Thanks for making this, really. Phone games seem to be a sort of gateway drug for video games and it's a shame that most of them are so laden with microtransactions and attention-hacks. Anything that can steer people away from heroin-adjacent mobile games toward games with substance is a great product in my book. Nice job.
Thank you! I got fed up and made this the other day, after playing Head Ball 2 which is basically "Crack cocaine: the mobile game" in how predatory and insidious it is.
I think it would make a fascinating study on how mobile gaming turned into this, when PC and console gaming (while suffering from some of this) is still viable for people who just want to buy a game and play it without shenanigans.
I recall hearing back in the day iPhones were newer and dedicated mobile webpages were a functional matter, and the iPhone lacked serious competitors some web storefronts would abuse browser charge higher prices for iPhone browsers because they read it as a signal for more disposable income/willingness to pay more.
The "luxury start" for a non-dedicated game device combined with the payment platform intergration of an app store was likely the original sin which turned the mobile game development culture that particular flavor of toxic. Of course that was also probably partly what got them developer buy in to their niche platform - the money.
