I just feel bad for a lot of kids because maybe their phone or tablet has the game they want but often they are playing using just the touchscreen and that interface sucks for anything that requires joystick or button controls (where the touchscreen just has vague areas with pretend joysticks and buttons).
It just does.
I get that kids get used to it, but it’s like getting used to being kicked in the nuts when you have the option of not being kicked in the nuts.
My 13 and 15 year olds are PC first gamers, then consoles, then mobile. I raised them that way on purpose because I wanted to avoid tablet and phone screens. I could control access better that way.
And yea, also because I’m a pc and console gamer and wanted to play my favorite games with them.
The older one has started playing mobile games more often and yea, it’s Genshin and Honkai. That kid was always in love with Fire Emblem, so Honkai makes sense to me. The stories are all kind of the same.
A friend stayed with us for a few days and they have a 12 and 10 year old. I have every console imaginable, PCs on big screens, and they never left their tablets.
I think once kids get on the tablet/phone/mobile games, they don’t really leave. I don’t know that I would have either.
Yes cause they are designed to be addictive and maximize the profitability with addictive content like loot boxes and fomo tactics to push micro transactions.
Nothing brings the internet together like hating a sexist self centered egotistical narcissist.
Seriously pirate has been an asshole for like 20 years. He’s been banned from furry communities, kicked out of second life communities, rejected from eve communities.
Now people are realizing how much of a scum bag he is in the streamer community.
The only upside his asshole self centeredness has draw crazy attention to the partition.
Who? I seriously have no idea who you’re talking about.
I honestly think that the main reason this has kicked off is that up until about a week ago it wasn’t really advertised. I didn’t even know that it started the petition up again, I knew the original one failed because parliament closed and for some reason that meant the petition had to end.
PirateSoftware (Thor) is a streamer and a game developer who is a narcissistic asshole. He’s been very against the SKG petition since I think the start since if it passed he would be forced to keep supporting his games once they fail (it’s happened before) and made a video trying to torpedo the petition some months ago by spreading disinformation that’s easily disproven with a halfway decent level of reading comprehension. Recently the guy who runs the SKG petition announced that Piratesoftware was successful, which caused a lot of big streamers and Youtubers to catch on and call PirateSofware out while endorsing SKG, including MoistCritikal. Since then the number of signings have skyrocketed.
I understand just fine. The only good mobile games aren’t mobile games. They are ports of normal games for mobile devices. Which is a super incredibly small number of games.
And latching onto Gatcha games as a good thing for kids? Might as well get them cigarettes and alcohol too if you wanna get them addicted earlier.
Wow, an expert on all mobile games—based on exactly how many hours scrolling and judging from your porch?
There are over 700,000 mobile games on Google Play and the App Store combined. Over seven hundred thousand. You really think you’ve played, let alone fathomed, the quality of that entire universe?
Lumping all mobile games together because of a few gacha titles is like calling all movies “just commercials” because of some awful reality TV. Face it: the world’s moved on, but you’re still shouting at clouds.
I don’t need to have played every game ever made. But I do own several thousand and have played thousands more.
From that experience, I can tell you this: you never truly understand a game until you play it yourself. That’s why I don’t waste time forming opinions about games I haven’t actually tried.
If you can’t be bothered to actually try what you’re criticizing, you have zero business judging it. That’s not opinion—that’s ignorance.
If there are 700,000 games then you must judge games without trying them. Otherwise you’d be constantly playing games to see if they’re any good and would still not get through them all.
Buddy please. Its like a farmer ok? Knows fruit, knows what makes it good and or bad, often. And perilously for your world view, at a glance. Effectively your kinda saying you can’t judge a game accurately without playing it through. So then no one can. And it comes off as rather immature/inexperienced masquerading as thoughtful or mature
Its not a person OK. Its a product and sometimes its more then that OK? But a lot of addictiveness isn’t good game. Like addictiveness isn’t a good drug or food or lifestyle choice (looking at gambling and cigs and stuff 👀)
We make it special we get that, what you don’t get is bad fruit your making special cause it is your holiday gift is still when looked at objectively and compared to the greater whole of produce. In general. Its bad fruit. Though genshin seems like its a legit game, not fully legit, cause of all the predatory design. So there. Objectively worse. Predatory by design is bad. Period. Now its better then many others. So with the greater whole it isn’t as bad. Or candy crush. Like don’t feel like a bad parent or anything but its definitely not getting a judgement pass, sorry
Also explain to your kids there tech bros toys when they play and insist upon the addictive games. They can decide but an informed person is always got a better chance of making well reasoned, informed decisions that makes there brains develop away from that bull 💩 you know
I’m skeptical that people here are as knowledgeable as they claim.
I know from several other threads that the majority of folks here stick to a few handfuls of games and sink 1,000s of hours into them. That might make them an expert at a specific MMO, but it certainly doesn’t make them experts in every game at a glance.
You’re judging the gaming habits of the entire population of Lemmy based on a couple anecdotes from random threads? And you want to talk about not making snap judgements?
