Game On or Game Over: Internet killed the video game star

Microsoft versus Sony, Battlefield versus Call of Duty and Forza versus Gran Turismo. These are some of the rivalries that can get people talking about console wars. “Game On or Game Over” is your place to get inside the minds of Nicholas and Andy as they seek to find the true meaning of gaming and tackle some of gaming’s most controversial subjects. Both are award winning authors – although the awards haven’t been mailed or created yet — but trust them. Would they lie to you?

Andy: Here we are at another week where we talking about one of our shared passions on the internet. Both of us have been gamers for quite some time now. For me, gaming has been as big a part of who I am as much as growing up around dogs – I can’t count the number of games I’ve played over the years. Recently I was thinking about all those games, how I played them, the amount of fun I’ve had alone the way and a sad thought dawned on me. There’s no doubt that there have been some huge leaps in technology, games are at a point now where I never imagined they’d be back when I was playing Astrosmash on my Intellivision. The sad realization I had though, is that modern gaming is killing the camaraderie of being a gamer.

Before you call me crazy and shake your head, let me explain. When I first started gaming, playing any type of ‘multiplayer’ required you to actually have someone over at your house (or you at theirs), and sometimes you even had to take turns on who had the controller. When I got a little older I also experienced the fabled arcades machines. You know, where you got to see real people, talk to them and take turns on who had next on a particular machine. With the really popular games people would line their quarters up right under the screen. Disagreements and arguments were almost always short lived and settled civilly. Fast forward to today’s age and when playing a multiplayer game you can almost guarantee that your ears will be assaulted with verbal diarrhoea from people, and chances are pretty good you’ll encounter someone who’s sole mission is to make the game terrible for everyone else.

Gone are the days where you can actually look a fellow gamer in the eye and talk to them in person, unless you go to some big LAN event or a game convention-type atmosphere. While gaming has progressed leaps and bounds on a technical level, in my opinion, it’s taken several strides backwards in several other aspects that made gaming great. While there is a sense of a larger community the anonymity of online gaming shows off how terrible faceless asshats can be. Another troubling trend for some gamers, is the decrease of couch co-op games. The days of firing up a console, inviting a friend over and talking about a game are becoming less and less. I’d like to hope that maybe it’s me just being in a doom and gloom phase, yet it just feels that the more gaming progress the farther away it gets from one of the things that drew me in when I was younger. Does gaming have a chance to get back, or close to, to the days when we could all be friends and hang out in the same room, or will the faceless interactions with random strangers who can completely ruin the experience only become more pronounced?

Nicholas: It probably shows my age, but I never grew up during that era when video game arcades were ‘big’. I mean yes, whenever I’d go to a bowling alley I’d always beg my parents to give me some coins to play Daytona USA or Time Crisis, but those scenes I’d watch on television or in movies where kids would hang out in video game arcades playing those classic beat-em-up fighters from decades ago is completely foreign to me.

To get on-topic though, there are so many good questions that you’ve presented above that I think it would be best if we answered each in some greater detail, rather than me try to respond to every one right-away. I think a good place to start would be looking at the death of ‘couch co-op’, which is something I hear quite a lot from both friends in-person and online. As you’ll know, I’ve always been a single-player gamer, and that spans right back to when I was a little kid playing Super Mario Bros. on my SNES. While I remember occasionally that I would have some cousins come around and we’d play games like Mario Kart or Perfect Dark on my N64 (which make no mistake, was fun), I’ve always preferred playing games alone. For this reason, the fact that co-op and split-screen modes have dwindled significantly in the last decade has never really bothered me.

Now the reason for this is undoubtedly the rise of online gaming. As we saw it begin to happen with the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2 and as it soared with the last generation consoles, gamers are taking to online gaming at an astonishing rate, and this is evident in game development too. Developers are focusing a lot less time on traditional single-player modes and are focusing on creating greater online experiences (think Battlefield 4). In addition, we’re seeing an increase in the number of online-only games too with both Titanfall and the to-be-released Destiny. As much as I don’t want it to happen, it’s inevitable we’ll see more of these style of games coming out in the years to come.

The real question we need to ask is whether it’s viable for developers to invest time in making these split-screen games. While it certainly works for titles like Mario Kart 8, it doesn’t really work with a game like Need For Speed Rivals. I’m willing to hazard a guess that we’ll never see co-op return to how it was two decades ago, but what I’d like to ask you is whether you think the demand is high enough to go back? Are games that are being made today even suited for couch co-op?

