Regarding my struggle with T-mobile: I owned a phone for two months, the Nokia 6310. I like the 6310 because the camera is decent for a cell phone (3.2 megapixels) and it has an above average quality mp3 player. The sleek red and gray design is flattering. It’s not too bulky or too wonkish looking for me.

There is one relatively important flaw in its design, however. The screen stops working after two months. I was surprised. Having studied up and read the reviews from the far reaches of the Internet, I thought I had done my part as an intelligent consumer and felt that I should be rewarded for my efforts. This defect was unforeseen by the trusted and cranky mobile phone critics.

A quick glance around the web revealed that I was not alone in my dilemma. Many others had fallen victim to the “case of the dying screen” and due to this, they are no longer available for sale. Just my luck, I thought.

I took the phone to the shop, up the road on Fort Apache. It’s just past the dancing man with the fake guns and the cheeseburger sign on the corner of Sahara. The sales associate was friendly in the way that I expect sales people to be, even if I don’t trust them.

He asks if I want to do an exchange and then types some things into his computer and learns that the phone been recalled. Actually, it’s not exactly “recalled”, as I would discover later, but “sales-halted.” Which is a convenient means of employing a legal loophole requiring that companies pay shipping on recalls.

The associate says that, although I cannot have the same phone in exchange, I have a choice between two other models, a silver and a red. I have yet to be skeptical of the process at this point. I choose the silver one, the 6301. It should be shipped in 7 days. He asks if I would like a loaner phone in exchange for a deposit.

He goes to the back to get the phone while I realize that I don’t want this company tying up a hundred dollars in my account indefinitely. If I had piles of money in the bank right now, maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal. But I don’t have piles of money, and I’ve grown distrustful of my service provider.

If it was my friend borrowing my money, that would be a different story. I hand him a Benjamin, he hands me a phone. A week later, even exchange. Simple.

It’s my experience, and I expect that it is the experience of others, that companies don’t work this way. Depending on what kind of friends you have, I guess they don’t necessarily work this way either! Companies get you to agree to a certain price on a service, but that’s only the beginning for them. Then come the service fees and taxes. Then comes the price that you were not sold on. Then they’ve got access to your bank account. You are under contract and you would have to hire a lawyer to get out.

Would give a friend that you distrusted access to your bank account? It’s unlikely. Most people wouldn’t give their mothers access to it.

However, if your friend had television commercials and a well-groomed staff, that might change things. The commercials are always implying, “Trust me, trust me. I’m going to take care of you. Look at all these phones. Deals, deals, deals.” This is what a man with a trench coat full of watches does on the corner of 42nd St. and Broadway. “Mad deals, bro!”

Maybe I should give that guy a break, you know. He only rips you off once.

The 6301 is valued at $49.99 after rebate. The phone I paid for is valued at $99.99 after rebate.

Here’s my problem. I had the 6310 for 2 months. I don’t think I got $50 worth of value out of it in that time. Also, the price of shipping to return the faulty phone is at least $10, up to $20. That’s up to $70 dollars in lost value. Yes, I did use the phone, so there’s some loss there. Its resale value is $0, so that sucks for them, but I still feel like I got the short end of the stick.

T-Mobile’s defense was that because I was being sent a new phone and not a refurbished one that all is fair. I’m still waiting to be enlightened by the logic of this. It could have been explained to me on the phone, but the first guy I spoke to could not give me a solid answer for all of his bubbly optimism.

Conversely, his manager spoke volumes with her curt and condescending manner. “There will be no adjustment to your account, sir,” she flatly intoned. So this is what lurks behind the curtain, I thought.

She was the passive-aggressively impolite type. I never raised my voice to her, but I wanted a clear explanation. Her approach would have been better suited to a total raging lunatic. I’m just a mildly disgruntled poor guy looking for a good explanation why I should have to pay for a factory defect. A calm, assertive and logical explanation would suffice for me. Instead I got the lion tamer, the Queen of the Beasts. She imparted her facts, stiffly, formally, simmering at the edge of a boil, and when I said, “Okay…” ambiguously accepting defeat, she didn’t say thank you. She didn’t say anything at all.

