Want another reason? What happens in 10 years when I want to relive the experience of Final Fantasy 11? Oh wait, I won't be able to. By then, the servers will be offline and that game disc will be entirely worthless. This has already happened to those Dreamcast fans who enjoyed playing Phantasy Star Online, Speed Devils Online, Ooga Booga, and Sega's entire line of outstanding sports titles.
Yes, these people could've upgraded to a newer console and enjoy the newest sports games, but this brings us to cost. Taking X-Box Live for the example, it costs $50+ a year to subscribe, $50 for a new game, $40 for a cable/DSL connection, and possibly more depending on your service (routers, cables, etc.). That's not even including the $179 for the console itself! The PS2 service requires the adapter ($40) and games such as Everquest charge per month. Costs like this alienate the younger set (the second largest group of gamers) and is even prohibitive to the 18-24 group.
I have no problem adding in an extra online multi-player mode to some games , but games that are based entriely online and ignore the single player experience all together are seriously irratating. Growing up on games like Contra and blasting away alien beings with a freind next to me is an experience that simply can't be duplicated with an online game. Developers need to take a step back and realize what it was that brought us to this point. It sure as hell wasn't playing a game with someone I can't see 5,000 miles away.
Originally posted on Breaking Windows.
Article comments
1 - jadester
even on the pc, which you might not immediately think of for games like that, it is always more fun to play a game over a LAN than over the 'net. For a start, when i beat my housemate at Quake III it means i can go laugh at him face to face. Voice-over-net and similar technologies do add some of this element to 'net games, but it's just not the same.
Also, there's at least one snes emulator for the pc that lets you play mp games over a network - so you can play mario kart with four players but not have to be crowded one pc keyboard.
2 - gerrard
I love online gaming, mostly because I don't have anyone to play with. My girlfriend can't stand games (with the exception of DOA Volleyball), and most of my friends tell me to practice my guitar whenver I try to get them into gaming. The one person I know who likes games lives about two hours away.
I never used to play sports games at all, because I could never find an opponent. Now I can hit power, sign in, and play with people all over the world.
Online gaming isn't going to ring the death knell for gaming, it's just creating new experiences. There'll always be room for single player games, becase most people aren't going to do well in online competition. I still play single player games about 50% of the time for the ego boost ;).
3 - TDavid
Must admit that there hasn't been a single online console game that has held me for any significant time. I've tried many of them (I was a PS2 Everquest beta tester). I was bitten by the Everquest bug on the PC and some other online PC games through the years, but online console gaming just hasn't held my interest to date.
I keep waiting, trying and buying new games, but ... not yet. This isn't to say that I haven't had fun playing some of the online titles to date, I just haven't been able to stay interested in them for any length of time.