Online Play

[Rusty]

Playing video games online has become a popular thing with the next gen consoles in particular. To my knowledge, you can play video games online against people from all over the globe via internet access on the Xbox 360, PS3 and the Wii consoles. Keep in mind this is not a thread to share your gamer tags because we already have one of those.

So the purpose of this thread is to basically share your opinions on online gameplay. Do you think it's important? Do you buy games just to play online or is it merely a bonus?

I personally think online gaming is great. There's nothing like beating another unknown person at a game such as Halo 3, most other first person shooter games and also sporting games. One of the first thing I do when I buy a game is test it online to see if it's any good. Some games, like Halo 3 and other action/shooter games are quite different online compared to playing against the CPU.

Is online play important to the gaming industry? I want to hear your thoughts.

 

[HBK-aholic]

I don't usually play video games and never have online. But I do think it's important for the Video game industry. Technology is moving on, many people played games on the internet before it was possible to play against another. Many children spend hours on the internet, possibly even moreso than watching T.V. For video games to keep up, they had to move with the times, and that involves being able to play against friends online. It's something new, in case people were getting bored of simply going through levels on their own.

 

[Slyfox696]

Online play has never really interested me, for a couple of reasons.

1) I don't know the people I am playing against. Part of what makes things fun to play online is playing against (and beating) your friends, to have bragging rights. Instead of beating my friends, I'm beating some foul-mouthed 15 year old who thinks they're cool because they can say the word "fuck".

2) I don't know who my teammates are. Part of the fun in playing co-op is playing with your friends against a common enemy. Instead of playing with my friends, I'm playing with some foul-mouthed 15 year old who thinks they're cool because they're level 3493 on Call of Duty...mostly because it's the only exercise they get in a day.

3) The reason I can't play with people I know is the biggest thing I hate about online play. You can't play with or against people from a different console. Why? I don't know. Why games haven't started to set aside a server so people from Xbox can play with/against those from PS3, I can never guess. It seems like the only intelligent choice, but it hasn't been done.

Why not? Why can't PS3 players play against Xbox players? It's silly. Most of the people I know play online with 360, and I have a PS3. If there were a way to fix that, I'd probably play online more.


But, it isn't like that, and so I don't play online. I look for games with good single player action, and go from there.

 

[Lee]

WHilst nothing new (sorry Becca but it isn't) online play really has picked up in the past few years. The Atari had the Gameline, the NES had two dsifferent modems, the SNES had Satellaview, and I'm sure the Megadrive/Genesis had a modem too.

So with the Sega Dreamcast and its boast of 1 to 6billion players do we really get decent online game play, but really it's the PS2 and XBox that pioneered it (GC's was an epic fail!).

Alas what do I think of online play? I'm not that fussed by it, with Wii and PS3 having free play, I am not fussed whether I play on it or not. If I were to buy an X box and X box live, chances are I would spend a lot of time on it. Although I am the sort of gamer that would prefer going through levels, and if he wants to play multiplayer, I have a group of friends that I can play with over a beer.

My pet hate is things on X box market place where it's spend 4,000 points and you can download a new suit...wooooow! What happened to games giving me everything for free? If I spend £40 on a game I don't want to spend extra to maximise its potential. Whilst I think online play is a good thing for the future of gaming, I personally am rather nonplussed by it.

 

[Rusty]

My pet hate is things on X box market place where it's spend 4,000 points and you can download a new suit...wooooow! What happened to games giving me everything for free? If I spend £40 on a game I don't want to spend extra to maximise its potential. Whilst I think online play is a good thing for the future of gaming, I personally am rather nonplussed by it.

Yeah I agree. That's another problem. I just can't see myself paying to get extentions for my games. An example of this is in the recent Smackdown vs Raw 2009 game, the WWE is offering Xbox Live members to download Ted Dibiase, Evan Bourne and Charlie Haas for gameplay. The price is 400 microsoft points which is around 8 or 9 dollars here in Australia. It's not much, but I shouldn't have to pay for 3 shitty characters that couldn't make it on the game in the first place. I payed my $80 (Aus) just to get the game, and I don't wish to pay more to receive more playable characters, especially ones that aren't important.

But also, this mainly applies to Xbox Live members but I think it's ridiculous how Microsoft expects us to pay each year to play online. I still pay every year, but I shouldn't need to. Sure, people say the Microsoft servers are better than Sony's, but it's still money out of my pocket each year. I already payed money for my 360 and the games, and I don't wish to spend more just to receive little characters or outfits. I spend money on Xbox Live subscription, but that's only because I can't wait to play Gears of War 2 online against a friend.

And don't you PS3 geeks come in here and say that I should of got a PS3 instead because the online is free.

 

[Lee]

I look for games with good single player action, and go from there.

Same with me, I would much rather play a game like Zelda (by myself) than play COD5 online as chances are I'd be playing online with people I know not, and I'd just get rather frustrated at them.

