VNs and Mobile Gaming

The Muv-Luv Kickstarter is promising an Android port of Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative. Sounds great, right? You can play really cool games whenever you feel like it. You don't need to be at a computer or a console to boot up a fun game: you always have your smartphone with you so you always have games with you. What's the problem, then?

Simply put, mobile gaming is traditionally a passive activity instead of an active activity. With most mobile games, you don't sit down and decide to play them. You play them because you want to pass the time, whether you're in line, on the bus, or waiting for commercials to end. In a given context, mobile games don't command your attention. You don't focus on them. In a sense, they're secondary to any given activity. (Of course, there are exceptions - very notable exceptions. But the market as a whole produces games that you play when you want to simply pass time.)

This paradigm just isn't innately compatible with traditional storytelling. You watch movies in order to be immersed in new settings and situations. You read books because you want to see what happens to the characters. It doesn't matter that these activities are punctuated by periods of other activity: what matters is that when you sit down with a book, the book commands your attention.

Visual novels are the same way. Reading visual novels is an incredibly consuming activity - they can last up to 100 hours of reading! It's comparable to reading a book (a very, very, very long book). It's also cognitively demanding, so it's not something that can adequately be done passively.

What would happen when a behemoth of a VN like Muv-Luv Alternative is read on a phone? That's hard to say.  I can't stand the thought that someone reads MLA in five-minute chunks. I don't think anybody would want to only read MLA when waiting in line. It's more engaging than that. I would like to say that the player turns a traditionally passive activity and turns it into an active activity. But if this is the case, why does it necessitate a port? If you're going to sit down and commit yourself to this activity, why does it need to be on Android?

A few answers come to mind:

• Not everyone has a laptop. 
• It's inconvenient to carry a laptop around with you and you might find yourself in situations where you want to commit to reading but don't have the bulky computer. 
• The developers widen their audience by having a game on a more accessible platform.

Admittedly, this isn't totally different from having Netflix and eBooks on your phone. I think it's kind of a shame that enjoying film and literature is sometimes treated like a passive activity. But I do think (and dearly hope) that even though they are "treated" like passive activities by developers, users will mostly engage with them in an active manner.