Andy: Sadly, I think the days of couch co-op are fading very quickly. There will still be a few stragglers that implement it (I think Borderlands still has it unless I’m mistaken) but for the most part it’s a dying breed. It’s a dirty shame too because playing those co-op games with a buddy sitting right next to me was a big part of getting me interested in gaming to begin with. Furthermore, and this may sound corny, but it taught some life lessons too – how to share, settle disagreements and how to be OK with not always getting what you want. I can accept that couch co-op is pretty much gone, what is very disappointing to me is that online co-op (not normal multiplayer) is also a seemingly dying breed as well. I miss the days of experiencing a full campaign with a friend, or doing mission-based things, not simply shooting waves and waves of enemies. Games like Gears of War and Call of Duty World at War were amazing because of the campaign co-op. One game that’s coming out in a couple of months that I’m looking forward to mostly because of the campaign co-op is Sniper Elite 3. I loved Sniper Elite V2 but the co-op features added so much more to the game for me and it’s one feature I hope can stay in games for as long as possible. Maybe I’m just a dying breed of gamer trying to hold onto something that other gamers aren’t that interested in though. Of course it could be that developers and publishers know that the best way to pad their bank accounts is to focus on multiplayer. It certainly seems that’s the direction the majority of them are taking though.

I mentioned at the start another thing of my past that I regret losing is physical arcades. Now at the height of arcades here in America, home consoles were already entrenched and it was a sort of symbiotic relationship. There were some games in the arcade that were not available on home consoles, but there were some that you could play on both such as Mortal Kombat. Over the next say five years or so people started drifting away from arcades and focusing on home consoles. Then, there was this revolutionary thing that smacked gamers in the face and changed the gaming landscape forever. That of course would be online gaming. When o-line gaming really grabbed hold of gamers, arcades were doomed. You didn’t have to go somewhere else to play against people and you could play against more than one or two people at the same time as well. While the initial euphoria of playing online was awesome, something began to change over time to where we are today. It seems like any discussion of online gaming has to include the degradation of those who play. All too often I find myself either muting the lobby or creating a party chat so I don’t have to listen to them. If that’s not bad enough you have those who think it’s their job to make everyone else miserable by racing dirty, team killing, blocking doorways etc. For as much fun as online gaming can be, it can also be equal parts frustrating.

While online gaming has been an absolute boon for gaming, the faceless and nameless anonymity allows people to run roughshod with little enforcement of anything. Sure, Microsoft and Sony can say they actively police online matches, but the reality is there is no way either of them can really stop the majority of those behaviours consistently. For ever one they suspend or ban there are hundreds more that go unreported or don’t have enough tick marks to have a real person look at their behavior. I know a couple people who refuse to play online games for this reason. I know you talk about being primarily a single-player gamer, is this one of the reasons why? Do you think that the faceless nature of online gaming is the reason for people’s behaviour? I can’t ever remember hearing anything even remotely close to what I have heard playing online, from what I heard at an arcade.

Nicholas: I’ll be honest, while I’ve not played online a great deal in the past six or so years I’ve been a member of Xbox LIVE, I’ve really never experienced those issues that so many people describe that ruin their online experience. The problems of dealing with team killers, dirty racers or immature asshats over the microphone, I’ve maybe come across it every once in a while, but not nearly enough that it’s made me think of never going online again. For me, my decision to be a single-player gamer has just been something I did when I was younger, and as old habits die hard, it’s something I’ve just continued to do ever since. I played a few rounds of Titanfall upon its release and I won’t lie, it was fun, but nothing that would make me jump online every weekend. I should also note that when I do play online, most of the time I am either in a private chat and playing with friends, so that probably explains a lot too.

You mentioned the entire notion of being faceless and nameless, and there is little doubt in my mind that anonymity plays a major role in why the online experience is ruined for so many. People like to comment, “the gaming community is just full of trolls”, but as far as I’m concerned, that applies to the entire internet. Whether it’s gaming, YouTube, automotive forums, what have you, whenever people have the ability to either pretend to be someone else, or at least cover up who they really are, then of course they’re going to act like jerks. With no accountability for their actions people are just going to flick on “dick mode” – it’s simply human nature I think. Like you said, Microsoft and Sony do work on trying to ween these people out so a minority (because I do think it is the minority – not everyone is a jerk online) don’t spoil it for the rest, but I think gamers just need to continue to use either private chats or game with friends to minimise the chance of having your matches spoilt. Is it fair that we can’t just game with everyone and have a good time? Sure. Is it realistic to think that we can simply game with everyone and have a good time? Nope.

