Mobile games have been a mainstay of the phone age, especially in high school. The constant need for movement from class to class has created an environment where 2-3 minute games have thrived.
Phone games have been used as one of the few activities that can fill passing periods without having to stop in the middle just before class starts. “I think it’s just a way to pass the time,” said Junior Jack Engel. “Sure, we have a seven-minute passing period, but most people really never use that full time, and most teachers don’t start class until the first three minutes after, so when you think about it, that’s seven minutes by the time some students get there. And they don’t just want to be on their phones, and so they decide to play some mobile games.”
Engel also felt that rather than harming human interaction, mobile games had brought him closer to people. He said, “I feel like mobile games have really brought me and my friends closer together, and mobile games are just a uniting factor in the Sandburg community and one of the main reasons why I like to call Sandburg home.”
Mobile games and especially the multiplayer aspect are seen as a way to hang out at school; many students see playing mobile games as no different from having a conversation with friends.
The most popular mobile games, by far, are strategy games. The most popular of these is Clash Royale: a game where two players face off using a deck of characters to destroy the other person’s king. Other popular games include Retro Bowl, a game that replicates the NFL in a simplified offense-only format. On the Chromebook, however, action games such as Rumblerush, a multiplayer racing game, are the preferred choice for most students.
Some components from mobile games even carry over into class, especially among strategy gamers.
Sophomore Alex Huff stated what skills he thought carried over into school. He said, “I think that critical thinking and then how fast you’re able to respond, and then also recognizing patterns, Clash Royale helps with a decent amount.” These games force their players to think, and the skills that are used in these games can often carry over into the classroom if students let them.
Yet not every student at Sandburg is a gamer. “In my opinion, they just kind of get boring to me pretty fast,” said Adrian Kopec on his experience and why he quit playing mobile games.
Kopec also believes that mobile games, especially on the Chromebook, are a distraction to academic success. “People who are playing more mobile games, especially people in school who are not paying attention in class and playing mobile games instead, those people definitely have a greater chance of performing worse on standardized testing and in-class tests because they aren’t paying attention,” he explains. Students will often see a drop in attention spans because they are being conditioned on short-form games, and it becomes harder to keep focus on teachers and class during learning.
Because of students’ desire for a timekiller, mobile games are and will remain a mainstay at Sandburg, for good and for ill. A fair balance can be struck between having fun at school and turning the game off during class, so you can be the best player and the best student.