lesterlong

Sure its great for some but if I want to showcase my skills on someone in NFL2K3 I want them to be right there to see their reaction as I whoop up on them. I assume network adapter would be most useful for those socially-challenged but c'mon nothing beats playing your friends on your couch. What do you think?

qbert

you're right and wrong.

counch play is the best. but these days with work and such, it's tougher and tougher to coordinate people to run with. online play is awesome b/c it gives you the chance to pick up a good game against a human almost anytime. and for myself in ny, i can now play friends in sf, la, and boston a whole lot easier.

goLUCKY

I agree with qbert! getting my friends together for some football/racing/fragging is getting harder and harder.

sniper308

I just hope good single player games do not get harder & harder to find. I personally don't get into online gaming, due to time/money, etc, and just play single player.

RockyMtnBri

Also, Lester, how old are you if you don't mind asking? I'm 36 and I can't exactly run out and get friends to come over and play video games. I am also married and getting ready to have a child so time is critical. I believe the network adapter allows you to modify your time because there is almost always someone out there to play.

I have also moved away from most of my friends, and they live in different areas of the US. On-line play allows us to not only play each other, but to play together. With Madden, for instance, we're planning on starting our own league. This would be impossible without on-line play, unless we all played the computer and simulated each other's games like fantasy football almost.

Granted I'm into solo competition primarily, and I really get into games like Red Faction, Klonoa, and other single player forays. I can't wait until Kingdom Hearts comes out! On-line gaming is something new to me but I'm enjoying it so far.

Just things to think about, and I'm not knocking your opinion!

Kellehair

I don't really care about online console gaming. I enjoy playing a FPS online on the PC every once in a while but I don't think online console gaming can duplicate that experience. Nothing beats sitting around and playing a game with your buddies anyway.

Caoimhin

I couldn't care less about it. I never got involved with online gaming on my PC and the console stuff is no different. I don't get any real sense of interaction from it and would much rather play on my own terms. I think it's great for people who want that kind of experience, i.e., knowing you're not playing against AI, but I can't be bothered.

Mopower

Well I have 56k so I can't care about online gaming!

tygloalex

I can't wait for online gaming. Playing at home is fun, but it never changes. Play online and it's a new challenge each time.

Runciter

True nothing replicates gaming with buddies in the same room, but online gaming is the next best thing. I think it will be huge for us older gamers that played a lot in college with buddies in the dorm, but have since moved on and away from each other (all over the country). Now, not only can we play each other but we can talk (not type!) smack almost as if we were playing together in the same room. We Atari generation players have grown up, have some disposable income, typically already have broadband and I think are a key target for Xbox Live.

But overall I don't think this demographic isn't very large, especially considering the broad reach Sony has with the PS2 (what, like 30 million?). I think Sony could get larger numbers with its strategy of narrowband and broadband, but the experience won't be as compelling as Live's. So if people seeing the "online experience" of a narrowband game, will they write it off? Hopefully not. A similar thing is happening with HDTV, but I digress.

The interesting this is that broadband penetration isn't very high. Will online gaming be the "killer app" to drive those rates higher? Will it do for broadband what Larry Sanders did and The Sopranos do for HBO? Who knows, but having experienced it with 2k1 and the DC and now with Live, I'll find it hard to go back. The AI can be great, but human competition is better. I suspect going forward, sports games will have online as a standard feature just like franchise mode.

CharlesC

I'm not into the online gaming thing. My friends and I used to lan parties every once in a while and that was fun, but I can't deal with the anonymous people online.

Recently I tried playing America's Army for about 2 weeks. That was all I could handle. It was too hard to find a group of players that weren't pking or acting stupid in some other way.

I can see how people would like it for sports games, especially if you get into a league. But I don't play those usually.

Kellehair

Human competition often sucks and is rarely realistic. AI isn't perfect but it gets better every year.

RockyMtnBri

The other thing that on-line connectivity opens is the opportunity for game companies to update their games by adding new characters, levels, etc. We take this for granted on PCs, but the majority of console games remain the same years after first opening them. Of course this would really need the hard drive to be effective, unless we start getting really, really big memory cards!

