I accept the world of games is changing and new things are being introduced that changes the way we view these games, things like smartphones have opened up an entirely new market that I personally dislike and other things like online connectivity have changed the way we play games with other people. Sadly though how I view this a good portion of the time is that online play is removing the very foundation of games and how we grew up with them.
The reason for this thought stands quite simply as online taking away from our time with people in the same room, it seems socially acceptable these days that we call friendship something that is born from talking to a stranger online. Often from this we then only really know these people from their online presence and as such we never meet or even play games with a lot of these people online. What happened to the day where we gathered around at other peoples houses we brought along our consoles or controllers and played games with people on their couch and had fun doing it. What happened to the day when we would sit on a couch gather round a tiny TV and fight for supremacy in Goldeneye on the 64, you can’t deny it we all had fun, sure we had to share a screen and fight the urge to screen watch but we had fun gathered as a group.
With the push for online we are beginning to see less and less people gathering with their friends on the couch and instead they regularly just send a message from their phone to a person who only lives maybe two doors down and says hey turn your Playstation 4 on we are going online on Call of Duty Ghosts or Battlefield 4. Even worse is the fact that more and more games are dropping local play in favor of online, so it is becoming harder to find games to do gatherings with or play with other people in a way that is more comfortable and on a more personal note I find far more enjoyable. I find it sadder that recent games like the Need for Speeds, DriveClub and even Forza which would act as fun multiplayer racers perfect for two people in the same room are all without local play and even Battlefield 4 lacks this. I don’t know if I am part of a small group but why should we be sacrificing our time playing games with other people in the same room for the ability to play and essentially be abused while online gaming.
I have had my online time in games but I just don’t find them as enjoyable as playing with someone in the same room. It is all for this reason why I further love my Wii U, while Nintendo could needlessly place online in many of their games they don’t and we find things like Super Mario 3D World and Hyrule Warriors still remain pure classic fun. I love playing from my couch and enjoy it more when I can laugh and joke with my friends and family on my couch about our own mistakes and discoveries in games, it is just incredible and fun. I just find it sad that I see this coming to an end and multiplayer will strictly become online we will lose our connection with people and no longer be brought together by our experiences with other people in games where we sit together.
