This paper presents the results of an undergoing project dealing with issues for mobile multiplayer games. First it takes a technical point of view. It presents our work-inprogress on the following issues: Communication middleware (through a prototype compliant to the Open Mobile Alliance specifications), high level communication abstractions (which can be provided to multiplayer games), latency awareness (through a prototype mixing high latency GPRS communications with low latency Bluetooth communications), consistency (taking into account mobile phone limited resources), and databases (investigating three solutions based on grid DBMS). Our work also studies sociological and psychological aspects. After presenting the methodology used for the study, it shows how mobile gaming provides a second skin to its player (giving him the ability to withdraw from others, or to stay present to them), and is a tool for socialisation and appropriating time (by favouring a feeling of mastery). This last point suggests that mobile multiplayer games can only be appreciated if they take into account player’s time constraints.