Local Play

I have never played an MMO, and only a little Online Multiplayer games (all FPSs), but I have played a lot of ‘home’ multiplayer games with friends (I’m talking consoles, not PCs), so this is what I will blog about.

The experience of playing alone yet online against either friends or strangers has, for me, never been close to the enjoyment of playing in the same room as your opponents. For a long while, there really wasn’t much option for the average gamer if they wanted to try the two-player mode. All you could do was persuade a friend/family member/some random to join you in front of the same screen. The online options that the Internet has enabled are brilliant, but I can’t help but feel nostalgia for the time when I didn’t have such choice.

In my first few flats, the shared TV screen pretty much dictated that multiplayer games were the norm. They didn’t have to be simultaneous play either. For example, the Crash subgame of Burnout 2, or the Police Survival mode in Driver (The amount of time my flatmates and I spent on Burnout 2’s Crash was ridiculous now I think about it). Playing a game together was a lot more social than watching television. Any sort of griefing could be handled ‘promptly’ by the victim, verbally or otherwise, depending on how funny it was. And it was simply a really enjoyable way to spend an evening.

I’m sure most gamers would prefer to play with others in the same room, given the choice. Sadly, the reason so many choose to play online instead is probably convenience. It is easier to play with others online than it is to make your way to the same venue, due to lack of time, other commitments, or any other number of factors. For me, it just became obvious that you can’t play video games with your mates for ever (sob…). I just hope that the option to play online hasn’t removed some incentive for gamers to get together in the real world.