Gaming and the Mobile Lifestyle

Gaming and the Mobile Lifestyle

Date: 05/13/2004
In today’s society more and more of us rely heavily on devices to get us through each waking moment; from alarm clocks that wake us up to PDA’s reminding us of those important daily tasks. The ‘double mocha in the veins’ segment of the population generally want these devices to keep their lives in sync. That’s where the glut of gadgets comes in, but there’s always that need to wind down and relax. And nothing helps to relax those nerves more than to blast a few nasties with a rocket launcher in Doom II for the PalmOS.

This is where the convergence of gaming and the mobile lifestyle meet. For many years, handhelds have had a prominent place in gamer’s hearts. From the Game Boy and other’s before its time to today with Sony and more recently VIA making a presence in the handheld gaming arena, each are hoping to play a part in the lifestyle of mobile gamers worldwide. Gaming is being incorporated into more and more of the daily lives of many.

So, it behooves these developers to devise games which capture their audience’s attention. No longer will they remain content with Snake II on their cell phone or Space Trader on their PDA. They demand more. Portable game consoles such as the “new” Game Boy Advance SP offer a diverse selection of games, most of which are in-depth and offer great graphics and decent sound. This is plainly because they are dedicated gaming machines.

Now enter the world of PDA and cell phone gamers.

In this market we have a group of people who manage their daily lives and game all on the same device. Naturally, game developers are trying to take advantage of the cell phone segment because the cell phone is the one device man won’t leave home without. For some, the cell phone is surgically attached to their ear and it’s become their fifth appendage.

With the advent of ‘bigger better faster’ technologies cell phones are finally cranking out some decent gaming potential. You pair that with the fact most PDA capabilities are now being incorporated into cell phones, and now you’ve got a killer device. The Nokia N-Gage is just such a device that manages to incorporate most of these features, unfortunately it didn’t live up to all the hype. Hopefully its successor, the N-Gage QD, will fare better in today’s gaming market and offer a better gaming library. Nevertheless, we have a plethora of other cell phone manufacturers that are gearing their new releases more towards gamers.

For those of us still using PDAs and are remaining loyal in doing so, we have a new entry named Tapwave Zodiac. In my opinion, the Zodiac has potential to lead in the PDA gaming market. They use the proven PIM (personal information management) capabilities of PalmOS 5 software and pair that with the dedicated graphics capabilities of ATi hardware and this results in a strong offering. With an already expansive library of software titles supported under PalmOS 5 and titles optimized for the Zodiac I can imagine myself spending countless hours on the machine whilst traveling to and from work and elsewhere.

In today’s world we each live life on the go. Information is a commodity and gaming is a necessity. Our lives are a culmination of attempts at balancing the two to manage productivity and protect our own sanity at the same time. What will gaming and the mobile lifestyle be like in 5 years? 10? It all depends on how far digital convergence takes us.

(Reprinted: 1/31/06)