Is online really a must ?

[Germ Hamee]

It depends on the game for me. I loved FFXI. But then there's games like Gunbound Revolution. It was fun, but I got so tired of some twelve year old dweeb calling me a "stopid noob" any time I missed a shot. I'll show you noob, you stupid little smurf. asdf >.<

It's thanks to on-line games that I can't stand the noob term. It's the most infuriating geek insult I've ever heard. It would drive me to rip out tongues if there weren't cables between us.

This is why I like the Nintendo DS. The on-line gaming is a blast, and I never have to worry about what the other player has to say! *plays Tetris*

[Zante]

Victories in video games are always meaningless. :P

Couldn't think of a better word for it. Its just that winning is much more fun if you actually beat someone. Maybe its just me though.

[Jessweeee♪]

I can't play online games, and I still have fun. Maybe it's because I don't know what I'm missing :\

I hate when people say stuff like that ;\

I got so tired of some twelve year old dweeb calling me a "stopid noob" any time I missed a shot. I'll show you noob, you stupid little smurf. asdf >.<

[KentaRawr!]

Online Play really is only required if you don't have anybody good to play with. Local Play defeats online play any day. >_>

[JKTrix]

Depends on the game. My first online games were Diablo 2 and Starcraft. Great, great fun.

The random match feature of Xbox live will often match you up with random jerks, but one thing you can do is get a good group of friends and just play with them all the time. Clans do that, though I'm not in any of them.

I don't play many games online anymore. My PC isn't used much for games, I'd rather play new 360 games online as soon as they come out, when the skill level is relatively even. I use the online aspect of my systems mostly to download new content (new Picross puzzles ftw), and occasionally if I arrange with some friends to go a few rounds in a particular game.

When Halo 3 comes out, depending how good it is, I might be spending more time with that online. Right now, I usually have better things to do than sitting in a lobby waiting for a game.

[Nominus Experse]

It's not what I would term "needed", but I would like to see it included all the same.

[Discord]

Playing online can be fun, but generally it isn't as pleasant as SP and LAN.

Real-time strategy games and ego-shooters sure are fun, but the implementations of RPGs and so forth have been pretty miserable so far, in my opinion, of course. While WC3 and SC go into a totally different dimension while played on the net and Battlefield games actually become fun, things like NWN become a disaster.

I can't say that I don't like MMOs or online games in general, but in 99% of them you can forget about one of the most important aspects of the game: atmosphere. You simply can't compare the quality of quests, the feeling of the world and so forth of Oblivion and WoW. Alone the fact that everybody runs like an idiot, or even worse, bunny-hops around the fountain in a full-plate simply takes away the whole pleasure of the world. Then you get the nifty little thing known as "the chat" with priests saying "OMFG! U n00b!". That just doesn't work out for me.

On the matter of language. A couple of month ago, I jump from server to server in WoW too see if it was the same mess on the realms with other languages and frankly enough the French and the Germans seem to have quite a bit less trouble with n00b-speak and people calling each other niggers. Of course it's not perfect, but it's definitely quite a bit better. I've spend quite some time there before quitting my subscription. So if you have the ability to understand what those guys are saying and the game supports language-based servers, I'd suggest you giving it a go.

Now back to the topic. The problem with most online gaming seems to be that you're not really playing with other people, but with a bunch of high-quality bots and a very high-end spam function that one can't turn off. It just becomes more challenging and messy, but that's it. When I load BF2 my adrenaline levels hardly double from the "tremendous feeling of competition" the game install between the players. This is of course becomes a totally different story once you switch from the 64 player server to a passworded 8er with only your friends present.

To conclude, I think some games should just remain SP or low number of players MP to keep their quality.

PS: Yep, AI didn't get much smarter since Doom 2. As long as the game allows you to move freely and doesn't have stupid limitations, escaping the combat in WoW, you generally need about 5 minutes to find a way of beating them without losing a single HP.

[Discord]

Ignore this line please. I just quoted myself... Talking about AIs being dumb...

[Rostum]

I don't mind playing RTS and FPS against friends (either local or friends I know overseas). That's always a lot more fun than just playing the A.I. all the damn time.

MMO's are pretty cool, well I love the group feeling of FFXI, most people I come across seem to be rather mature (maybe that's because I'm in Japan's time zone, so I miss a lot of the Americans). There's also other MMO's that have a more mature player base, and gameplay.

One that comes to mind, and that I played in beta for awhile, was Uru Live: Myst Online. Absolutely beautiful worlds and grouping together with mature people to solve puzzles and explore, is a pretty good feeling. Sure the games offline are incredible too, but you can't get the same feeling as Uru Live.

[Breine]

To some it means quite a bit, but I really don't care that much. I mean, sure it is a pretty nice feature and can assure you many hours of gameplay I suppose, but it is definitely not a must for me.

I am sure that I have changed my mind in some years, though.

[Tavrobel]

I still prefer single-player games. But the thing about online gaming is that you can play with alot of people; things don't really ever get boring, since there's some newb who thinks he can actually commit e-venge on you for telling him what to do. PC games should expect more of it, becauseone needs the internet to even do anything anymore, whilst consoles have to pay/get it extra/whatever the situation is. It's more fun with other people, despite the large amounts of n00bs.

People are idiots. I'm surprised that even I have the patience for it anymore. But then again, I post in the Kingdom Hearts forum, so my patience must be rather high.

[Discord]

I still prefer single-player games. But the thing about online gaming is that you can play with alot of people; things don't really ever get boring, since there's some newb who thinks he can actually commit e-venge on you for telling him what to do. PC games should expect more of it, becauseone needs the internet to even do anything anymore, whilst consoles have to pay/get it extra/whatever the situation is. It's more fun with other people, despite the large amounts of n00bs.

People are idiots. I'm surprised that even I have the patience for it anymore. But then again, I post in the Kingdom Hearts forum, so my patience must be rather high.

Do you mean the n00bs or the idiots who call people n00bs?

[Araciel]

i don't think it's always a must, but some games are enhanced by it, fighting games are good...cause they're usually most fun when played against a real person, and FPS if you can't find friends to play with...etc.

[Mirage]

I'd like some online multiplayer for my SC3 myself. The AI is only hard because it reads my button input and blocks before the attack animation even starts, and I don't have many human players in my vicinity. The only issue is that the latency would have to be extremely low for it to work.

[Roto13]

Yeah, that's what I always think whenever someone mentions online in a fighting game. Wouldn't even the slightest bit of lag ruin everything?