A Work in Progress
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Online Gaming
or:
Why I can't stop worrying and love Live
Online gaming is the new buzz-word. All games need to have online components,
from multiplayer modes to downloadable levels. Everybody are praising online
gaming as the best thing since sliced bread, yet I am not convinced. I steer
way clear of online games and Xbox Live, not only because I don't have a
credit card, but also because I don't think that online gaming is the best
thing since sliced bread.
I do acknowledge the impact that online games have had to the gaming scene in
general, and I can see the joy in playing with up to 60 other players
simultaneously. The cost of Xbox Live where I live (Finland, for all those
keeping track) is almost 7 Euro per month, with the starter kit costing around
60 Euro. A reasonable monthly cost is a must to draw users, but that's not
why people buy into it. The main attraction are the games. There are quite a
few Live-enabled games already and more coming on the way. So what's stopping me?
First of all, I'm very reluctant to any sort of subscription service such as
Xbox Live, because it seems to be just another form of 'licensing' of the kind
that causes you to never own anything you're paying for. The provider can raise
cost if they please, and with Xbox Live developers can also add extra fees to
a service you're already paying for, which to me that seems a bit difficult to
justify. What content should be offered for free and what should be charged for?
The very big risk is that all additional content will be charged for in the future.
The alternative to paying would be the free servers of the PC world where
profanity is heaped upon you at every turn. No thank you.
But there is something else that it seems noone has thought of. Namely, what
lastability do online-only games have? Yes, you have near infinite re-playability
in the way that every game/match/race is different, and you constantly improve
your skills. But think longer, think about the retro gamers of the future, trying
to get a good game of Quake going and only finding servers running the latest
Future Doom Version™ from id software. For how long will Microsoft support the
multitude of games for the first Xbox on the Live network after the Xbox 3 Next
has been released? Yes, everyone will have moved on to other, more incredible
games by then, but with the online-only games, there will be no way to sample the
true frantic gameplay of an online match. You will only be able to play against
whatever AI system the game might have, not against real people unless you find
a group of retro-gamers to play with.
You might be able to find a used NES with SMB3 on eBay, but when online games are
over, they are, really, over.
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