But also, this mainly applies to Xbox Live members but I think it's ridiculous how Microsoft expects us to pay each year to play online. I still pay every year, but I shouldn't need to. Sure, people say the Microsoft servers are better than Sony's, but it's still money out of my pocket each year. I already payed money for my 360 and the games, and I don't wish to spend more just to receive little characters or outfits. I spend money on Xbox Live subscription, but that's only because I can't wait to play Gears of War 2 online against a friend.

the way I see it is that the 360 does have better servers, and that's because of paying to go online. Whilst most people are annoyed with that, quite a few games come with 1 month free subscription, so you can see whether you would like it or not. X box live costs £40 a year in the UK and I always say to people who are contemplating buying it or not, that it's just the same price as another game, and it's rather rare for a game to get 12 months continuous play out of someone, whereby X BOX live is used all throughout the year.

 

[Minor League Brian]

I think the online play is great, I think the promblem lies in the games behind it and the fact they all don't have the same features as others. It gets -really- annoying having to relearn the party controls and such of every game.

And then about having to pay for xbox live; I have one question to ask everyone who uses it. How many times since you bought it, has Xbox Live gone down? Seriously? I know of maybe 1 time when it wasn't a pre-planned maintenance and that was when Xbox had an EPIC influx of new users for the holidays and they weren't prepared for it. Besides that, I rarely if EVER have a problem with my online play, and I think its like $60 American dollars a year and break that down...thats like 5 bucks a month, that's not a lot.

 

[drwow]

The only good thing about online play (on consoles) is when it's co-op.
Online multi-player is awful, the xbox 360 online is one of the worst gaming experience I have ever had.

I seriously can't believe Xbox live, has gotten as popular as it has,
what is the appeal of having a 13 year old going through puberty, yelling at you because you won't give him the sword/battle rifle/ rocket launcher/ what ever weapon it is, and then getting pissed off and then team killing?
People breath into the microphone constently and when you tell them to stop, they do it louder.

Everyone thinks there funny when they make black/homosexually jokes or swear.
Everyone who's actually good, only plays for about 5 minutes when you get online.

I'm sure there are good players on there, but in the six months that I played live, I never once found a good player to play with who wasn't on when I was.
Angry rant over

 

[Rusty]

The only good thing about online play (on consoles) is when it's co-op.
Online multi-player is awful, the xbox 360 online is one of the worst gaming experience I have ever had.

I seriously can't believe Xbox live, has gotten as popular as it has,
what is the appeal of having a 13 year old going through puberty, yelling at you because you won't give him the sword/battle rifle/ rocket launcher/ what ever weapon it is, and then getting pissed off and then team killing?
People breath into the microphone constently and when you tell them to stop, they do it louder.

Everyone thinks there funny when they make black/homosexually jokes or swear.
Everyone who's actually good, only plays for about 5 minutes when you get online.

I'm sure there are good players on there, but in the six months that I played live, I never once found a good player to play with who wasn't on when I was.
Angry rant over

I haven't really met any truly annoying players online. And anyone that acts like an idiot through the headphone is just a laughing stock. I personally find them hilarious, not only because they are an idiot, but also because they take the game so seriously. Some people online are assholes though. I've been red repped online for beating another person so badly and also for disconnecting during a game.

The breathing on the microphone can be annoying, but you can always put them on mute. Some people don't say much online and just keep to themselves, just like me. It's really a matter of opinion and personal experience.

By the way, does anyone else disconnect all the time while playing Smackdown vs Raw 2009 online? It happens all the time for me, and it's only that game that does it.

 

[drwow]

I haven't really met any truly annoying players online. And anyone that acts like an idiot through the headphone is just a laughing stock. I personally find them hilarious, not only because they are an idiot, but also because they take the game so seriously. Some people online are assholes though. I've been red repped online for beating another person so badly and also for disconnecting during a game.

The breathing on the microphone can be annoying, but you can always put them on mute. Some people don't say much online and just keep to themselves, just like me. It's really a matter of opinion and personal experience.

By the way, does anyone else disconnect all the time while playing Smackdown vs Raw 2009 online? It happens all the time for me, and it's only that game that does it.

I agree it was kinda of funny at first, but after playing with morons like that for a week, it gets old really fast.

It's like your first time on a forum, when someone uses all caps, it was funny the first few times you saw it, but everytime after that, you wonder how there so many idiots like that and why there not banned.

As for smackdown vs RAW, I never played 09 but with 08 I had the some problem.

 

[OIL]

Online play is important, and pretty much every game needs to have multiplayer online capabilities. Mainly because if people want to play against their mates, but can't go round eachothers house then this is an easy way to play them, and extends the lifespan of the game. Look at Call of Duty 4; after completing the game, EVERYONE went to play others online, and it was the game that everyone played online, whether it was against randomers or friends, and it made CoD4 a lot more successful.

 

[Doody-ka-ka]

A game is dead in this generation of gaming if it doesn't have some form of online activity. No one, or very few people, will buy a console game without online functionailities. And why would you? You can just rent it, complete it, and then return it.

Last game I bought without online was Assassins Creed, and even though the game was good, I still regretted buying it for $50, when I could just have rented it for $3.


It's even "worse" with PC games because of the piracy. If there's no online multiplayer, nobody is gonna care about buying it, and they'll just download and crack it.