Lemmy isn’t a big place. People who populate gaming threads are an even smaller fraction of the userbase. So to see the same handful of opinions, repeated again and again, upvoted ad infinitum – that’s a pretty good sample size.
I deliberately posted this thread as a contrarian take. And what do you know, it proved to be contrarian.
I didn’t say anything outrageous or mean-spirited. Everything has been quite reasonable. But judging by the responses – you all think every mobile game is a gacha game – I can safely say few of you have nearly as much experience with games as you believe you do.
By the way, this is why I generally put little stock into self-declared “gamers” opinions. Most of you are obsessed with playing things in a prescribed manner, in a particular way, regarding a specific canon. And you generally adhere to the same bland culture with little appreciation for diversity.
The hypocrisy of claiming that you can’t judge any game without physically playing it yourself, then turning around and judging thousands of people you’ve never interacted with based on a couple interactions, is absolutely staggering.
Consider giving human beings the same benefit of the doubt that you give to software.
And yet you jumped all over people claiming to have played enough games to be able to recognize crap when they see it. Again, you’re dismissing real people while standing up for what exactly? Defending corporate garbage?
I enjoy the occasional mobile game too, I don’t have an issue with your general opinion. But you certainly aren’t convincing anyone with the childish attitude and ridiculous reasoning.
Calling out groupthink when I see the same tired talking points—no research, no citations, just noise? Hell yeah, I’m gonna call that out.
I’ve never defended “corporate garbage.” I’ve said straight up: there are hundreds of thousands of mobile games, some you can buy outright—no microtransactions attached. More premium paid games on iOS alone than the entire NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube libraries combined.
Let me say it again: you don’t have to play gacha games. Plenty of premium mobile titles exist if you’re willing to look.
But here? Everyone ignores that fact, chooses groupthink instead, and barks the same tired lines.
And yeah, I know this won’t convince anyone here. They’re too busy flexing their Lemmy in-group credentials to entertain anything that breaks the echo chamber.
I’m saying it anyway, loud and clear.
There are literally people here insisting all mobile games are gacha. When I drop hard stats proving otherwise, instead of reconsidering, suddenly I’m a secret shill pushing for some stats company.
That’s the quality of convo I’m dealing with in this thread. And you? No different.
You’re inventing a lot of enemies here and listening to no one.
Nobody is claiming all mobile games are gacha, just pointing out that all the ones you talked about initially are, and they wildly dominate the market.
Honestly I don’t know why I’m bothering, I have more to say but this a waste of my time.
I get you there, and its true they are often over-certain of how the easy to share intellectual take version applies to the reality of the truth
Its a struggle but just wanted to defend the main idea not their participation in it, but I agree that you never REALLY know if its fun till you play it and they would likely be more understanding if they tried out some. There are many mobile games that have no right to be that addictive or “fun” (pleasing or pleasurable weird words here tho) as they are.
But as the overall human shift to focus on profit/retention is where most of the actual resentment comes in from not that your entirely wrong, they just don’t support your opinion because they see it as a much bigger problem that you dont seem to acknowledge
Thanks for being this involved and really having the convo here. Its important as fuck even if we dont acknowledge it. Fucking being alive and thinking and talking about it. That’s what got us everything.
Be good tho I see a lot of taking fights and your not on the right side of several lol but I fucking remember myself so carry on and do what you feel you must till you know yourself 👍
My point is that you need to decide which games to play and that you have already judged a game when you decide not to play it.
You might not like the art style, or the gameplay, or the reviews or whatever but you have definitely judged it without playing it. The only other alternative is to literally download and play every game that you see.
There are over 700,000 games on the play store. … and 699,900 of them are basic, traditional mobile games that are basically a gamified e-store for imaginary goods…
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.
Bro are you a sales rep for this data company and this whole post is just a way to drive people to your product? Because that’s about the only explanation I have for, all t h i s.
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.
Bro this entire post and every reply you’ve made is just next level unhinged, I was giving you a generous benefit of doubt here, because you being a sales rep is about the only way this isn’t insane cringe.
It means I’ve hit a nerve and said something so contrary that it actually rattles you.
Funny thing is, you haven’t actually told me how or why I’m wrong—just that I’m cringe.
You have a really inflated sense of your impact on me buddy. I’m not here to tell you you’re right or wrong, I have no opinion on this whole inane debate at all. I play video games for fun, and if other people are having fun playing video games I’m happy for them, I don’t give a single solitary fuck whether they do it on a pc, console, phone, tablet, or by uploading Doom to a cock ring with lcd display and play it by popping their dick with kegels.
I’m just here to tell you that you’re giving off major “meth head arguing with a brick wall in the alley behind 7-11” energy.
It was obvious hyperbole to point at how you are still hilariously wrong. Congratulations on being too stupid to understand how speech works. No wonder you let your kids engage with addictive games… You’re too simple to understand how it’s still bad.
true on the only good mobile games not being mobile games, though you’re wrong about the number being small. Emulation means that entire console libraries are available. I’ve been plinking away at the SNES library for the past couple of years on my phone and am still spoiled for choice.