That part I kind of liked, actually. She didn’t hang up on me. She just didn’t speak or reply or acknowledge that a resolution had been made. Nor did I.

She didn’t need to hang up on me, I thought. She could have said goodbye. So I sat there silently too. There was no sound of breath. There was no sound of chatter in the background. Had I felt more mischievous, I may have started laughing. But I didn’t come for a fight to the death. I came for a sense of justice.

After two minutes of quizzical silence, I disconnected.

Nokia’s policy is that I can send in the phone and they’ll fix it under warranty, but I still pay for shipping. No way around this shipping business, I suppose. They pay one way and I pay the other.

If I desperately wanted to keep the phone, this is what I would do. The phone’s not that important to me, though. Being respected as a customer is important to me. Sell me on that. Sell me on respect. Sell me on justice. Not just “I’m sorry, I apologize. There is nothing more we can do.” A robot could say that. I want to hear it in your voice.

I want good answers, too. The people with the friendly voices don’t know anything. And the people who know things aren’t friendly. They’re all underpaid.

Believe me, I wasn’t always this cheap. It was learned over time. I’d say the past five years of getting ripped off has done it. When I was twenty I was naive enough to be exploited, but now I’m a little more skeptical. I’ve worked those shitty jobs and I’ve been abused by bad contracts. The contracts are designed to protect the company.

Something goes wrong and they take your money. You want a rebate? There’s a minimum monthly charge. You need a new battery? Sorry, they’re discontinued. “But it’s only been 18 months!” you’d say. You must either buy a new phone or renew your contract. Or you can just pay for nothing until the contract runs out. We apologize for your discontent. Please drive through.

I’ve resigned from my battle today, but I hope that they don’t want any of my tax dollars when they collapse due to improper management. Capitalism requires that institutions fall as a part of the natural cycle of the free market. Nature gives us volcanoes and hurricanes, and the free market gives us bankruptcy and unemployment.

Wouldn’t you like to have a failed CEO vacuum your carpets and mop your floors for minimum wage? “Whoops, you missed a spot! I’m sorry, we can’t pay you this week. We overextended our credit during vacation. It’s in the contract. You want to sue? Good luck! Your paycheck is filtered through an offshore LLC. But you learned all that back in the Ivy League, didn’t you?”

The Samsung Omnia is presented in an extremely sleek black gloss finish, and actually only measures in at 12.5mm thick. Not bad considering an N96 is over 7mm thicker. Go back to the land that time forgot, when the touch screen mobile phone was little more than a fallacy and initial attempts at touch operation floated like rocks. I for one remember trying skimming an old Samsung E900 across the English Channel after giving the handset an intense jabbing , with a cattle prod. The Samsung Omnia’s touch screen though is so rich, intense, and reactive, whilst the 3.2inch screen is hugely refreshing and actually enjoyable to use. Apparently the term Omnia means ‘Everything’ in Latin, and ‘Wish’ in Arabic, so the expectation associated to this new generation Samsung handset is pretty intense. The OMNIA will be available to the market from June 2008.

The new Samsung OMNIA allows users to switch seamlessly between Microsoft Outlook email and productivity applications that replicate the look and feel of their PC - with a stroke of their finger.

Based on the most up to date Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system, Samsung OMNIA gives users a mobile extension to their PC experience, with access to MS Office documents such as PowerPoint, Excel and Word. Users can also send and receive email and manage their appointments in Outlook while on the go. The Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system means users can download additional programs as they would on their PC and customize it for their individual needs. For ease of navigation an optical mouse similar to those on laptop computers offers improved usability and one-handed control.

Samsung OMNIA delivers the ultimate in digital entertainment thanks to a wide 3.2-inch WQVGA LCD screen for viewing videos and slide shows in high-resolution and advanced audio capabilities. MultiCodec support for DivX, Xvid and other video formats eliminates the hassle of file format conversions. Users also have the assurance of a long-life detachable battery for extended playback. It also has Opera 9.5 web browser,narrowing the gap between pc and mobile browsing.

Samsung OMNIA also comes with a five-megapixel CMOS camera with the latest value-added features, which include auto-focus (AF), face and smile detection and auto-panorama shot.

