valley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Valley_(video_game)

I guess I don't ascribe particularly high value to the category of games, I think even very simple games designed to take money from the player count. But I do agree on the mobile vs PC divide broadly in terms of what's on the market. I would actually cite Civ as a series that's still trying hard to do engaging things, in the form of constant but varied puzzles with intellectual complexity which reward planning and forethought.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com