Monty's Gaming and Wireless Outlook - Issue 156

Oh. My. Goodness. On the train back from London last night, I didn’t have a newspaper on me, Alexis De Tocqueville’s 932-page Democracy in America didn’t fit with my mood, so what did I do? Yes, I played a mobile game on my 3G handset.

After years of talking and speaking and writing about mobile games, I finally played one. Alien Hominid was its name and it wasn’t bad. Naturally, a monkey with a gizmo would have scored more points than me, but it filled in a few minutes as the Sussex countryside kind-of-whizzed by and it only cost a couple of quid to download.

Now I am officially a mobile gamer, it’s interesting to know what type of people my fellow gamers are. Are they witty, handsome, young-at-heart and seriously intellectual like me or aren’t they? According to a recent report, 2005 Digital Gaming in America, the average mobile gamer spends 19 minutes per session and is just as likely to be female as male and ‘young-at-heart’ rather than a spotty virgin.

One of the reasons for this older demographic is that the most popular titles are retro games such as Tetris and Space Invaders – games I remember from the days when I actually played arcade machines. But this is changing and with some 3D games now costing half a million dollars to develop, it’s likely the yoof will drive the sector forward by playing modern-mobile games.

To this end, next week’s Mobile GDC at London’s Le Meridien hotel is likely to blow away some more of the myths about mobile gaming. Chaired by the impressive Rob Tercek, it brings together mobile games tsars from all over the world to explain what is next for mobile gaming.

Naturally, the egos will be clashing and some of those attending will be more interested in networking at the bar (mentioning no names), but this is a good people-watching event and well worth the entrance fee to see the occasional sartorial gaffe (mentioning no names).

But before that event, there is another important mobile gaming happening and that is yours truly waxing lyrical on BBC Radio 5 at 4.30 this Saturday morning.

Challenging, controversial, informative, my 15-minute rant in the graveyard slot will probably be heard by absolutely nobody except me, manically playing mobile games to keep my eyes open as 4.am approaches. Oh well, it beats reading De Tocqueville.