We’ve attributed the internet as the major drive towards the rise of online gaming, and as a result we’ve seen a decline in local co-op modes and also a platform for people to be dicks online, but for you, is there anything else you notice about gaming today that you’re perhaps not entirely favourable of, which has come as a direct result of the internet becoming intertwined with this favourite pastime of ours?

Andy: It’s funny that when people mention things that revolutionize something, they usually only talk about the positives. Being that I’ve been a gamer for quite a while now I have had the chance to see it morph into what it is now. Without a doubt there are some very cool things in gaming right now that I’d never have imagined possible. Like with anything that grows to be this large, there is a certain level of intimacy that is often lost. With the internet being so entrenched with gaming we have lost some of the magic that was inherent with gaming.

Let me explain if I may. Back when I first started gaming, you heard about a new game from an ad in a magazine that had a couple screen shots, some word of mouth from a friend and maybe just maybe a TV commercial. When you found a game on the shelf you weren’t always sure what to expect but there was a certain sense of awe when you first played it because you had virtually no idea what was in the game. If you got stuck on a level you had to figure it out. Sometimes you had to call a friend to come over and help you think it through, or talk to a friend of a friend who said they beat that part. Usually a month or two after the game was released one of the two big gaming magazines at the time would have a small feature about one or two difficult areas of the game, or where to find secret rooms. There was a true sense of exploration and accomplishment for playing games and finding those secrets. This also increased the overall time it took to really beat a game.

With the internet, the magic of discovering things in games is all but gone. Today, even before a game is released, we are bombarded with about six months’ worth of hype, TV commercials, sometimes hour long gameplay and everything in between. Also, the day the game is released there are already countless guides online and in print that tell you everything you should do, the order you should do it in and what the outcome will be. Before it was about exploration and trial and error, now it’s about a Google search and a Let’s Play video. Gamers are quick to complain about how long a game takes to beat, but many don’t hesitate to look things up when they get stuck. Heck, I remember playing a game on the original Nintendo called Shadowgate and spending hours in one or two rooms trying to figure out what I was supposed to do, and that happened more than once for that game. Nowadays I could just hop on YouTube and follow the paint by numbers that someone posted to move onto the next puzzle.

While the internet has certainly been responsible for some amazing innovations for video games, do you think it’s also responsible for making gamers ‘soft’? ‘How To’ videos, Wiki pages, and Let’s Play type videos are spoon feeding gamers and taking away the sense of awe and wonder at making those amazing discoveries or those “Aha!” moments when you finally figure out a puzzle solution. I’m not sure modern gamers are real gamers. It’s much like using a colour by number book and calling themselves an artist is it not?

Nicholas: Oh man. Shots have been fired with your ‘real gamers’ comment just then – but I’ll answer that in a little bit. As we now know, I’ve been a gamer for a lot less than you, but I do remember how gaming was pre-internet. I look back to the classic Nintendo games like Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country 3 where I’d spend days trying to figure out how to clear a level or how to defeat a certain boss. I also remember the $2 a minute call charge that I would have to incur every time I called the Nintendo helpline and how I had to ask my parents for permission. You raise a really valid point as well about how waiting for a new game nowadays felt different (and dare I say, worse) too. As you’ve mentioned, we now know so much about a game before it’s released and I miss those days where I’d chat about rumours to my friends in the playground during lunch about what we thought the next instalment in our favourite franchise would contain, rather than actually know everything beforehand. I can still remember chatting about Need For Speed Underground 2 before it was released, knowing next to nothing, then being absolutely blown away when I finally got to play it. Needless to say, I don’t get that same feeling with the Need For Speed games as of late.

You’re also completely right about gaming seeming a lot easier these days. While game guides have always existed for as long as I remember (they mightn’t have been as common, but printed handbooks have existed for a while now), it does seem like we’re quick to jump to an online guide and just get the answers rather than seek it out ourselves through trial and error. I wonder though, is this just us becoming impatient with games? I spoke in a recent Game On or Game Over article how that passion to game for hours on end is significantly dwindling, and I know I just can’t be bothered sitting on the same level for hours or days trying to figure it out. With the limited time I have to play games these days, do I want to spent most of it on one level, or get as much done as I can? That all said though, the super-guides we see in most Nintendo games today that let the player breeze through a level if they’ve died enough times didn’t exist 10+ years ago, so …

To answer your question though, while gamers today might be able to finish titles a lot easier, and while the answers might be a lot easier to obtain, they are still ‘gamers’ in the sense of the word. Hell, as far as I’m concerned, even someone who only plays Angry Birds for 10 minutes on the way to and from work is still a ‘gamer’. We’d really need to identify what constitutes a ‘gamer’, but I think that would be suited for another article.

