Years ago (around 2001 – 2002) I created and ran a simple, text-based, online game called the Octagon. Originally it was a spreadsheet created by an Excel genius whose name was Charlie (can’t remember his last name at this point). I worked with him and helped him bring it online. Over a few months Charlie no longer had time for the game so I took it over and rewrote everything in PHP and expanded it considerably.

The goal of the game was to create a fighter that you then managed and upgraded, bought items for and talked shmack to the other players. At its peak we had about 300 players or so. It was a lot of fun, but it eventually took too much time to run so I had to shut it down.

I say all of this to give you an idea that I am intimately familiar with games like Mobile War (by MobileWar.net for $1.99 on the Catalog). Also, it gives the foundation for why I feel as though the game has a lot of potential, but is currently not living up to it.

The backstory of Mobile War is simple, but refreshing…no elves, dwarves, or space marines here…nope here you have the hackers vs. the elites for world dominance where all war is conducted over cell phones. The game’s humor is inconsistent, but is often pretty funny (if you are a geek like me). Basically the hackers are the basement dwellers who have l33t skillz, but are very lonely. The elites are the Paris Hilton type (including the dog)…they have the money to buy anything, but they have no idea what the tech actually does.

You choose your faction and begin. There is a decent help file, but a tutorial or something would be nice since there is no way you are going to know how your phone’s “signal strength” is going to matter in the game without some guidance. You are given a bit of money, but you really don’t have a clue what to spend it on at this point. After fumbling about a bit you come to the heart of the game…battling. The developers call this a “MMOG” (massively multi-player online game), but this is about as massive as a midnight showing of the latest Vin Diesel movie. With that said, I never had a problem finding a battle which is a good thing.

Battling simply consists of selecting an opponent (can be your faction or the other which is a bit odd) and pushing go. You see a bunch of numbers flash between the two and about 45 seconds later its over.  This is easily the weakest part. I engaged in over a dozen battles and I really have no idea what is going on or why it took so long to finish. Seriously, 30 – 45 seconds of watching flashing numbers is not my idea of a good time.

Once you battle you gain experience and, if you win, “minutes” (the currency of the game). You can take your minutes and go buy stuff to beef up all your stats to take on other foes.

All the while I am playing this, I see the potential but also see them not coming close. For instance:

• The mobile phone battles are novel, but I feel as though they really missed out by not making the game look like your Palm device. The UI is functional and clean, but I think having it look like you are battling with your phone would have been very cool.
• There is no combat log at all…I see flashing numbers, but I don’t know how those numbers came to be. Why did I hit for 6? What programs and other goodies does my opponent have?
• What is the point of the battery life? The game states you can only battle with 100% battery life, but after each battle my battery charged within about 3 seconds so I was always 100%. If this was by design, why have the battery at all?
• The novel backstory (for what it is) is completely lost…I can fight anyone at all…why choose a faction?
• When I level up, I feel no sense of accomplishment because it doesn’t do anything for me…I get no stat points to distribute, no bonuses or anything tangible. The game is full of unique stats…why not bring them front and center?
• If I find some poor shlub that I can beat, if I wanted to skew my stats I could fight him over and over…no chance to lose.

I would also love to see something besides simply battling people. That is fun and all, but I think some missions or something to immerse me into the story is sorely missing.