Rounding out the fully comprehensive feature set, Samsung OMNIA also offers GPS, including navigation and geo-tagging capabilities, so users can get their bearings wherever work or life takes them. The handset’s generous internal memory (available in 8GB or 16 GB capacity options and extendable slot for additions) ensures ample storage space for digital assets.

Samsung’s patented TouchWiz user interface makes entering data and text simple. With unique widgets, users can customise and personalise the way they use their phone. The Samsung OMNIA’s high resolution touch-sensitive screen uses intuitive tap, sweep, drag and drop operations as well as an on-screen qwerty keyboard. It also facilitates easy and convenient calling and texting with a dedicated dome key for controlling communications.

The Samsung Omnia is presented in an extremely sleek black gloss finish, and actually only measures in at 12.5mm thick. Not bad considering an N96 is over 7mm thicker. Go back to the land that time forgot, when the touch screen mobile phone was little more than a fallacy and initial attempts at touch operation floated like rocks. I for one remember trying skimming an old Samsung E900 across the English Channel after giving the handset an intense jabbing , with a cattle prod. The Samsung Omnia’s touch screen though is so rich, intense, and reactive, whilst the 3.2inch screen is hugely refreshing and actually enjoyable to use. Apparently the term Omnia means ‘Everything’ in Latin, and ‘Wish’ in Arabic, so the expectation associated to this new generation Samsung handset is pretty intense. The OMNIA will be available to the market from June 2008.

The new Samsung OMNIA allows users to switch seamlessly between Microsoft Outlook email and productivity applications that replicate the look and feel of their PC - with a stroke of their finger.

Based on the most up to date Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system, Samsung OMNIA gives users a mobile extension to their PC experience, with access to MS Office documents such as PowerPoint, Excel and Word. Users can also send and receive email and manage their appointments in Outlook while on the go. The Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system means users can download additional programs as they would on their PC and customize it for their individual needs. For ease of navigation an optical mouse similar to those on laptop computers offers improved usability and one-handed control.

Samsung OMNIA delivers the ultimate in digital entertainment thanks to a wide 3.2-inch WQVGA LCD screen for viewing videos and slide shows in high-resolution and advanced audio capabilities. MultiCodec support for DivX, Xvid and other video formats eliminates the hassle of file format conversions. Users also have the assurance of a long-life detachable battery for extended playback. It also has Opera 9.5 web browser,narrowing the gap between pc and mobile browsing.

Samsung OMNIA also comes with a five-megapixel CMOS camera with the latest value-added features, which include auto-focus (AF), face and smile detection and auto-panorama shot.

Rounding out the fully comprehensive feature set, Samsung OMNIA also offers GPS, including navigation and geo-tagging capabilities, so users can get their bearings wherever work or life takes them. The handset’s generous internal memory (available in 8GB or 16 GB capacity options and extendable slot for additions) ensures ample storage space for digital assets.

Samsung’s patented TouchWiz user interface makes entering data and text simple. With unique widgets, users can customise and personalise the way they use their phone. The Samsung OMNIA’s high resolution touch-sensitive screen uses intuitive tap, sweep, drag and drop operations as well as an on-screen qwerty keyboard. It also facilitates easy and convenient calling and texting with a dedicated dome key for controlling communications.

This morning, Nokia announced it has just opened a Nokia Research Center in Hollywood, headed by Rebecca Allen, who founded the Design/Media Arts Department at UCLA and previously held positions a senior research scientist at MIT Media Lab Europe and “3D visionary” at Virgin Interactive Entertainment.

Other universities and research centers that Nokia Research Center collaborates with include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University in the US, the University of Cambridge, UK and Tsinghua University, China.

MobilizedTV interviewed Allen about the mission of the NRC and its potential relationships with and impact on the Hollywood film/TV industry.

MobilizedTV: Tell us a little about your background and how that serves you in your new position with Nokia.

Rebecca Allen: I joined Nokia in July of this year. I’ve spent many years at UCLA where I founded the Design and Media Arts Dept. For another 30 years I have been involved in emerging technolgies, particularly related to media and, as an artist and designer. I approach new technologies through my interest as an artist and designer but am also involved in and have fairly good knowledge of the technology as well. My feeling is if you want to do something creative with new technologies, you have to dig in and understand the tools. The better you know your tools, the more innovative things you can do with them. I also taught from way back that it was going to be important to have artists involved with these new tech were and have some kind of impact and influence on them, which is what got me to dive into research labs.

