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What to call games that run on all devices?


Inga
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Is "all device" a good name for html5 games?

 

I have a big dress-up game website that is a part portal/part own games. Since 2011 and until now I've only published flash games. Now I've started publishing html5 games and want to market them to my own users.

 

What do I call these games so that my young users know that they can play the games not only their desktop, but also on their phones and tablets?

 

At the moment I've named the category "mobile" but it's not descriptive enough IMO. I'm looking for something that tells desktop users they can play those games on phones and tablets, because at the moment almost all of my users are desktop user - but I want to change that!

 

I'm leaning towards "all device". I've also thought about "cross-platform" but I'm not sure if kids get that.

 

Any ideas?

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"Cross-platform" has the edge over the alternate "platform" variants (source: Google trends, Wikipedia priority).  Cross-platform encompasses a lot more than games-that-work-on-multiple-devices - so I actually prefer "web games" because more people understand what that means: play-a-game-from-the-web.

 

That said I suggest explaining the benefit of the feature, rather than justify a technical name that may not be understood by a non-technical audience.

E.g. "This game works on all devices, so you can play sat at your desk or play out and about!".  Even better when described using icons :)

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To clarify: I need something short for a navigational bar, 2-3 words max.

 

I like multiplatform and cross-platform but worry it's too technical for kids. Explaining the benefits in a short text is a good idea and I'll be doing that on the page where the games are listed.

 

I do hope that one day "web games" are games that can be played on all devices (that day can't come too soon!) but I don't think it works for my purposes here, i.e. to separate html5 games from flash games.

 

Thanks for your suggestions - and please keep them coming if you have any :)

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Thinking about this I think the current label "Mobile" may be best (that or "Phone/Tablet"*)  :huh:

 

1. You want to advertise to both people using desktop or mobile browsers that you have an area for games they can play on mobile (after all many people use multiple devices and many desktop users may not realise they can play your games on mobile rather than relying on games downloaded from app stores)

 

2. Only a subset of your games can be played on mobile, and mobile players represent a market you want to foster, the point of the tab/area is clearly for those users to find the games they can play

 

3. You already (sensibly) feature games under multiple area/tabs - ie. the games in the "Mobile" area can all be found by desktop users browsing the other areas/tabs. Thus it doesn't make alot of sense for desktop users that can play any game on your site to use the "Mobile" tab unless they are interested in what games they can play using their phone/tablet

 

Hence why I think you are best sticking with "Mobile" (or a variant like "Phone/Tablet"), while other labels would be more accurate to describe games that do and do not appear in that area of your site**, I feel that those other labels would be a step backwards in terms of meeting the needs of your users***.

 

* "Mobile" is probably a well recognised term but perhaps "Phone/Tablet" may be slightly more recognisable to children (guessing here) - ie. of your demographic how many understand that an iPad is a tablet vs. as a mobile, what about US children is regions where mobile phones tend to be called "cell phones", do they understand the term "Mobile" as readily (I don't mean to suggest that recognition of either wouldn't be high, I just suspect their may be a slight variance and thus advantage of one over the other)

 

** a more accurate label like "cross platform" is more accurate because it also describes the absence of games in that area, ie. games not in the "cross platform" tab are not cross platform - I don't think this is a helpful to you or your users.

 

*** actually I concede that the current labelling may be slightly confusing to users of mobile browsers that include sufficient Flash support so as to be able to play all of your catalogue... but how large is that segment and how many of those users aren't saavy enough to realise that they can play all your games (ie. do users of mobile browsers with flash support know that they have it - I know Flash used to be installable on Android from the appstore, unlike desktop where flash was likely preinstalled, and now users have to do alot more to install it... thus some percentage of mobile users with Flash surely know well that they have it - they likely did it, or had someone else do it for them, specifically ignore the mobile only segment, and if so surely those users know already that the Mobile tab need not apply to them)

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Put a big flashy icon that covers 25% of the screen showing a pic of one of your game encased in a phone hold by a hand with the caption "Now available on your phone or tablet!!!!" leading to a page where you visually explain how to go to your mobile site? Most people and kids don't know what is html, flash or unity.

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Hence why I think you are best sticking with "Mobile" (or a variant like "Phone/Tablet"), while other labels would be more accurate to describe games that do and do not appear in that area of your site**, I feel that those other labels would be a step backwards in terms of meeting the needs of your users***.

 

* "Mobile" is probably a well recognised term but perhaps "Phone/Tablet" may be slightly more recognisable to children (guessing here) - ie. of your demographic how many understand that an iPad is a tablet vs. as a mobile, what about US children is regions where mobile phones tend to be called "cell phones", do they understand the term "Mobile" as readily (I don't mean to suggest that recognition of either wouldn't be high, I just suspect their may be a slight variance and thus advantage of one over the other)

 

That's a really good point and something I hadn't thought about, mobile vs. phone/tablet

 

Right now I'm mostly concerned with getting the message about mobile (html5) games to my desktop users. Mobile users who come to my site enter the "mobile" category automatically, if they try to open a flash game they get a message telling them they can download a browser that supports flash. It's not a long time solution (I imagine) but it's something a person can do if they want to play flash games on their tablet.

 

Thanks for a thoughtful post :)

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Put a big flashy icon that covers 25% of the screen showing a pic of one of your game encased in a phone hold by a hand with the caption "Now available on your phone or tablet!!!!" leading to a page where you visually explain how to go to your mobile site? Most people and kids don't know what is html, flash or unity.

I'm actually going to do something like that, some kind of  interstitial - so I agree!

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