To be honest, I saw a friend recommending "Meimei Shop" on the forum today. I clicked on it and found out that this game is already five years old. When I just switched from a feature phone to a smartphone five years ago, I never imagined that the mobile gaming ecosystem would become what it is today. Not to brag, but as an old player who has played since the Saipan era, I am still a little touched when I see that this game is still in operation.
Think about those days when we were playing Java games that were tens of KB in size. We used the arrow keys to play "Urban Racing" or "Prince of Persia". The screen was still small and the picture quality was extremely rough, but we could still enjoy the game. At that time, mobile games were more like a pastime that could be "picked up and played". There was no Internet connection, no in-app purchases, and no limited activities. It was so pure that it made people miss it.
And what about the current market? There are many masterpieces flying all over the world, but to be honest, many of them are heavy krypton gold products with MMO, card, SLG and other skins. They check in, weekly, and ranking every day, and playing is more tiring than working. On the contrary, the fact that a lightweight business-matching game like "Meimei Shop" can persist for five years shows that it has found its own rhythm. It doesn't have those flashy designs, but relies on the cute painting style, the free decoration system, and the healing feeling of “slowly running a small shop”. This kind of "slow life" gameplay is actually in line with a new trend of current mobile games-from the pursuit of excitement to the pursuit of emotional companionship.
I have observed in the past five years that many female-oriented or life simulation games have emerged, such as various dress-up, dress-up, farming, etc. This shows that players no longer just pursue numerical growth and PVP enjoyment, but want a small world where they can relax. The scenes in "The Beautiful Shop", including Provence and English castles, paired with pastel tones, really have the magic power to temporarily escape the pressure of reality. This kind of "emotional" design may become a more important direction for mobile games in the future, rather than just making pictures or forcing krypton.
Of course, as an old player, I also hope that this kind of game can think more about the depth of gameplay. For example, although "Meimei Shop" is free, if there are not enough content updates, players will easily get bored. However, it used its fifth anniversary event to prove that it is still alive, which shows that the developer Chengdu Cocolan Technology has worked hard to maintain the content. This kind of persistence of a small team is quite rare in today's mobile game environment where games can be "run away" at every turn.
Finally, I can't help but feel nostalgic. From Symbian to Android, from stand-alone to online, mobile games have changed too much. But some core things have not changed, such as making people happy and relaxing. If "Meimei Shop" can accompany me for the next five years, then an old player like me will be willing to go online occasionally to see the customers in my shop, pick out a few clothes to match, and regain a little of the simple happiness I had when playing games with a keyboard. 😌
(As an aside, if you have the same hobby, please come downstairs to chat about the changes in mobile games in your mind, or share the game you have played for the longest time, and chat for ten bucks~)