I heard Sony's ambivilent about the whole hard drive thing now, other than offering it themselves. They either want to make Memory Stick memory cards with larger capacities, or let the consumer buy their own HD. Personally, I'd like to go with the latter - that way I decide what capacity I want, not someone else.

Kellehair - I'm not sure "realistic" is the right word, since a person is as "real" as you're going to get! I think "controlled" or "limited" may be better - remember, AI follows the rules implicitly 'cause that's all it can do. No x-factor to deal with, no going out of boundaries. I noticed that last night playing SOCOM. The single player mission was "controlled" because the AI characters played their parts perfectly. When I went on-line, it was like playing Unreal or Quake - everyone forgot the rules and it became a shoot-fest.

Runciter - hats off to another "Atari age" video gamer! I've been playing home video games since 1979, and I still enjoy it!

Kellehair

How often do you download anything other than a patch for a PC game? I don't think I've ever dowloaded a new level and I've only downloaded new characters once or twice. Some people might download user created mods but will those be available for console games? I don't think so.

Kellehair

Real football teams don't go for it on 4th and 15 from their own end in the first quarter. Human opponents (a.k.a. @$$holes) do.

JaxComet

You can add me to the list. I'm more than happy to play a game by myself or with a friend. I don't log in enough gaming hours to be able to compete with most of the on-line super gamers....

Static Cling

I used to not care about online gaming... and then I discovered Medal of Honor: Allied Assault multiplayer. Whoo. Many sleep-deprived nights ensued.

If I can establish a fast connection, I enjoy online gaming for the ability to banter back and forth with your allies (and enemies). Human opponents can be MUCH more unpredictable than computer AI, as well.

Trigger

I really dig online gaming... I don't know how I'll feel about online console gaming, but gaming online with the PC against 15 or 31 other opponents is more fun than having those @ssholz in my house. Anyway - it would seem to me that the top 3 people most likely to not care about online gaming are:

3. Those who are not good at playing games
2. Those who have limited experiences playing online
1. Those who own a Gamecube.

Of course, there's always those who just prefer to play with their buddies on the couch as many of you have stated, but those may also fall under #2. It's surely fun to play with your buddy sitting next to you, but nothing compares to playing against a dozen or so people. My first online game was Doom 2 over a BBS and from there I was hooked - the excitement of playing against real people as opposed to playing against scripted A.I. is unmeasurable.

Kellehair

That's the worst list I've ever seen.

JaxComet

I'd fall into the #3 category simply because I'm not 13 yrs old and don't have the time to play for 5 or 6 hours a day....

Jackskeleton

couldn't have said it better myself.

Online gaming is great. and for those who say you can't be next to the folks. come on, try a LAN. it's really simple. the amount of people near you while playing could be limitless. Not to mention the millions out there you have yet to challange. Online gaming is My #1 choice in a game.

Gallant Pig

Computer football teams turn into unstoppable scoring machines while you magically turn into a fumbling crap team in the 4th quarter after you've outscored them by 42- 3 so far.

Kellehair

That does happen in some football video games but that's not an AI limitation, it's just how the developers devceided it should be. Don't forget that blowouts in real football games often get closer in garbage time too.

Feneant

The only games I even consider buying are those with an online mode. I will not buy a single player game (except CivIII).

Why should I have to settle for corny AI when I can find a huge pool of people out on the web who are more than willing to play with or against me. Once you have played a shooter against live opponents or an RPG with real allies instead of NPC's, you will never want to go back to single player again.

Outlaw

Nothing beats sitting in the same room and beating your friends! When your losing you can grab pillows and wack the hell outta them

I used to be into casual online gaming but I just can't get into it anymore. The cheaters and hackers and item dupes make it no fun. It got so bad in Starcraft I completely gave up on the game. Not to mention the racism and anti-jewish/muslim remarks. I agree that trash talking is fun and all but some of the stuff steps over the lines, especially to people they don't even know. Its really annoying seeing people log on with names like "I HATE MUSLIMS", etc.

In theory, online gaming is a good idea but the anonymity has made it a pretty unfriendly place. So far there hasn't been anything that would me me want to try it again.....who knows... something may come along...

then there are the montly fees.