Free time and games on mobile phone

As I wrote in previous post purpose of playing game is to have fun. Let me share my road of finding ideal kind of games to play on mobile phone.

One of the longest games I played was Clash of Clans. I played more than 2 years. Game was fun to play in the beginning. You do couple of attacks, started upgrade, chat with players in your clan. You get new gear, learn how to use it, try different things, learn. But with each level, upgrades will need more resources and upgrade will take more time. And as result you slowly spending more and more time to get resources for next upgrade. In the beginning you can start upgrade in minutes, then hours, then days. Little bit by little bit.

And at some moment, I did realize that I am spending all my free time on this game. And when I didn’t play, I have to keep game running so nobody can attack me and steel resources. It was time when I deeply inside I start to feel resistance. Game stopped being fun there is nothing new, all the same routine and game became like your job. And eventually I did quit.

I wasted a lot of time on this game but at the end I was glad that I played it. I learnt very important lesson. But more about it will be at the end.

Anyway, after some time I did play Vega Conflict. It was fun, even you need to do a lot of grinding. This game was different from Clash of Clans. And you can keep relatively competitive just by doing weekly events but if you have missed them you will quickly go behind. Even this game didn’t take all my free time but due to its nature I will have to play when my fleet finished repairing. And if you will not finish current event, then you cannot do next one and next after that. So, it is good motivation but at the end I did realize that in general it is the same as in Clash of Clans: game creates inconveniences with your real life. And as result I also quit.

There were many other games and I finally I did develop my approach to gaming on the phone.

First and most important it is bad to use phone for long time. You will keep you phone quite close to eyes to see all details. I have iPhone 6S Plus, it is quite big and still to see all details you need keep it closer to your eyes than say book. If you want to play, then buy gaming console or even better buy computer. Trust me that you have much more fun than play on mobile phone.

As result first rule will be: I play on my phone when I have nothing else to do and computer is unavailable. It is ok to check game occasionally to collect something or chat, but it should be few times per day and few minutes long max.

Second rule: If game demands my time then I delete this game. Say some events I have to do, collection of resources to progress, involving in some clan activity etc. Game must entertain you; it should not enslave you.