February 24th, 2012 
ramdewarkiron
I love the internet. I love online games too. I’ve prestiged on Call of Duty more than 5 times (not trying to brag or anything), chased mate’s scores on Geometry Wars and I regularly keep in contact with friends that have moved away through online games. The thing is, sometimes I think back to when there was no internet (yes kids, there was a time) and think that some aspects of gaming were a lot better. So here is how the internet has damaged gaming forever.
a
Idiocy, swearing and kids:
I lumped these three into one group because usually they feed off one another. Giving a little Johnny a copy of Modern Warfare 3 was already a bad idea, tossing him a headset is just the icing on the cake. This opens him up to all sorts of vulgar language, raving lunatics and god forbid, sexual predators. I mean you wouldn’t leave your kid unsupervised with a headset on a chat-room talking away with random strangers, so why is the latest release on Xbox/PS3/PC any different?
Not only that but children are impressionable. So when they learn that they can do/say whatever they want online with no consequences, they generally do. This has led to hundreds of kids swearing, singing and even throwing around racist terms online. The problem with this is that they think they are being funny and when people rise up against their stupidity they feed off it. Let one angry kid meet another online and all hell will break loose.
Of course there are just regular, normal idiots that play online and like to swear and abuse other players. As far as I’m concerned these are the least of my worries when I am playing online. Too many people go crazy and get involved with others when they are playing online. If they really annoy you that much then use that mute button!
Piracy:
If anyone has gained off the internet it is pirates. The open nature of the internet means that anyone can share anything until an official stumbles upon it and takes it down. Look how many years Megavideo was online, and that had thousands of pirate films.
In the earlier days of consoles you could even get your consoles chipped rather cheaply. You could then easily copy games without even using patches or CD keys. There was no kind of firmware updates to block or break a chipped console and the internet was still booming. Developers were behind and playing catch-up with pirates.
Even recently piracy has hurt games companies. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said that the company was“suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis,” and that “We [Crysis] seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a [situation] that is not desirable.” This eventually ended up being the companies reason for going multi-format.
Too much knowledge:
When I was in school the only way of getting the latest news on gaming was buying a good ol’ fashioned magazine. I remember buying one a month to get my games fix. Each magazine would contain valuable information about the latest announcements, reviews for the newest games and most importantly, some kind of freebie. The official magazines usually came with a demo disc, but were rather pricey (£5-7). The other magazines usually had small things like cheat books or posters that you could rip out of the magazine and slap on your wall.
Now I know a lot of you may be thinking that this sounds horrible. Imagine not being able to watch a new trailer for a game or even read the latest announcements. It seems weird thinking about it, but I kind of miss these days. While there was a lack of regular information it meant I knew a lot less about a game when I purchased it. I won’t have seen a million developer diaries, gameplay videos or have read any spoilers online. It was nice getting a game and playing it as a brand new experience. I wasn’t swept up in the marketing material that is thrown in our faces on the internet and played games with an open mind. It’s always nice to get a surprise and far too often the biggest and best parts of games are ruined before the damned thing’s even released.
Online Games (death of single player):
Single player is often ignored in favour of multiplayer. Something which really grates on me. I don’t always want to play with 32 people online. Sometimes I just want a story and some good old AI to fight. Halo 2 was the game that made this really blatant. The team at Bungie had put a clear focus on the multiplayer elements and the single players suffered because of it.
That isn’t the only problem though, oh no. Developers now seem to think that they MUST include a multiplayer mode in the game for it to be successful. Look at something like Dead Space 2. The original was a single player survival-horror game. When was this ever going to need an online mode of any sorts. It didn’t and when the game was released, this aspect of the game was crap.
DLC kills my wallet,cheats and unlockables
Whether this is a good or bad thing is still up for debate. While DLC and updates allow developers to add to their existing game, it also allows them to abuse our wallets, sapping them dry. Take a look at a game like Batman Arkham City. The game had the Catwoman missions, a set of suits and several challenge rooms available as DLC from day one. I don’t mind DLC but when it’s there from the release date it winds me up. I mean I just went and spent £40 on a game just to be told to spend £5 more for all the costumes.
Rarely do I see DLC that is actually value for money. In fact the only one I can think of at this very moment is Mass Effect 2′s Lair of the Shadow Broker, which was worth the money for the 2-3 hours it lasted.