I wanted to touch back on arcade gaming though if I might. You mentioned these were all the rage many years ago but as home consoles began to increase in popularity, attendance at video game arcades started to dwindle. The modern version of these video game arcades would be those racing simulation stores I’ve seen popping up lately where people can sit in a cockpit of an faux-F1 car and race on any track they’d like with any car they’d like. The thing is, I’ve always been put off by the prices of these places. Do you think there’s ever a chance video game arcades could make a true comeback? If so, what kind of games would you like to see, and more importantly, would it even work?

Andy: I wish I could honestly say that I think arcades were going to make a roaring comeback and be bigger than what they were. Sadly though, I don’t think that’s going to happen. There are a couple arcades in the more metro areas near me, but they are mostly filled with games like Skeetball and the like – there are very few real arcade games or pinball machines which is disappointing. If they were able to make a comeback, I’d love to see games that build on existing titles that are on consoles. Not the same re-skinned games but an experience that leaves a gamer with the thought of, “Man, that was fun I need to track down the console game like this so I can experience more of the story/gameplay.” For it to succeed there needs to be a draw or a hook that gets people coming back. I remember my local arcade had a huge Virtua Fighter following and they started hosting tournaments and the crowds were crazy. I do know what you mean about those racing simulators. The prices for them are way too expensive for anything I’d try. I think that’s a major drawback for an arcade too, the price of the machine, upkeep, rent, and electricity prices itself out almost right away – which is a shame.

The thing I miss most about arcades though is that sense of accomplishment. There was a time where my local arcade had five different pinball machines and for about a two month stretch my initials were #1 on each machine. I can’t lie, that is one of my top gaming memories. There was a certain camaraderie in that arcade too. Those were some of my first gaming friends, sure we tried to beat each other and get that top score but the atmosphere was amazing. Modern gaming with everything being online strips away that feeling and makes it so mechanical and sterile.

You raise a good point though talking about how much time we have to put into games. I think this is an area where you and I differ. Even if we have the same amount of time to play, I am perfectly content exploring those hidden areas, really taking my time and “seeing” everything. That sense of accomplishment when I struggle with a puzzle and finally best it without any guide is awesome. I understand people not wanting to take their time and do that though. I see the benefit of trying a couple times and then resorting to a little help. I wonder, as we wrap up another award-winning column here, every gamer has a finite amount of time they can allot to gaming. Do you think that is another reason arcades have faded away? More importantly, is there any way that the larger gaming community can get back to that friendly atmosphere that was present with arcades, or has the advent of online gaming pretty much killed any hope of that?

Nicholas: I attributed the decline of video game arcades to the rise of home consoles and online gaming earlier, but now that you mention it, it doesn’t seem too unrealistic to consider this as a contributing factor either. I think a major reason why arcade gaming didn’t continue to seem as attractive to the younger generations is undoubtedly due to home consoles – I mean, would you rather walk to a store to play one game, where each game cost you money, or would you rather stay at home and play as many games as you like, where each death didn’t cost you a few cents? I know for me the answer is an obvious one. That said, as some of the older gamers grew older they just wouldn’t have had time to continue visiting the local arcade, and if you’re existing customer base is starting to dwindle, and you’re not hooking in a new generation of gamers, well, the demise is unfortunately inevitable.

To answer your final question though, I’d like to take the optimistic approach rather than the pessimistic one. I think we need to be realistic and accept that gaming will never return to the same feel and atmosphere it had back when video game arcades were popular and co-op was rife, but that’s not to say that gaming experiences today can’t be just as satisfying or just as enjoyable. Like I mentioned before, if it’s friendliness and teamwork that you’re after, then all you need to do is seek out other like-minded gamers, and I know they’re out there. Whether it be using social media sites like Twitter or creating a thread on the official Xbox.com Forums, with the online community being as large as it is (and as it continues to grow), it’s not too hard to find someone who’s keen to jump online and enjoy a few rounds of multiplayer or co-op.

Not to be philosophical, but we just need to move with the times here. Gaming has changed and gaming has evolved, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t enjoy it like we used to. Refrain from checking that online guide when you get stuck and stick to playing games with people you know and trust. Sure, you might not be sitting right next to them, but when you’re immersed in that really intense fight or race with some friends, I think that can be easily forgotten. Gaming really can be as fun and as challenging as we want it to be, we just need to be willing to make it work for us.

Tune in next time for the next instalment of Game On or Game Over. If you have any ideas for our next article, feel free to contact Andy or Nicholas on Twitter.