Phony Games
When I talk about phone games, I'm not talking about phone tag. Yeah, that game people used to play much more often before text messaging was popular. I'm talking about popular mobile games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. These games have been downloaded by the millions and millions; probably half of those were downloaded by children without their parents' permission.
With the mobile game market rapidly expanding, the entire way we see games in general are changing. The large install from traditional discs on computer has seem to only be for serious gamers. On the other hand, casual gamers are playing wherever they can. And ease of accessibility is significant in getting users. And who don't have mobile phones or a tablet anymore? And if you don't have those somehow, you have a computer in which you can play games on Facebook, which you're on for hours a day anyways.
While getting a haircut today, a child was playing what seemed to be Fruit Ninja the entire time. And when I the entire time, I mean even while getting a haircut. And when his father took the phone away from him for a second, he would scream and complain (What have we done to the next generation?). I remember in Rhode Island growing up seeing a commercial where you could play N64 or Playstation (The original) while getting a haircut
One thing about mobile games (or games online) is the length of play. They are designed to be played in small periods, or allow play for a couple minutes. Think about Angry Birds, you can play for 30 seconds if you really desired. With such limitations, these games don't have any complex puzzles or take much strategy at win. This allows the player is have instant gratification from achieving simple tedious tasks (like swiping a finger to cut fruit, wow so hard)
While games may help with hand-eye coordination and reaction improvement, it's not doing much with problem solving and strategy developing skills like PC/console games. There is a reason that the haircut place with N64/Playstation wasn't successful; that reason being it took more than 10-15 minutes to accomplish anything in those games (Or maybe the whole not moving your head during a cut was difficult with kids playing games). Games like Zelda, Super Mario 64, Mega Man, and Pokemon, took strategy and puzzle solving that don't exist in the popular mobile game market. I would like to see more successful complex games that take strategy and problem solving in the mobile market (especially ones that can replace Fruit Ninja). Hopefully, people will realize that instant gratification isn't as amazing as the feeling of achieving and solving something that takes effort and time!