There’s nothing that quite drills home the penetration of mobile games til you’re in line at a karaage stall in Japan and you see the lady in front of you, clearly tired from a long day’s work grinding it out in FGO with Auto Mode.

Mobile games have had a great year, with mainstays like Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Genshin Impact and Honor of Kings continuing to do well, while debutantes like NIKKE: Goddess of Victory jiggle their way into top charts as well.

One feature I’m finding myself changing my opinion on is the Auto Mode. It comes from a very specific school of mobile game design- usually one known to obfuscate its gameplay behind a grind to keep people in. This lead me to the conclusion that auto mode gameplay was antithetical to fun- after all, why design a good gameplay system if it’s designed to be skipped?

Nowadays though, it’s quite the opposite. Let’s face it, grindiness is inherent to mobile game design. What you save in buying the game (and sometimes, if you’re strong of will, its in-app purchases) is often replaced with homework. To read more about this topic, consider subscribing to our newsletter. You read the full article for free just by putting your email address in the box below:

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