I am back from GDC and desperately trying to sort through all my notes, presentations and photos to bring you guys some of the highlights from the conference. I had a fantastic time and will be doing a personal Game Developers Conference recap in the next few days! As for right now, I still have some great information I would like to share with you from the GDC Mobile portion of the conference.

As I previously mentioned, the first several days of the Game Developers Conference focused primarily on mobile phone technology and game development. To many of us who consider ourselves hardcore gamers, we don’t see our cell phones as a preferred platform for gaming. Before attending the GDC Mobile conferences last week I admit I fell into the above category as well.

In the past I have shied away from playing games on my cell phone except for five-minute spans at the doctors office. I never found the screen size, sound capabilities and interface controls compelling enough to take a serious look at this facet of the game industry. It is amazing how easy it is to translate your preferences onto an entire demographic. I assumed that just because I did not prefer the medium, that no one else would. Then again, the last game I played on my cell phone was Snake and Tetris.

It was not that long ago that cell phones looked like this… 

Attending the seminars on the Mobile Gaming Track at GDC this year was eye opening. I realized that the reason many of us don’t see cellular phones as a viable gaming platform is because we see the market through a somewhat ethnocentric perspective. In the United States, gaming consoles are common place and our highly saturated market gives us limitless options to tailor our gaming experience. In other countries this is not true.

In one particularly interesting seminar – Disruptive Forces in Gaming – a panel of industry professionals looked at the speed bumps game developers for mobile phones are encountering and why despite those, the cell phone is still a logical platform to develop for in a worldwide capacity.

While having multiple gaming consoles is commonplace in the United States, in countries such as China they are considered significant luxury items. When you compare the one million home video game consoles in the Chinese market to the half a billion mobile phones, you start to see where developing games for the mobile market might make sense. While the demographic cannot afford home consoles, they are more than willing to use their cell phones as a mobile gaming device. This is true of many other locations in the world such as India. Low cost, portable and easily downloadable games make perfect sense for these markets.

Now that we have established a market for the technology, what are the benefits of gaming on your phone as opposed to your Nintendo DS or your PSP?

Chances are you already own a cell phone. That is a plus. You don’t have to buy a new handheld system to play these games. Cell phones also tend to be smaller and more portable than other handheld systems. The downloadable nature of the games is another positive. You don’t have to haul around game boxes or handheld organizers in order to play. You can also have the game the instant you want to play, simply log on and download to your phone.

Now cell phones are created with gaming in mind… 

If you look at the list, the convenience, portability and practicality of playing games on your cell phone should make it a system that gamers jump at the chance to play. So what is holding us back?

Poor sound quality, poor graphics, lack of quality games and exasperating controls enough for you? Those were the original qualities that kept me from playing. However, at the Disruptive Forces in Gaming mobile session, the panel of industry experts filled me in on what I had been missing. Mobile gaming is growing rapidly. While it took thirty years to go from Pong to the Playstation it has only taken ten to go from Snake to fully 3D games on cellular phones. Graphics are now on par with those of the Playstation One and the 3D graphic capabilities are growing at an exponential rate. Faster networks are allowing larger game file sizes which in turn improve game quality. There are even new peripherals for your mobile phone to get rid of the “one thumb” nature of cell phone games. As games start getting more engaging, graphics become more crisp and clear, and the interfaces become more user friendly, I start to wonder what is still holding us back?

It might just be the stigma from a less than glorious past. It might be the highly saturated market many of us face on a daily basis, or it might be the lack of mainstream gaming coverage on new mobile titles.

Whatever the reason, I am making a conscious decision to stop leaving the mobile market on the sidelines when it comes to my gaming palate. With new peripherals (which I will introduce you to soon) as well as nostalgic titles such as Sonic and Tomb Raider available for my phone I now feel like I have something to be excited about.

What about you? What will it take to make you animated about the mobile gaming experience?