{Ebony Memo} is an arthouse videogame curator website exclusively for smartphone titles.
At no point of time has art not been a topic of historical debate. From rock scratches to children's toys, many media have been subjected to such arguments. The answer to the question "What can be art?" has always been anywhere between "anything" to an ever-growing long list of items. Even video games themselves, in their undeniably highest forms, have had their capability of being art questioned.
This is the case of mobile videogames' potential as art.
A very common argument I have seen over the years is how "most mobile games are freemium time-wasters filled with micro-transactions". While the information being stated is not exactly unfactual, it is undoubtedly a hasty generalisation, judging an entire medium from the surface. If we judge cinema by the Transformers-like that come out a dozen of times every year, perhaps it is ok to call films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Citizen, a not-very-intellectual media? Does the terrible literary and sociopolitical quality of "Eleanor and Park" and its neighbours in the "Young Adult" shelf disqualify Cormac McCarthy's The Road from being art? Looking at the amount of micro-transactions in Overwatch and PUBG, maybe console videogames can be summed up by the aforementioned comment above?
This is the showcase of the best of what mobile videogames have to offer.
Toxicity is well-heard of in the age of internet, but is hardly a newfangled product of culture. Humanity has subjected itself, in the vast majority of history, to bigotry, discrimination, inequality and hate. While that escalates quickly, and the current subject matter is relatively trivial and insignificant, they are not unrelated. This is the very root of the arguments of "true arts" and "true games". Many talents and great works have been forgotten and lost to time due to elitism and gatekeeping, never receiving the recognition and fame they deserved.
This is for open-mindedness and setting aside prejudice and stereotypes, for a better preservation.
Even though the internet and Google magic have answered the most part of the good old business question "How do I find what I want and need?", many remains unfulfilled. Undoubtedly, many folks find "artistic smartphone videogames" is a much pretentious and unnecessary pursuit, and such opinions are well-respected. But for people with such a curiosity like I am, there is not enough out there. Yet.
Hopefully, this will be another one of your sources for thoughtful, artisitc, and high-quality entertainment for the marvelous computer in your palm.
In 2010, being the materialistic and financially irresponsible youngster I was, I dumped a portion of my college fund into a fanciful, semi-expensive gadget I did not exactly needed, called "smartphone", before most of the world had one. For historical context, it was the year Samsung released the Galaxy S (Samsung Galaxy S1, yes, before it had a number) and Apple released the iPhone 4. Having already been a videogame enthusiast, it did not take me long to realise I was in for a new magical world. In retrospect, I do not regret what I did.
As of the time of writing, in August 2020, I have been a smartphone owner (and an enthusiast, no less) for nearly 10 years. Over the decade, I have collected a good amount of interesting videogame bookmarks. Note the word interesting. Not all of them are great. Some are not exactly enjoyable. Some are novel ideas, but are executed poorly. Some are just wistful reminders of my artistic endeavours. My sentiment might have changed at the moment, but at some point time, I was undoubtedly fascinated by them.
And this collection is something I would like to share. It will take a while to transcribe them over here and write about them. I also hope it will grow longer over time.
Welcome to my massively over-engineered bookmark.
I hope you find something interesting here.
If you think someone could benefit from this website, please share it with them.
If you think there is something I should try and add to the collection, please mention @EbonyMemoM and/or hashtag #EbonyMemoTry on Twitter. Feel free to point out my embarrassing grammatical mistakes and spelling errors, too.
But most of all, I hope you can be a more open-minded person after leaving this website. That there is beauty and art in the media you do not expect. Or at least, be a bit less judgmental when your nephew says he wants to "play some mobile games" in the evening (hopefully he picked up something from here).
And of course, with me having strongly advocated for open-mindedness so far, under no circumstance is my opinion here the absolute truth and fact. We can agree to disagree. If you have been playing Mobile Legends and PUBG and enjoy them, please continue. If you think mobile games are all trash, it is rightfully your entitled opinion. If you think I am pretentitous, you are probably not wrong, either.
Neverthless, I hope you enjoy your visit and I hope to see you again.
Regards,
Juno Nguyen