Show of hands: people who like to play video games with their friends? Now, put your hands down if those “friends” are only online… This article is more for those still holding their hands up. This is for the people, like me, that are being overlooked as video games “progress” further into the future.
Let’s start things off with a little personal history lesson. When I had an Atari 2600 I used to play games like “Boxing” and “Combat” against my friends and family. We would play for hours trying to get in the final win; memories I wouldn’t trade for the world. Then things progressed to the Nintendo Entertainment System and we would play games like “Double Dragon” and “Cabal” and of course “Contra.” The games were even better looking and it was even more fun. Next, there was the Super Nintendo, with its games like “Mortal Kombat” and the grand-daddy of competitive gaming for me, “Super Mario Kart.” Same friends, same style of fun, and so the trend would continue, up until the late PS2/Xbox era. Things took a major “leap forward” and my real life friends were left in the wake.
More and more games were going online. Meet up with people all over the world and play games with, or against them. That was the big hook, right? Well, what about your buddies that you had played four player Goldeneye with for four years? Sure there was Halo, and that was great, but not much else out there, at least not for people that want to play in the same room. Have we not progressed past the days of Super Mario Brothers on the NES? Remember when you had to take turns playing a game? Mario would have to make it through his world, then Luigi got to play. Same-screen, multi-player games then weren’t really all that great because of the limitations of the technology, but that was, what, 25 years ago now. Fighting games existed too, but they just weren’t as fun. Playing tournaments of Soul Blade on the PSOne, or getting all four controllers going in a good game of Twisted Metal: that’s where it’s at. You can’t replace game memories like that with online games of Mortal Kombat Armageddon or Auto Modellista.
When I stepped up my system to the 360 I was totally down for some more gaming with my REAL friends. Things started off well: we got to play “Perfect Dark Zero” together. That was a lot of fun. Shortly thereafter though, games decided to just forget about your buddies and concentrate on your “new” virtual friends. Games that used to be marketed as “Co-Op” were all now being sold as “On-Line Co-Op.” I guess I really hadn’t noticed until I wanted to play some Co-Op with a friend of mine in Crackdown. It seemed like it would be a lot of fun to be two super-powered cops running around the city, beating the snot out of criminals. Much to my dismay, however, the game ONLY offers “On-line” Co-Op. From there the trend only spirals out of control.
Games that DID offer the ability to play in the same room with a friend usually involved making mock rooms on Xbox Live. The problem here is that you ONLY have you and a friend trying to play deathmatch or CTF games, one man, one team. The worst part about it is that developers have taken out probably the easiest fix or at least patch to this issue: Bots. My friend Bill and I played literally countless hours of Perfect Dark on the N64. The game wasn’t all that great, the graphics now look absolutely horrendous, but never the less it was a hell of a lot of fun. Why? Simply because he and I could play deathmatch for hours and hours and it would never be the same game twice because of those little bots. I am no programmer, but I would imagine that something that fits on only PART of an N64 cart could be programmed into a multi-million dollar DVD game. Seriously… The only full-size game (that I am aware of) that has Bots in it since has been Killzone 2 on the PS3. Even with bots in that game, you could only play it, single player. What the hell?
At the most recent E3, Microsoft said they were going to release Perfect Dark (from the N64) as an XBL Arcade game. Being such a huge fan of the original I already have very high hopes for this game, most of which I expect to be disappointed on. Sure it will look better, play faster, and sound great in 5.1 surround, but that doesn’t mean anything to me if I can’t play it with my friends in the same room. Talking smack to my friends as they sit beside me and see me drop their in-game character over and over again is much more satisfying than doing it online. I like to see my opponent’s face as they realize that I have been following them, just waiting to capitalize on the first mistake they make.
Where are my split screen games that AREN’T racing games? In order for my friend Brian and I to play COD4 together, he had to have his own 360, an account on XBL, and his own copy of the game. Damn! I mean seriously, why have this super-powered machine, with the ability to have multiple controllers “hooked up” at once if you don’t have anything to play? Thank goodness for games like Army of Two and most of the Tom Clancy games; they are trying to keep hope alive. Army of Two probably does one of the best jobs of recreating the fun of those old games like Bad Dudes and Double Dragon. However, games like this are few and far between. This is, of course, excluding all manner of Wii games and “Rhythm Games.” Rock Band and Guitar Hero are in a category all their own, and since most Wii games DO have some sort of Co-Op or multi-player ability, but are mostly crap anyway. I mean you have your Wii Sports games and certain Kart racers, but as a whole, the Wii isn’t known for its stellar games. Just being honest here. I own all three systems so I am NO fanboy.
For the most part, games that do allow you to play simultaneously with a friend are games of trivia or puzzle games, and most of them exist only on the PSN or XBLA. The exception to the rule is sports games. All your major sports games (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, FIFA) have the ability to play with your friends on the same couch. Honestly, if they take those games and make them solely online multi-player, I’m done. If I can’t get a verbal thrashing from a friend sitting beside me following them scoring a game-winning basket/TD/goal/home run, count me out.
I’ve said it many times before: I don’t like relying on other people (especially that I don’t know) to have fun with a game. Also, think about the online gaming community as a whole. Take the good experiences you have had in a group of strangers versus the bad. Which one happens more often? Don’t get me wrong… I have been playing online with a great group of guys over the past year or so, but I have never met them. I don’t have the same history with my “online” friends that I do with my “real” friends. There won’t, and can’t be, any stories of “Oh, remember when we were at your apartment playing this?” or the occasional “Remember when we got back from the bar and were totally drunk playing this?”
Like I said, it’s as if games are progressing forward every day, as far as graphical prowess, sound design, acting, and even storytelling are concerned, and that’s great. However, if games progress too far without at least trying to keep some semblance of the offline or same-household Co-Op involved, really, where have we gone? At the price of human interaction we now have friends that we probably will never meet in person, and will have no connection to in the future. Yes, I know that people have met offline, and I know that others have gone so far as even getting married to their online counterparts, but these are definitely the exception, NOT the rule.
All I am getting at is this: Developers of games that actually have some need for Co-Op, be that online or off, at least consider doing something so that I can include my friends sitting beside me. That doesn’t mean that I need some half-assed multiplayer shoe-horned into my game totally ruining the experience, though. Also, don’t forget to consider your friends (speaking directly to the gaming public, I mean). If your buddies are sitting around watching you play a game solo, it probably isn’t the most fun experience they can have. Even the most craptacular old-school offline Co-Op can be made fun with the right people. My friends and I have played many a crappy game for hours, just because we can find ways of making it fun.
So when your Friends list tops out at 250, don’t forget your real friends. Take some time and play a game that involves them, too. At the end of the day, your real friends will literally be there for you. Like it or not, 90% of the people that you meet online and game with don’t give two shits about you on a personal level. They won’t pick you up if your car breaks down, bail you out of jail if you get caught with that “escort” in Vegas, or keep the secret on why you can’t use ice tongs without cringing.
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