Mobile Games And How They Influence Young People

Mobile Games
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Mobile Games and How They Impact Young People
Introduction
Nokia’s iconic snake game in 1998 introduced the world to the concept of single device mobile gaming. The majority of the target audience of mobile games innovators were young people. As a result, young people engage in mobile gaming for a significant part of their leisure time. Nevertheless, the impact of mobile gaming on young people has not been deeply researched yet. However, mobile gaming is culture-specific, which implies that the concept of “mobile gaming” is interpreted differently. Therefore, countries such as China and the United States have their specific understanding of mobile gaming. However, because this concept is still new, I intend to examine it from a general point of view before analyzing its impact on young people. As a result, the differences in the popularity of mobile gaming in China and the United States will be examined.
The United States and China account for half of the mobile gaming market in the World. Therefore, although the two countries lead in this field, there is a huge difference in their understating and perception of such games. As a result, defining what exactly “mobile games” is must incorporate the cultural aspect of the peoples of China or the United States. For instance, the Chinese definition of mobile gaming incorporates huge aspects of games that are mainly found on PC and Consoles, i.e. Honor of Kings and Fantasy Westward Journey. On the other hand, the Americans do not regard mobile games as “real” games since they are not made merely to kill time. However, Candy Crush and Draw Something are among the most common mobile games in America. Hence, most pieces of research of “mobile gaming” are entirely culture-specific.
The popularity of Mobile gaming in China
China has the largest mobile gaming market in the world, resulting in a booming business. One of the key reasons for this fact can be traced to the fact that China is a mobile-first country. Consequently, the prices of mobile phones in China are much lower than the average price in the United States. As a result, China’s average mobile users own relatively cheap but high-performance mobile phones that enable them to play mobile games (Koetse, 2016). Furthermore, mobile games do not even require using a computer mouse nor do they require vast knowledge. As a result, Chinese users find them enormously satisfying.
Moreover, most mobile phones in China have systems that enable people to communicate with their friends while playing games. Consequently, friends can use these systems to recommend new games to their friends. The Adoption of Mobile Games in China article indicates that “Users of mobile games draw their attention to mobile games when their friends or classmates recommend them” As a result, “Chinese people easily find popular and new games through their mobile systems” (Gao et al. 2014, p. 375). Therefore, as the quality of mobile systems in China keep on improving, so are the developments and possibilities within China’s mobile gaming industry.
Furthermore, the mobile gaming popularity in China is promoted by the way games developers incorporate Chinese culture into the games. As a result, popular games in China are based on Chinese literature, anime, comics or reality TV shows (Koetse, 2016). This crossover between games and culture has resulted in the huge mobile gaming industry. For instance, Honor of King's mobile game developed by Tencent Holdings is mainly based on empires that existed in ancient China. Consequently, the game has 55 million active gamers in China and led the world front as the highest grossing game.
Therefore, considering how cheap mobile phones are in China, China’s mobile gamers are mainly young women and men who live in the first and second tier cities in China. Generally, these groups of people are frequent users of WeChart, QQ and other social media sites on their phones. Therefore, they do not mind paying for games as digital consumers. However, the prices of games are also low because of strong competition that exists between giant gaming companies such as Tencent Holdings and Snail Games Limited which has a branch in Los Angeles, United States. Consequently, due to this competition, the prices of games in China are thus attracting many people.
Differences between mobile games in China and the United States
Mobile games often present a vast spectrum of advantages for its users, which means that more people should consider playing games on their mobile devices. Therefore, regarding all the advantages that the Chinese gamers enjoy through mobile gaming, it is evident that some particularly important issues exist in the mobile games industry in America that decreases the level of popularity across the country. Nevertheless, high prices of mobile phones as compared to prices in China are a primary reason that has influenced the popularity of mobile gaming in the USA and other countries across the world.
Also, the development of the mobile gaming industry appears to be enormously significant in this problem. For instance, as c...