For me, it was an ideal job description. It’s rare that I can utilize the different parts of my hybrid background, and they were looking for someone with strong academic background in LA and with long-time experience working with media technologies in a research context. And they also wanted someone who was connected to the Hollywood community and that was something I felt comfortable with. And someone with a design background, or some knowledge of the design side. It is so rare to see a job description looking for these multi-disciplinary parts and exciting that I could bring experience to all these different areas.

MTV: What will the research center be doing? What’s your mandate?

RA: Our general mission is to look at what is unique about mobile media and where it might go in the future. Another nice thing, being in research, we’re able to be disruptive- to throw out new ideas and see if we can bring in innovation into the company. One focus we’ll have is “augmented reality.” What is important to me about the mobile space is that it takes us out into the physical world. It’s different from being locked up in a room staring at a monitor, be it a theater screen, TV screen or computer monitor.

With mobile, we’re allowed to be mobile–out in public places in the physical world. How can we have interesting and engaging entertainment using mobile? How can mobile entertainment be different from other entertainment we know? One thing we take advantage is the abilities of mobile devices such as GPS technologies. One idea might be a game where you play the game by going to different physical locations. You can connect that to social networking. We can use mobile devices’ cameras and GPS to, for example, take a picture of a building, have the computer can recognize the building and, in a game situation, it might be a clue.

I can also look at my display and see a virtual object that will give me a clue about where to go next. This is part of the mixed-reality technology where the computer is identifying some object in this space. Once the computer realizes it, it can bring up a fantasy object. The virtual objects or characters are clues that only appear when you’re at a certain location, or if you’re pointing your camera at a certain object. These are all ways to build up the augmented reality experience.

Another big area will be looking at new user interfaces, which is very exciting for me too - I’ve done a lot of work with human bodies, human motion, non-verbal communication. The idea of looking of this for more natural forms of interaction will also be an interesting area for us. When we’re out in the physical world, having a keyboard and mouse don’t make sense so exploring further the interfaces will make that particularly interesting.

MTV: Who are your Hollywood industry partners? How will you be working together?

RA: We haven’t announced Hollywood partners. I’ve been spending a chunk of my time talking to people. In the Los Angeles area, there are numerous interesting groups that look at technology tied in with media, often associated with media companies. We’re looking, in some cases, to collaborate with these media technology companies or even with a company generating media and interested in moving into the mobile space. We’re talking to some people and will talk to more who could be potential collaborators. Also, we’re looking at creative talent in the media industry. In my history, I’ve worked with talented artists who have always wanted to work with new technology, thinking about new ideas for mobile space. But we can’t announce anyone at this point.

Even in research, which is thought of very engineering/technology-focused. it’s crucial in these areas that you have strong creative design input all along the way from the beginning of your research. I’m comfortable with mixing these cultures; I’m a hybrid of these different cultures. This is why it’s important that we’re bringing in creative input from the beginning.

MTV: What would this look like?

RA: One thing I’d like to do is form a nice community of forward thinkers in Los Angeles. I’d like to organize a workshop or set of presentations for people to discuss new ideas. We’re in research, and part of our mandate is also to look farther out, where this will go, what will happen in five years in this space.

MTV: Will you work with the studios or bigger Hollywood institutions?

RA: I’m sure we’ll be connecting. I’m familiar with people at the studios. Even within the Hollywood environment, there are smaller compnies working with the Hollywood studios. I’d like to take advantge of that, to have some interaction with the larger studios but also a lot of work goes on in these smaller businesses. They’re often set up to look to the future. To be able to think and play with these new technologies, I’ll be looking at different-sized industries. Of course we’ll have the relationshp that’s started now with UCLA and USC.

MTV: What will be happening at the research center? What can we expect to see from it in the near future? Will this be open to the public or behind closed doors?

RA: I”m looking to have both public and behind-the-scenes. One nice quality of that in some of our research with the university, it’s intensively open to the public as well as research the university can share with other groups. And there will also be more proprietary work we’ll be doing that will specifically benefit Nokia that I won’t be able to reveal. We see a balance between those sides. By opening up some of the research areas, Nokia believes, it’ll help the whole field move forward. The feeling is that it’s good to keep innovation open to drive the future.