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…You know, all these things can be flipped around, right? You know all that information out there? It’s the job of journalists to make sense of it. To create the magazine on the Internet- I don’t miss the days of having to pay for demos, of waiting in the dark for a game that could get cancelled. Now, I can shift my attention to what’s actually going on! I can have a share influencing the game itself! Doesn’t that count for something?
Then, too, there’s piracy- at current, it’s a problem. I think the people who suffer most from piracy are actually indie developers- they’ve got quite a bit of risk, and relatively smallish reward. At the same time, why not take advantage of piracy? Why not give the people incentive to actually buy a product? Look at Rovio. Angry Birds is massively pirated in China. Incidentally, that’s where plenty of officially licensed products wind up being sold. If free (as in beer) media was a threat, libraries and VHS tapes would’ve ended civilization long ago.
As for DLC? I’m all for it. For paying extra money for something that’s ALREADY ON THE DISC? THAT JUST PUSHES AAALLLL OF MY BUTTONS!!!
All of them.
Including the one that restrains my wallet.
And singleplayer games aren’t dead, and multiplayer isn’t killing them. Have you played Halo Reach? Minecraft? Skyrim? The last one is an incredibly well designed single player game, one that sold well, and the first two? They’re both single and multiplayer. Whichever you choose, it’s a great experience.
Overall, I understand your points, but I just think that they’re all so easily reversed.
Yes but we could use that argument for almost anything mate. I could argue that DLC is a brilliant thing if I wanted.
Of course the internet has improved gaming loads too. I was just trying to point out some of the cons. I wasn’t saying single player is dead, but some games (like Dead Space 2) clearly went down the wrong path and I felt that the first was way better. If you look many games that were once single player affairs now have tacked on a multiplayer as they feel they need it to compete in the market (see Bioshock 2 for another example).
that, the answer to the snceod question. I DO download games through torrents. It’s mostly games that I’d never be able to play otherwise (you know, I’d love to buy an NES and stuff, but those are out of production, and I know that Nintendo’s not going to get money for that anyway (though I also buy the games if I have chance to, on Wiiware and such)) or games that I already know I’m going to buy (I’m going to the store next week, or I’m getting my money at the end of the month, and so on) but I can’t wait to play. Yeah, I know that it’s not technically correct, but I can rest my soul in peace knowing that I’m just delaying the inevitable. If a game costs more than I’m willing to pay for it I usually just wait until it gets cheaper (I DO NOT just download it thinking that I’ll buy it anyway, in a year or two).Now, for the third question: I happen to like indie games. They’re cheap, they’re usually good and they’re often very creative. Speaking in general, I think that people who play indie games are more willing to pay for them because: a) they’re cheaper b) the studio is small, so it’s almost as if they personally know the team members c) they’re almost always good (unlike with big producers, who way too often succeed in betraying our expectations which still isn’t an excuse, though).I have many friends who download games, and although I sometimes persuade them and have them buy a game (usually indie games for the a)b)c) rules aforementioned), I usually just give up (it almost embarrasses me when they look me with the duh, he buys games, like, with MONEY eyes even though I’m still convinced that I’m the one right).The world needs more indie developers, the publishers need to improve their stagnant system, with better prices, better games and better service towards their customers (with indie games you’re most probably receiving support from the developers themselves, who take to heart their games and their customers) and my folks need to be sensibilized about games (avoiding stuff like You wouldn’t download a car and instead talking to them like with adult, serious and intelligent people). Maybe showing them a picture depicting a developer living in a cardboard box would help (just kidding
).Said this, I’d like to point that I’m not a big AAA-producer -hater. I know that they do their job, and I know that some of them do a damn good job even though they’re already affirmed. I , in fact, also play many non-indie games too. I just think that some of them could need some improvements.PS: Sometimes I spend too much money going for the collector’s edition. I miss the old times.PPS: Their system may be good, but I don’t really like that much their games.PPPS: YARR!
Dave. in the eyes of most publishers you are as bad as a prtaie. there are some interesting articles floating about regarding the lengths that publishers are going to, to try and destroy the second hand market. Just recently look at how many games come with one time content codes. as far as they are considered if you don’t buy new your stealing.