*warning: this is going to be a long thread. If you don't have the patience to read one of my reviews, you won't make it through this*
So as I'm sure most PS3 users are aware of at this point, PSN has been hacked and taken down for 6 days now, and Sony is rebuilding it from the ground up to prevent this from happening again. Now as the mature, self-respecting gamer that I am, I immediately went:
I found out that it's not just me having this problem: everyone is. People are blaming hacker group Anonymous (who has been attacking Sony lately), and they claim they're not responsible, saying that Sony is merely using them as scapegoats (even though Sony never actually blamed them). What caught my eye, though, was how many people were treating this like the end of the world, saying that their faith in Sony has forever been shaken, that they now can't enjoy their favourite games, that they should have gotten the 360.
That got me to thinking: do we rely too heavily on the online features of a game to truly enjoy the experience anymore? What happened to the 'old days' of gaming, and where are we headed. But of course, to find out our future, we must first look at the past.
Take yourself to 1981. The NES has brought back gaming to its former glory, Mario was a new, original concept, and being able to save your game was a revolutionary feature. If you wanted to play a game with friends, you had to bring them over, pray you had enough controllers, sit together, and play. This continued for quite some time. Eventually consoles' hardware began to evolve, and games began to grow more and more complex, but multiplayer had remained the same through these years.
Along came the Dreamcast, one of the best, and unfourtunately short lived, consoles of all time, with a new feature that no one was expecting: the ability to play online. In addition, it had several games that were compatable with this feature, and a lot of them were actually pretty good. However, it never really took off, and gaming remained relatively unchanged.
However, in the new millenium, one console came by storm, and one game it had changed everything:
The Xbox, and Halo 2.
The first Halo revolutionized first-person shooters, and brought with it an insanely fun multiplayer.... but the Xbox hadn't brought online features into the spotlight yet. When Halo 2 came out, it was compatable with Xbox Live, Microsoft's online gaming network. Unlike the Dreamcast, Live took the gaming industry by storm, becoming a HUGE success. Sony brought their own online service into action with Playstation Online for the PS2, a highly underrated service in my opinion.
Now along comes the next generation of consoles, all of which promised online gameplay. Xbox brought back what has worked so well for them in Xbox Live, while Sony brought the Playstation Network to the table, a service with a slow start, but has now become a major part of Playstation gaming. The Wii has online gaming as well but.... they butchered it, to say the least.
Which brings us to today, where many people base their entire decisions on which console to get, completely on how good the online is for a system. Now with PSN down, everyone is acting like it's the end of the world, people are bashing Sony HARD, and the Xbox fanboys are taking this opportunity to slam the PSN and compare it to Live.
Hey, anyone remember that time Xbox Live went down for 11 days? No, just me?
Anyway, where am I heading with this? Well, everyone is so focused on how they can't connect with their friends, or play Mortal Kombat with people around the world, they seem to have forgotten how to enjoy a console without relying on online gameplay. Back on the NES days, no one could have imagined playing a game online. But these days, it seems that people can't imagine playing something that doesn't involve people around the world cursing and screaming in your ear.
I think it's about time that everyone remembered what the Wii, the Playstation, and Xbox were designed for: playing video games. Online is meant to be a feature, not something that decides the life or death of a console. And sadly, that's the point we have gotten to. Now don't get me wrong; I like me some online. But if I can't get online for a few days, I don't let it get me down. I have a lot of games, and a lot of consoles, and most of said games don't even feature online. I can get by. But many gamers can't anymore. And I believe that needs to change, and soon.
So, do you agree or disagree with me? Did I leave out any important points? Did anyone actually read this entire thing? Let me know.
*warning: this is going to be a long thread. If you don't have the patience to read one of my reviews, you won't make it through this*
So as I'm sure most PS3 users are aware of at this point, PSN has been hacked and taken down for 6 days now, and Sony is rebuilding it from the ground up to prevent this from happening again. Now as the mature, self-respecting gamer that I am, I immediately went:
http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufsf_-a_H9Q&feature=related
But when I realized that I live in a world with various sources of entertainment, such as sports and hanging out with friends, I went:
http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY6uFfWM-lQ
I found out that it's not just me having this problem: everyone is. People are blaming hacker group Anonymous (who has been attacking Sony lately), and they claim they're not responsible, saying that Sony is merely using them as scapegoats (even though Sony never actually blamed them). What caught my eye, though, was how many people were treating this like the end of the world, saying that their faith in Sony has forever been shaken, that they now can't enjoy their favourite games, that they should have gotten the 360.
That got me to thinking: do we rely too heavily on the online features of a game to truly enjoy the experience anymore? What happened to the 'old days' of gaming, and where are we headed. But of course, to find out our future, we must first look at the past.
Take yourself to 1981. The NES has brought back gaming to its former glory, Mario was a new, original concept, and being able to save your game was a revolutionary feature. If you wanted to play a game with friends, you had to bring them over, pray you had enough controllers, sit together, and play. This continued for quite some time. Eventually consoles' hardware began to evolve, and games began to grow more and more complex, but multiplayer had remained the same through these years.
Along came the Dreamcast, one of the best, and unfourtunately short lived, consoles of all time, with a new feature that no one was expecting: the ability to play online. In addition, it had several games that were compatable with this feature, and a lot of them were actually pretty good. However, it never really took off, and gaming remained relatively unchanged.
However, in the new millenium, one console came by storm, and one game it had changed everything:
The Xbox, and Halo 2.
The first Halo revolutionized first-person shooters, and brought with it an insanely fun multiplayer.... but the Xbox hadn't brought online features into the spotlight yet. When Halo 2 came out, it was compatable with Xbox Live, Microsoft's online gaming network. Unlike the Dreamcast, Live took the gaming industry by storm, becoming a HUGE success. Sony brought their own online service into action with Playstation Online for the PS2, a highly underrated service in my opinion.
Now along comes the next generation of consoles, all of which promised online gameplay. Xbox brought back what has worked so well for them in Xbox Live, while Sony brought the Playstation Network to the table, a service with a slow start, but has now become a major part of Playstation gaming. The Wii has online gaming as well but.... they butchered it, to say the least.
Which brings us to today, where many people base their entire decisions on which console to get, completely on how good the online is for a system. Now with PSN down, everyone is acting like it's the end of the world, people are bashing Sony HARD, and the Xbox fanboys are taking this opportunity to slam the PSN and compare it to Live.
Hey, anyone remember that time Xbox Live went down for 11 days? No, just me?
Anyway, where am I heading with this? Well, everyone is so focused on how they can't connect with their friends, or play Mortal Kombat with people around the world, they seem to have forgotten how to enjoy a console without relying on online gameplay. Back on the NES days, no one could have imagined playing a game online. But these days, it seems that people can't imagine playing something that doesn't involve people around the world cursing and screaming in your ear.
I think it's about time that everyone remembered what the Wii, the Playstation, and Xbox were designed for: playing video games. Online is meant to be a feature, not something that decides the life or death of a console. And sadly, that's the point we have gotten to. Now don't get me wrong; I like me some online. But if I can't get online for a few days, I don't let it get me down. I have a lot of games, and a lot of consoles, and most of said games don't even feature online. I can get by. But many gamers can't anymore. And I believe that needs to change, and soon.
So, do you agree or disagree with me? Did I leave out any important points? Did anyone actually read this entire thing? Let me know.
baylaust out.