Online or Off? - A Writer Club Presentation

Does anyone here remember Mario Kart 64? If you do, then like me you’ll probably have a special section of your brain dedicated solely to some of the awesome memories you had playing it multiplayer with 3 of your mates. You may also have another section dedicated to the dead arms they gave you when you hit them with a red shell right before the line, and waved as you flew past and took the cup. I still have bruises….

What about Counter Strike at your local LAN café? I still remember the sound of 24 players buying their weapons and switching to their knife booming across the hollow room, followed soon after by someone yelling "Orping is for losers you camping f$%&!" It wasn’t the prettiest sound in the world but it definitely had some memorial properties to it.

Then there is the library of other games that you may have played in a darkened room with your mates too, like the Tekken series, 007 Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Halo…and the list goes on. So where am I going with this? Well, you may not have noticed but this style of gaming is basically obliterated, and replaced by the monster that is Online Gaming. Now, to clear this up nice and early, I love Online Gaming and I think it was one of the most productive steps in gaming history since Mario 64 was released, but as much as I do love Online Play, I never wanted to trade my 4 player console brawls out completely either. Unfortunately, it seems that I have.

Even right now, I just purchased the new Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii (It was released in Australia just last week) and I haven’t played a single match against my friends at all, a game that build almost solely for that reason alone. Now, I may be wrong and this lack of personal interaction in Video Games may simply be because I’m getting older, and with jobs, kids, and wife’s it’s just harder for me and my friends to hang out like we used to…but I firmly believe that it isn’t just my group of friends that is feeling this burn.

Now to the core of the article, and the reason why it exists, is this dawn of a new era of torment or the birth of a new age of great gaming? Is this lack of human interaction for better or for worse? And what effect is this new style of multiplayer going to have on the gaming industry? Now I’ve put some serious thought into this over the recent weeks, as it’s something I feel very passionate about, and I’ve come to the conclusion that eventually this will be for the greater good. Online Gaming is the way of the future, it’s fun, fast paced, and unlike when it was first released, it’s extremely easy to set up and play. I’ve also come to the conclusion that eventually, sitting at home with friends or family and playing games together offline is going to be lost forever. With the ability to play with your friends online the need for them or you to make the extra effort to travel is going to be too much, and it’s probably going to disappear completely. Even still, I’ve found myself taking my laptop to a friend’s house and simply connecting it to his internet so that we could play WoW together…but as technology improves the need to do even that will inevitably become less and less, and we’ll all be using holographic images of each other to make it feel like were in the same room. We may even be able to cork punch each other through an Internet connection when we get beaten too! The future is a scary piece of work…

So…do I prefer playing games online or off? In the end I don’t think it matters because either way, the latter is going to end, and online gaming is going to change the world in new and exiting ways every year. So like my favourite song from 15 years ago that I’m forced to replace with the ‘new and improved’ techno version, I am going to move on, accept my fate and enjoy the next wave of online sensations…starting with Metal Gear Solid 4. Later guys, I’m off to stab me some fools in 7 different countries!

A note to the reader – Sorry if you feel ripped off with my response to some of the questions in there, I just feel that an answer either way is pointless when the outcome is inevitable. As always though, if you feel differently or know something I don’t please share below so that when you outwit me I can challenge you to some Mario Kart Online on the Wii and reclaim my glory! Hehe…