I’ve heard talk here and there that mobile games are the future of gaming. My instinctive response is that this is a bad thing, because I’ve yet to see a mobile type of game that seems like it has the potential to be Art in other than a purely visual sense–that is, to be a game which has strong literary qualities.

But it would be silly, not to mention hypocritical, of me to go saying “mobile games aren’t Art”, even with the “literary” qualifier, after I’ve criticized people who claim the same about games in general. So I am not going to make that mistake, but I do wonder how it could be accomplished.

I’m not a game designer, but I do wonder about these things, and as I think idly on the subject, I wonder if some sort of game that consisted of nothing but a long choose-your-response dialogue between two philosopher characters–one being the player–might be interesting. (I guess it would be Consolation of Philosophy: The Game, which wouldn’t sell.) But how to make a game that is on the one hand simple to play and yet addresses complex ideas?

P.S. Given the size of the gaming industry, there’s a good chance something like the game I described above already exists. Please be sure to mention in the comments if you know of something answering to that description.