According to Mobile Gaming Market Hot on Downloadable Titles by Enid Burns, ClickZ, Jul 10, 2006
"Over half of mobile games played are downloaded to mobile handsets, and 71 percent of revenues from downloaded games are from on-portal offerings. That's according to research released by mobile performance measurement firm Telephia.
"Entertainment is a big driver for content consumption on mobile phones, with games a driver of the category. Thirty-nine percent of mobile subscribers play preexisting games on their phones, while 53 percent download additional titles. An additional 8 percent play Web-based games on their devices. While many companies provide both on-portal and off-portal content, 71 percent of revenues for mobile games come from the on-portal channel. The remaining 29 percent comes from the off-portal bucket. The finding that consumers tend to go to the carrier is consistent with other content types, as identified in a report from M:Metrics." http://www.clickz.com/3618966
The question for this blog is:What is the educational value of online mobile games and mobile social network access? I can see value in mobile network access. Having instant anywhere access to information is an important tool in moving things forward. Being able to schedule and prioritise, being able to research and calculate and transfer information and decisions from a device that fits in your pocket and has access to any network is a powerful thing.
The case for online mobile games is not so compelling. I'm sure that there would be some instances where value could be demonstrated but in the overwhelming number of cases that i have observed, mobile phone or smart mobile device gaming is done purely as a way of filling in time or to distract students from the real world. Addiction to mobile devices while driving vehicles is becoming a major cause of road accidents. Compared to the consequences of a road accident, the need to communicate via text while driving demonstrates that some humans are incapable of being trusted with such devices.
The figures above refer to 'entertainment'. They do not refer to education because I do not believe that education is taken seriously as an outcome of mobile gaming. In my view, mobile communication is dominated by content that consumes lots of bandwidth (media rich) and data. It is in the interests of the mobile access and platform vendors to make the mobile experience as compelling and addictive as possible. In their world its called 'doing good business'.
I do not believe that instant access to information and the ability to instantly respond to many people is necessarily a good thing. It might be good in a situation where many lives are in imminent danger but this is a rare occurrence. Having instant communication has several down sides. Two notable examples are people who indulge in the current fad of 'swarming' (ie using mobile devices to call large groups of people to invade a party or to join in an assault) and the school playground practice of 'copying' messages to a whole phone book of phone pals as a way of spreading rumours.
The enormous damage these events cause could be avoided if the perpetrators did not have access to mobile devices. Many of the games that the devices present are extremely violent and new efficiencies in technology that improve the sound and vision have made the platform an extremely compelling platform for the violent. Having a violent game on the same device as that used to summon fellow perpetrators is a very dangerous thing. It shortens the gap between violent fantasy and real violence. Is this education or entertainment? I hope its neither.
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