MTV: Where is the center? How many people are or will be staffing it?

RA: We’ve got a location now in Santa Monica where we plan to be for about a year. We’re also looking at a permanent location. Usually Nokia Research Labs are located close to a campus we’re involved with, but since we’re invovled with two campuses, we wanted to make sure we were central to them and a lot of media going on.

We should be at about 20 people, but we also have interns and visitors which will bring it up to probably 30 people . We’re getting staffed up, we’re actually hiring now. I’m looking for people who would come from both a user interface design, user experience and be knowledgeable about the technology and various areas of technology and development.

It’s the mobile phone’s turn to have a technological growth-spurt. Cameras, sat-navs, web browsers - you can even call and text your friends if you have time. But perhaps most intriguing are the developments in gaming: it’s been a while since countless millions sat huddled over Snake on their Nokia 5110s. Could this ultra-personal, omnipresent device become games developers’ Holy Grail?

“Niche?” - Scott Foe, who heads up Nokia Game Publishing’s production offices in San Francisco, is incredulous at my suggestion that the mobile games market is still small. “It is without argument now that mobile devices are personal computers - the most personal computers available, and they’re available everywhere.”

Scott’s ten-year trail though the handheld games industry has included massively multiplayer N-Gage title Pocket Kingdom: Own The World during his stint at Sega, and Nokia’s recent cross-platform hit Reset Generation. “The battle for the living room was nothing compared to the coming war for the pocket,” is his rousing cry, and such a cracking way to kick off a feature that we raided it for the title too.

So without further ado, what is it that makes that multi-talented device that we can no longer live without so unique in the gaming space? Could the presence of features like a camera, touch-screen, microphone, GPS, accelerometer (the thing that knows when you tilt your phone), web access and all your social contacts in one place make for an entirely different gaming experience, that has yet to be tapped fully?

“Great question: I don’t think anybody’s asked me that before,” muses Scott. “I think it comes down to the fact that mobile phones are more personal than any other computing device. Having location-based services and so on is nice, but that personal nature makes mobile gaming special. I for one can’t wait to see games take full advantage of that.”

From a development point of view, three undisputed heavyweights dominate the mobile games market: EA Mobile, Glu and Gameloft. In a relatively fledgling market that’s still fighting for consumer attention, this is largely down to their wealth of development and marketing resources, links to big brands and franchises, and strong relationships with distribution networks.

But bridging the gap is a challenge even for the big guns. “We have tons of games that would be bought and enjoyed by many, many more people if only they knew how to get them,” argues Chris Gibbs, who heads up EA Mobile’s European Studios. “Discovery is still the biggest problem: how you find out that you can play games on your device, how you find the games that suit you, and how you actually buy them.”

But as Scott has already emphasised, mobiles are literally everywhere: it’s like an ocean of potential consumers just out of reach. And with the mobile industry still taking vast technological leaps at the rate the Internet was a decade ago, it’s surely only a matter of time before mindsets change.

“I always have my phone, wallet and keys in my pocket,” reflects Chris White, Glu’s Head of Studios for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, echoing that pocket-patting ritual familiar to many men as they tick off their mental checklist before leaving the house. “But I don’t necessarily carry my DS everywhere I go. There’s a definite market for mobile games,” he concludes, fortunately for his platform-exclusive employers.

So what will spark the revolution that propels these portable treats into the mainstream? According to Patrick Mork, Marketing Director at Glu, the release of a specific phenomenon like the iPhone has the potential to galvanise the entire developing community.

“The iPhone has revolutionised content discovery, purchase and usage,” he argues. “By linking it to iTunes, Apple have created a platform that makes content discovery and purchase easy. They provide content directly to consumers in a way that completely bypasses mobile operators.”

“That release really shook things up,” agrees Howard Tomlinson, Director of Game Development at Astraware, a considerably smaller outfit than Glu. Based in Keele University’s Science Park, they’re perhaps best known for adapting PopCap’s classic puzzler Bejewelled to a Smartphone audience - a market-savvy move that scooped the developer a Golden Joystick Award in 2008.