Close to 100%ing Gungrave G.O.R.E and I have conflicting feelings.
Apparently, it was meant to be an open world game—whoever thought this was a good idea should stay away from arcade games for the rest of their career—and they decided to make a ton of changes late in the game's development to turn it into a linear game, which clearly affected the game's design and length.
Stage transitions are needlessly confusing—a lot of open doors and rooms that lead nowhere, which makes it really confusing when I've successfully chained an area and I'm trying to move on to the next one as quickly as possible before I lose my chain.
Sometimes, even enemies get lost and arrive where they're supposed to be too late, which also wastes my beat count.
Some things don't add up: some chapters don't end on boss fights and some stage transitions are… empty elevators with nothing to shoot at.
There's also some platforming, for some reason.
On the other hand, especially on Hard and G.O.R.E difficulties, it's fucking Gungrave and it rocks! Shooting is satisfying, melee attacks are satisfying, and demolition shots are satisfying.
It's a miracle we got a new Gungrave game, and I'm thankful for that. I can't deny though: some moments I wished I was playing the original instead.
What’s funny about this whole thing is it’s almost like PirateSoftwares days in EVE Online when he invited everyone to Pochven space cause he thought he was hot shit and then proceeded to get his ass handed to him and he rage quit the game. He brought attention to something that ended up having the opposite effect of what he wanted.
Granted he was absolutely shit at EVE regardless of what he’s told his audience. couldn’t fit a ship to save his life, ran for CSM and no one voted for him, then rage quit when everyone and even his own corp proceeded to kick his teeth in.
The worst part is that this are far from the only two events. He has been kicked from several other guilds, for exactly the same narcissistic and egoistic behavior. If everywhere you go it smells like shit, at some point you have to start checking your own shoes. He is just always adamant that it’s other people’s fault that it smells like shit, when he has full diaper.
There’s the whole… apparently when Thor was essentially high school to post high school age, he managed to cajole a younger SecondLife user, who was actually decently talented at creating like clothes and custom player models…
So in SecondLife, you can actually make real money that way, you can cash out the SecondLife currency for actual realworld money.
Yeah SecondLife was actually quite a pioneer in a lot of ways, from a technical and just ‘what even is a video game’ standpoint, lets say uh ‘eccentric’ community and reputation aside.
And Thor basically convinced this other SL user, who was like 5 years younger than him… that he could make them both more money as a sort of salesman, promoter, of this other persons user made content… if they profit share.
I may have some details wrong here, but basically… Thor did basically nothing in terms of promotion, yet he made a significant chunk of change off of this other person.
Because … SL just has basically a universal market you can list things in.
Like uh, Escape from Tarkov, or FF14’s auction house or what not, fully built into the game… but even more so as it actually allows you to cash out to real world money.
its not like you’d have to do some kind of technical wizardry to enable sales, its not like Thor whipped up some kind of gray/black market system / payment processor way back when PayPal was still a fairly new idea.
Alongside that, there were allegations of basically ERP going waaay too far.
Now, this other person has I think entirely denied any kind of ERP abuse, sexual or just normal relationship abuse, says everything was fine…
But a good number of people seem to think that the essentially digital labor theft Thor did, basically amounts to its own kind of grooming, exploitation.
I was in his corp (my old one merged with his, I had no idea who he was for quite a while), and this… isn’t exactly accurate. First, from what I remember, he left on okay terms with the corp.
There was a laundry list of issues with Pochven, a lot of them due to CCP just not bothering to fix issues that the players reported, and moving devs who did want to try and fix some of the issues to different areas of the game. It got to the point where it wasn’t economically viable to live in the area, which reduced how many ships we could field, and the number of people even willing to join.
CCP also took forever to decide on how wormholes interacted with the region, and changed those interactions frequently. Some of these were great, for instance there was a point where most of the wormholes linked to wormhole systems, and it was a complicated (and dangerous) dance to get people in and out of the region undetected. CCP ended up going with the worst possible interaction: many wormholes directly linked to nullsec space, where massive alliances could easily find them and send massive fleets through with little effort.
He wasn’t the only one to quit, to be honest I’m surprised he stayed for as long as he did given how he acts now.
Is Thor an egotistical narcissist? Absolutely. Was this a case of that? Not really
PirateSoftware was critical of the initiative when it first started. Some people attribute its initial lack of success to his opposition.
He was later involved in some drama and his reputation fell, and the petition’s creator finally addressed his claims. Now the petition is having a second wind in its final hour
He wasn’t just critical of it, he spread misinformation about it. It was wild to watch someone be so completely and utterly wrong, then double and triple and quadruple down on it.
Good. States shouldn’t be able to just go out on a whim and immediately go back in again like it’s a revolving door. The consequences should be severe for leaving. Otherwise voters in other member states will pull this shit as well, because they think they can just rejoin when the next pro EU government comes around. Also many voters in the UK voted for leave as a protest vote not because they actually wanted to leave. They didn’t understand the ramifications of their vote. Let the UK be the example of what a protest vote can cause.
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