Playing games on your own is like ************

[Steven W]

Not my words! EA talk about online gaming.

Ah it won't let me type the word without blanking it out! - Nice work! Playing with pam and her five sisters was what I was trying to say.

http://spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=9647&cb=0.7055475

[nichomach]

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? Were one to carry the metaphor further, one could argue that online gaming is like indulging in a hand shandy in public...

Seriously, though, it's just the standard rhetoric carried a little further; who wants to sell you one game for £30 when they can sell it to you month by month. The former would mean that they'd have to keep coming up with *shock horror* new and interesting games...

[smtkr]

I like single player games better. When I want a social experience, I move as far away from gaming as possible.

[Stewart]

Online gaming is what you make it. Gotham 3 is a perfect example.

Great fun, and beating a full grid of racers when they are all being driven by real people is much more exciting than beating the AI, even on Hardcore.

However, you also have to put up with idiots who don't know how to break before a corner, being taken out, American teenagers trash talking despite every crash or bump being their fault and the large luck factor that has a hand in every race.

Example: Had a few races earlier, before I started I was in the middle of league 16, had 4 races, finished 1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd. And where was I then? The middle of league 17.

First win was against low-ranked amateurs who had no clue how to play the game, so although I won the race by about 16 seconds I got hardly any ranking points for it. Second win I was 5 seconds or so ahead of the pack, and almost everyone quit the race, again giving me few ranking points.

Then the game froze at the race loading screen of my 5th race, which seemed to count as me finishing last and dropping me down a full league.

Point being, online gaming always has more of a random factor. The AI will not ram you on purpose at the first corner, it will not quit if it falls too far behind, the connection can't drop messing up your position.

If you want safe, predictable but ultimately slightly tame gaming, play offline. If you want a bit more excitment and are prepeard to put up with nob heads and online issues, then online gaming makes for a better overall gaming experiance.

Anyway, I got my league position back and gained another full league to end up in the middle of league 15 in the end, so alls well that ends well. I'll still be racing mostly online, even with the added frustration and flaws, because its just more exciting.

[Typhon uk]

well from my experiance, i would rather play with pam and her 5 daughters, than on EA servers.

[Nacrisa]

"It'll always be there, but it is not the real experience"

If this is about 'real experience', then gaming with your friends is to playing online what real sex is to... net sex?

I'm currently playing through Ocarina of Time, which is one of the greatest arguments against the drivel that these suits are spouting.

[BEANFro Elite]

Well yeah, online and offline games are both great in their own rights, for example, theres no better feeling than hunting down a human player and killing him with a knife.

On the flipside, theres no better feeling than beating an epic game like Morrowind (yes, I'm looking forward to blowing untold numbers of "unsociable" hours on Morrowind IV ), these people that are saying you're a ****** only because you play offline are like those idiots at school that ridecule people just because they aren't doing what everyone else is doing.

If the games industry continues to insult its audience, THIS could very well spell the end of it, or at least lead to an increase in piracy either way it'd serve them right.

Like I always say, its funny how money changes situations.

[kalniel]

The best online experience is with a bunch of people that have become friends and who are gaming together for the fun of the whole group. For me that occurs with something like Neverwinter Nights which typically only has about 30 people at once in the same online world and can be designed in such a way that encourages good selfless gaming and loosers are never heard from again.

Second to that is the good oldfashioned house lan party and I still have a bag of kit specifically for that purpose which does the rounds among my RL friends.

[Mike Fishcake]

So what's playing a 2 player game at home like then?

If some married guy is playing with a mate of his does that mean he's having a gay affair?

If someone's playing a game with their 10 year old kid, does that make them a paedo?

Are video game arcades like an electronic version of dogging?

I DEMAND TO KNOW THESE THINGS!!

[Steven W]

Are video game arcades like an electronic version of dogging?

Like it!

[Ruck]

lol, great definitions at the bottom