“iPhone opened up access to developers and publishers who’ve struggled to reach customers directly,” Howard goes on. “I don’t see either devices or individual games making the biggest difference to the industry, but rather the improved and slicker ways for users to browse and receive the content, and to pay for it seamlessly.”

Apple’s Application Store is matched for impact only by Nokia’s new N-Gage platform, which has evolved from the much-maligned piece of taco-shaped hardware of the same name - which targeted the handheld games market, but was unceremoniously blown out of hostile waters by the Game Boy Advance, and later the PSP and DS - into an innovative handset-agnostic distribution system.

“The N-Gage platform is a good step in the right direction,” argues EA’s Chris Gibbs. “Everyone knows how to use the iPhone Store. It’s so simple: browse, click and buy. N-Gage allows you to do this across all handsets, which should prompt a significant increase in mobile gaming.”

The cautionary tale of the original N-Gage device also holds a valuable lesson. Mobile phones challenging dedicated gaming devices head-on may not be the answer - partly because of the functional limitations, but mostly because of the way people choose to play on them.

“Mobile games are aimed at filling the ‘downtime’ in people’s lives, especially when they’re out and about,” asserts Chris, cementing an obvious difference with console games, which vie for people’s attention during their valuable leisure time, rather than while they’re otherwise at a loss for something to do with their hands. “This forces game design in a unique direction where consoles and other traditional platforms don’t usually go.”

“Great mobile games are the ones that make the most out of the limitations, not the ones that are made as compromises because there’s not enough computing power,” agrees Jef Valadares, Creative Director of EA Mobile. “But I do believe that mobile is destined to play a more relevant role in the lives of hardcore gamers, by offering ways to move their console game forward while away from their living room. The real trick will be linking the console and the mobile so they are extensions of each other.”

Howard agrees, predicting that mobiles could transcend their status as yet another self-contained platform. “You can take different-sized windows on your play experience,” he proposes. “For a football game, you could play on your console, manage your team on your PC and play fantasy league on your mobile, receiving updates as you go. All part of the same game world, but different views suited to the device you’re using at the time.”

Creative solutions are often born from tight constraints that force lateral thinking, and this is certainly true in the mobile space. “It’s a misconception that technical constraints get in the way of innovation: nine times out of ten the reverse is true,” confirms Chris Gibbs. “Handset differences have pushed developers into making the most of single button presses, display-agnostic interfaces and communication without reliance on audio.”

“High-end features like GPS, motion-sensors and cameras inspire cool game ideas that aren’t yet commercially viable, having a small user-base of suitable phones,” he goes on, but adds that “this is a rapidly moving target, and every six months using these features in gaming gets closer to reality.”

Howard at Astraware is quick to point out that if a developer feels restricted by the mobile platform, they’re probably trying to cram too much in at the expense of the user experience. “Many popular franchises have been let down by this, but then anyone buying from the title alone won’t know what to expect,” he reasons. “The challenge isn’t how much you can load in, but choosing what’s best to keep. This is a very frustrating experience for a designer coming from the console world.”

Chris White at Glu hails the ever-addictive Tetris as a triumph of gameplay over techno-wizardry - a game that rivals EA have successfully reinvigorated on mobile. “Many designers enjoy the challenge of tailoring a game to new hardware,” he asserts. “It forces developers to be imaginative to ensure the game is engaging across touch-screen, a traditional keypad, or even with an accelerometer. Some of our recent titles - like Get Cookin’ - support all three mechanisms, although not necessarily at the same time!”

As Patrick is keen to point out, this was one of the first games to take advantage of the accelerometer on Sony Ericsson’s gaming-focussed handset, the F305. Although of course where that particular brand is concerned, all speculation concerns their much-anticipated PSP phone, about which the press were excited and frustrated in equal measure in August ‘08 with reports that it would hit the market by Christmas - just not necessarily this Christmas.

Patrick returns to the case at hand: “Not only was Get Cookin’ a fun game where you learned recipes, flipped pizzas and grilled burgers, but you actually flipped your phone and moved it from side-to-side in the process,” he enthuses. “No other mobile platform has leveraged this kind of functionality so far, and with Bluetooth and GPS we’ll see other innovations very shortly.”

