Cellphones got game

Robin Harper likes to play multiple versions of solitaire. These days, the Bay Area software developer and mom can do it waiting in line at the bank or in between phone calls because she's playing the games on her cellphone.

Ms. Harper is not just another harried commuter with a new distraction - she's part of the hottest new trend in the burgeoning $10 billion video-game universe: cellphones as an online game device. The industry's annual trade bash, which just wrapped up this past weekend in L.A., turned into a coming-out party of sorts for this surprise star.

"Mobile phones were the only [game] platform which saw an increase in usage in the past year," says Doug Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Association.

This unlikely star has risen despite the fact that Sony and Microsoft have spent millions of dollars over the past year trying with mixed success to lure the masses into playing online games with their big living-room game consoles, the PS2 and Xbox.

There is a message in this new development, say industry pundits. Whenever consumer behavior takes an unexpected right turn like this (Americans have had color screens on their cellphones for only a year), there's usually a deeper meaning driving the collective purchases. In this case, both critics and proponents of the industry say, the trend signals that perhaps Americans' need to be plugged in has never been greater.

"We [the gaming industry] provide enabling technology to bring people together," says Fred Thiel, CEO of GameSpy, an online game publication and website. Phone users can choose a game from their phone menu, download it, and play it on the phone, either alone or with fellow phone gamers.

Americans want to connect with other people, and our convenience-oriented culture also wants something easy and portable, he says.

"The phone companies are doing what the big guys have been wanting to do and trying to do for a while," says Andrew Gearhart, director of LANParty.com, a site for networked communities, "and that is deliver all-pervasive gaming."

But other observers wonder if all-pervasive gaming is necessarily a good thing. Whatever happened to downtime or being alone with your own thoughts?

"The underlying message in all these ad campaigns is that down time is wasted time. If you aren't connected somehow you aren't being productive," says technology consultant Robin Raskin. Perhaps, she says, this is something we as a culture should challenge for the sake of our own mental privacy.

Americans won't get that message from the companies trying to sell us more ways to stay connected, she adds. "There are huge financial stakes on the part of these companies in keeping us engaged all the time," says Ms. Raskin, who specializes in family-related technology issues.

Shiny Entertainment's Dave Perry, who designed the "Enter the Matrix" videogame (see review at csmonitor.com), says it's not that we've lost the ability to be alone with our thoughts; rather we've gained the ability to fully utilize our time, as well as reach out to other people.

"We have a chance to engage our minds all the time," he says. "We haven't lost the ability to handle boredom - we just don't accept it" as necessary anymore.

The drive to connect is only growing. The Interactive Digital Software Association's 2003 survey showed that the number of people who play games on their cellphones has increased over the past year by nearly one-third. Informa Media Group expects that wireless gaming revenue will top $3 billion in the next three years.

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