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atomicpoet

@ atomicpoet @lemmy.world

Posts
60
Comments
215
Joined
1 yr. ago

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • Here’s where you and I differ: I don’t trust word of mouth. I don’t trust canons. I don’t trust marketing. And frankly, I don’t trust the so-called “gamers” who repeat the same tired narratives.

    Instead, I dive deep—into the bowels of app stores, into archive.org, anywhere I can find games no one else has played or talked about. Then I judge for myself whether they’re worth a damn.

    That’s how I’ve uncovered hidden gems, and why I know most of what passes for “good taste” is just groupthink dressed up as expertise.

    The only people with real taste? The ones willing to seek things out and form their own opinions. Everything else is just noise.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • Action 52 committed a crime worse than all those gacha games combined: it was not fun. And you had to pay good money for the privilege of being bored out of your mind.

    But seriously—what’s stopping you (or anyone else) from buying games outright for your smartphone?

    No one’s given me an answer, so here’s the truth:

    Nothing.

    But sure, keep pretending every mobile gamer is chained to gacha hell, like their phones come pre-installed with Only Microtransactions Forever™. Everyone with a smartphone is forced to play gacha 24/7, no exceptions.

    Yeah, sure. Yeah, and I’m the CEO of Bigfoot Sightings Inc.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • Wow, that’s some next-level conspiracy thinking—just because I share stats with a source, you leap straight to “sales rep for the statistics company” territory?

    What’s next, claiming schools teach math just to line Texas Instruments’ pockets?

    Here’s the simple truth: I’m tired of hearing people mindlessly parrot the same tired talking points with zero facts to back them up.

    If having an unpopular opinion rattles your echo chamber, so be it. I’m perfectly fine with that.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • The inverse is just as true. Just because you and many “gamers” accept a rigid canon of what counts as “quality” doesn’t mean those games are actually good.

    Go to any retro gaming board and you’ll hear the NES era hailed as a golden age. I’ve played nearly all those games—and apart from a few true gems, most of them don’t hold up.

    Yet people still pay hundreds of dollars for cartridges like Action 52 and treat them like holy grails, even though we all know that some of the worst mobile games today are technically better.

    The truth is, I don’t think the average gamer really knows quality. I think most of their taste is just parroting what someone else told them to like.

    Quality deserves to be judged on its own merits—not nostalgia or consensus.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • Honest question: how do you find “decent” games elsewhere?

    Because all storefronts on PC and console suck when it comes to discoverability.

    Do you just accept what marketers and “gamers” tell you about value?

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • Thank you. 🙏

    You’re the first person here speaking actual sense.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • Again, my kid has never spent a single cent on microtransactions.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • No, they don’t. It’s not hard to find premium, paid mobile games without microtransactions—I’ve already listed examples. And I’ve cited hard data: there are 14,139 such games on iOS alone.

    If you can’t find even one of them, the problem isn’t the platform. It’s that you’re not actually looking.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • Whenever I see an echo chamber where people parrot the same shallow talking points—no nuance, no real analysis—the contrarian in me kicks in.

    You claim there’s “no library” on mobile, but even a basic look at the stats and available titles proves otherwise.

    If you actually want fun, premium mobile games with zero microtransactions, they’re not hard to find. You just have to look beyond the surface—and actually try.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • How about we stick to facts instead of making things up?

    As of July 2025, there are 14,139 premium, paid games on the iOS App Store—meaning games that are not free-to-play, not gacha, and have no microtransactions.

    To put that in perspective: iOS alone has more complete, self-contained games than the NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube libraries combined.

    https://42matters.com/stats

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • I could have just as easily listed Monument Valley, Florence, or The Room—none of which are gacha.

    And hey, I just did.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • Admittedly, I spent lots of quarters in those arcade cabinets. I have no regrets. 🤣

    But those experiences were key to my later financial literacy. They didn’t just teach me the value of money but also of time.

    My kid already knows if she’s to spend anything on a game, she must buy it outright—and only if she intends to spend time on it too.

    But I don’t see why mobile games receive inordinate hate when you can just decide to not spend money on microtransactioms.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • I have literally played mobile games for decades and have never spent a dime on micro-transactions.

    Meanwhile, I’ve spent thousands of dollars on full length games for PC and console. Sometimes handheld and mobile too.

    So I got to wonder, why are all of you unable to just buy a mobile game outright?

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • Once again, choice is on your side. There are hundreds of thousands of games on mobile, many that are not service-based.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • I read you loud and clear—I get that you don’t play mobile games because you think they’re shit.

    And my point is simple: if you don’t play them, your opinion on them counts for exactly nothing.

    No games played = no credibility. It’s that straightforward.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • My kid knows full well what is allowable and what is not. She has never spent money on micro-transactions.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • People used to say the same thing about games when we were kids. Remember that?

    I remember plenty of moral panic about video games while growing up.

  • Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become

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  • You just told me you don’t play anything, so by your own admission, you’ve seen nothing.

  • In Canada, Nintendo is increasing the price of the original Nintendo Switch.

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  • Provide me your criteria first. 😆