When Apple Arcade launched, I was very excited and blogged about it a couple of times. I intended to try ALLLLL the games, even though there were over 100 at launch and the collection was only going to grow. If I’m honest, I tried out a handful, mostly the ones mentioned in those prior blog posts and realised the rest didn’t really appeal.

And now, for the moment, I’ve cancelled my Arcade subscription. The weird thing I found was that having the subscription meant I felt pressure not to try out any other apps until I had exhausted those that I was definitely paying for. And I didn’t want to play all of those apps. In fact, of the twenty or so that I tried, only two stuck with me, and only one of those had long-term playability.

That’s not to say I don’t still think it’s a good idea. It’s a relatively cheap price for such a vast array of high quality games and even though few of them appeal to me, I think that says more about me than it does about the chosen ones.

It turns out I’m a very picker gamer, particularly when it comes to mobile games. For the most part, I want games that don’t require your full attention all the time – ie. with countdown timers or free-runners. I want something you can dip in and out of, leave for lengths of time without losing anything, and usually something that offers badges as an incentive because I’m easily swayed by the gamification of things.

Few games capture my attention for an enduring length of time, and I’m very picky with genres – not a big fan of shooters, platform games start out great but get too hard too quickly, and word puzzle ones often end up being repetitive and boring.

So! Instead of writing about all the games I’ve played and dismissed on Apple Arcade, I might have to start a new series of posts about the few apps that have actually won my very difficult gaming heart. And you never know, in future something might pop up on Arcade that draws me back in and I’ll be hooked. That’s what they’ll be hoping for anyway!