My first encounter with online console game came back in I want to say , a few months after Halo and the og XBOX launch. A third party service called Gamespy Arcade allowed original Xbox consoles to hook into the Ethernet port of your router and while the software ran it essentially tricked the XBOX into connecting through lan mode. The pings were atrocious, but it was my first experience playing online against other people across the world and I was blown away.
As XBOX live got close to launch in 2002, i was managing a GameStop. I got into the first wave of beta testers who were given a copy of revolt, and a limited edition bag that your headset came in.
I remember hooking it up, and when the voice communication started, it was like a whole new world opened up. Friends who were new to the internet couldn’t comprehend how someone’s voice was coming from a videogame, don’t ask, I tried explaining how a telephone works and they still were confused.
The funny thing though was everyone was polite, where are you from, awesome, can I add you, what games do you like, friendships that even with me are going on 17 years now and even though we only get to play once or twice a week we still stay in communication daily with a text chat on our phones. The early days of console gaming had an innocence to them, it was easier to make friends and rarely did you run into trolls. Halo 2 changed that.
When Halo 2 launched, EVERYONE was on it. Look at today’s top titles, take the top 10 on live and combine it into one. That was halo 2. It was glorious, and a lot of people took their competitive side to the extreme . Friends see ditched, new friends were made, if you didn’t cut it, you were a scrub and were cast out. I watched it happen over the 2-3 years halo 2 ran the online console world. I was guilty, I started hiding offline as not to be bothered, I’m not too good to play with you scrubs, it was pathetic.
Friends list lost a lot of players during that period of time, and gained a lot of like minded new friends. Competitive troll like behavior gravitated to the same ilk. Friendly casual gamers likewise did the same, and a stigma was starting to cast over fps, and anything competitive.
As the 360 and ps3 hit, we had our halos, but as the market saturated players segmented from one game to a few others, a lot of halo players left for cod. Newer players would come into a hostile landscape but the younger they were the thicker their skin for troll games, or taking their beatings and having the drive to get better. The casual camp imo were closer knit, and were having a lot of fun migrating from game to game,
As the XBOX one Ps4 generation started my friends list had gone from 100 active friends to 32 as of right now. I have a few on PS4 that are family , oh yea the 32 left on Xbox are 90% family.
I’ve asked others as I’m asking you. How did something with so much potential never really innovate? Why did the social fabric of the communities devolve into little groups who stay together and rarely allow or want to play with random new players happen?
Maybe your experience is different then mine, I’d like to hear. Imo the state of online gaming, and communities could be a lot more, it could become more of an experience on console other then leaderboards and lists to invite other players. I guess I’m saying I miss the days of being able to get on a game and come off an hour later with 5 new friends. Or at least potential new friends.
Online console gaming used to be the only reason I’d buy a game, now I could care less as I’d rather not deal with trying to find friends to play, trying with random people only to hear on the other end the filth , waste, and ignorance of the community.
It’s f ing crazy it wound up like this.
How about everyone else?
As XBOX live got close to launch in 2002, i was managing a GameStop. I got into the first wave of beta testers who were given a copy of revolt, and a limited edition bag that your headset came in.
I remember hooking it up, and when the voice communication started, it was like a whole new world opened up. Friends who were new to the internet couldn’t comprehend how someone’s voice was coming from a videogame, don’t ask, I tried explaining how a telephone works and they still were confused.
The funny thing though was everyone was polite, where are you from, awesome, can I add you, what games do you like, friendships that even with me are going on 17 years now and even though we only get to play once or twice a week we still stay in communication daily with a text chat on our phones. The early days of console gaming had an innocence to them, it was easier to make friends and rarely did you run into trolls. Halo 2 changed that.
When Halo 2 launched, EVERYONE was on it. Look at today’s top titles, take the top 10 on live and combine it into one. That was halo 2. It was glorious, and a lot of people took their competitive side to the extreme . Friends see ditched, new friends were made, if you didn’t cut it, you were a scrub and were cast out. I watched it happen over the 2-3 years halo 2 ran the online console world. I was guilty, I started hiding offline as not to be bothered, I’m not too good to play with you scrubs, it was pathetic.
Friends list lost a lot of players during that period of time, and gained a lot of like minded new friends. Competitive troll like behavior gravitated to the same ilk. Friendly casual gamers likewise did the same, and a stigma was starting to cast over fps, and anything competitive.
As the 360 and ps3 hit, we had our halos, but as the market saturated players segmented from one game to a few others, a lot of halo players left for cod. Newer players would come into a hostile landscape but the younger they were the thicker their skin for troll games, or taking their beatings and having the drive to get better. The casual camp imo were closer knit, and were having a lot of fun migrating from game to game,
As the XBOX one Ps4 generation started my friends list had gone from 100 active friends to 32 as of right now. I have a few on PS4 that are family , oh yea the 32 left on Xbox are 90% family.
I’ve asked others as I’m asking you. How did something with so much potential never really innovate? Why did the social fabric of the communities devolve into little groups who stay together and rarely allow or want to play with random new players happen?
Maybe your experience is different then mine, I’d like to hear. Imo the state of online gaming, and communities could be a lot more, it could become more of an experience on console other then leaderboards and lists to invite other players. I guess I’m saying I miss the days of being able to get on a game and come off an hour later with 5 new friends. Or at least potential new friends.
Online console gaming used to be the only reason I’d buy a game, now I could care less as I’d rather not deal with trying to find friends to play, trying with random people only to hear on the other end the filth , waste, and ignorance of the community.
It’s f ing crazy it wound up like this.
How about everyone else?
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