But besides a few notable platform-specific successes, mobile games have largely comprised reversions of existing franchises - partly owing to the fact that consumers have to-date based purchasing decisions on little more than a title. Free demo downloads are a key feature of the N-Gage platform, and one solution to coax wary users into experimenting with unknown brands.

Flying the flag for the smaller studios, Howard concedes that although the Glus and EAs of this world will likely skim off the lion’s share of a burgeoning market, things will also level out at the bottom. “Far from being locked out, smaller players find it easier to get the tools, start developing, and actually reach customers,” he insists. “Indie developers can hit all kinds of game genres, and can class a game successful at much lower revenues than would even be a footnote on a large company’s balance sheet.”

Clearly a burger-flipping, handset-twirling extravaganza and a 2D gem-swapping puzzler have little in common beyond the size of the screen, but taking the limitations into account, are there common factors that can contribute to a mobile game’s success?

“There are some common factors,” acknowledges Patrick. “The game has to be attractive, well-presented and easy to get into. Controls need to be intuitive and not overly complex. And games should be designed so they can be played in short bursts of five to ten minutes, while not being so short that the value of the purchase is questioned.”

Another major difference between mobile and any more advanced platform is the length of the development cycle. Chatting to Jef Valadares at the Golden Joystick Awards, it becomes clear that one of the most rewarding elements for him is the variety. EA Mobile’s team will work on around four titles per year, while a console team could be dedicated to one game cycle for years at a time.

Chris White outlines the team behind Glu’s recent title Transformers G1: Awakening. “We had a producer, who essentially project managed the game, working closely with Hasbro; a designer, responsible for creating levels, scripting and design documentation; a 2D pixel artist, responsible for in-game artwork; a 3D artist, responsible for character modelling and animation; two programmers, and a dedicated QA tester, responsible for play testing throughout the duration of the project,” he reels off.

“On average, the first version of a game will take about six months to develop, depending on its complexity,” Chris goes on. “But this doesn’t include the porting phase, where the game is converted to the hundreds of handsets available worldwide. Deploying a mobile game is a complex business, requiring knowledge of unique devices available in each territory.”

Another reason why global impact requires global investment, and Howard advocates specialisation on particular platforms for smaller-scale outfits such as Astraware. This policy is illustrated clearly by their website, tellingly split into categories by platform - iPhone, Palm OS, Blackberry - rather than by gaming genre.

“For us, team sizes depend on the size of a project, how many platforms, and whether it’s a license or an original game,” explains Howard. Astraware games take between six months and a year to develop on average, including artwork, development and in-house quality testing. “Costs of $100k are a reasonable estimate - yes, I work in dollars,” he chuckles. “For the console industry you’re looking at one to two orders of magnitude bigger.”

Clearly it’s not all about the development process however: as all the interviewees have agreed, it’s getting the games into the hands of players that’s the toughest hurdle at the moment. Buy-in from handset manufacturers and service providers can prove crucial.

Many networks are waking up to games as a potentially lucrative way to up their ‘revenue per user’ index, and Patrick highlights recent Glu-Vodafone collaborative triumph Brain Genius as an example of best practice. But Howard laments that gaming execs at carriers often come from console backgrounds: “They want the ‘bigger, brighter, shinier’ approach, whereas the average user wants games that are easier, more fun, and aren’t a complete let down.”

But if, as Glu, EA and Astraware agree, distribution is the next big hurdle to leap, perhaps carriers will necessarily be cut from the loop altogether. To conclude, as we began, with Nokia’s Scott Foe: “N-Gage aims to eliminate not only handset fragmentation, but carrier fragmentation - in short, to eliminate the incremental costs of mobile game development.”

“I hope Nokia will continue to create original content too, otherwise I’m out of a job. Have you seen Reset Generation, the highest-production-value, most critically-acclaimed mobile title ever created?” he asks, seasoning his question with Silicon Valley modesty. “When you know recipes like that, you don’t close the restaurant. You keep cooking.”

© Nick Carson 2008. First published in Issue 10 of 4Talent magazine

US launch date is tomorrow, still no news on local release yet.

Source - Phonescoop