What to do when online play is dead?
 

I recently picked up and started playing Prey again to finish off the game and possibly get the rest of the achievements. I really liked playing this game when it first came out online, but only got a small taste of it as I was at a friends house and I didn't have a 360 at the time. Now that I have picked up and started playing it again I have found no one online playing this game at all. The forums for the game are dead, and the one time I managed to find someone online playing he was French and I didn't understand a word he said.

I know the online play was laggy and choppy and really for the most part not that much fun, but it had a strange appeal to it now I can't play it online, nor can I 100% the game, so what am I to do?

What do you do when the online aspect of a game is dead and you have already completed the campaign? Sell it? Shelf if? Sit desperately at the "looking for games screen" refreshing it night after night hour after hour hoping a game pops up?

The same thing happened to me with Tribes for the PC, but somehow that community always manages to build itself back up after it has all but almost completely died out.

..I find another game.

Honestly, that's what I do.

Finish the single player (at least in Normal, maybe again on Hard). Then sell it. People usually play the latest/greatest games.

The biggest drawback to online achievements. If you don't get the game when it comes out you are fucked.

That is what sucks the most. When I first played the game it was full of people. Less than 8 months later and it is dead. I have never seen a game die out that fast. Now those few remaining achievements are taunting the completionist in me.

I have to wonder if there's a post on a French forum somewhere complaining about the exact same thing.

rotfl

Well, for old online console games you are pretty much SOL if they didn't include BOTS (I'm guessing you are talking about deathmatch/CTF and other online variants other than co-op). I put in Unreal Tournament (Liandri Conflict) for the Xbox and found 2 other people playing it. Too bad, since it was such a fun game.

I play most of my online games on my PC. So far, I've been lucky that even on older games that did not include BOTS, someone has usually made a mod to use them.

I still occasionally spin up Heretic II or Quake with the BOT mods and play a few round of DM.

I know most bot routines aren't that great, but sometimes it's fun to play those old games.

It's been discussed at length on the video game podcasts and websites, this massive audience shift from one game to another on the 360. Since everyone can see what everyone is playing, you can watch this for yourself, especially if you have a lot of friends.

It kind of sucks, but when a new, "better" first person shooter is coming out every week, those audiences aren't going to stick with one that is generally thought to be mediocre at best. Nature of the beast.

Very well put.

Still hundreds of people playing Halo online (PC). When they go, so will I.

Pretty much. I just pretend online achievements do not exist.

Wait, so Halo isn't the only game online? May have to look into that.

seriously...it just gets so hard to actually get someone to play with you and then you would need the right conditions and everything. the only thing you can do at that point is to tell your friends to buy the game, so you guys can do achievements together. LOL. think of it as your own personal game.

No, but Halo is the only one where you are pretty much guaranteed to find people playing at game launch and a year or more later.

Unless they are ranked matches.

This is where Halo 3 shines. A lot of the MP achievements can also be gotten in the campaign.

I never buy an old game unless I want to play the single player campaign. The online addition is a bonus to me and I know there is usually going to be nobody on after the game has been out a year (Halo excluded of course). I just got Perfect Dark Zero for 10 bucks but know that finding someone for the online play will be virtually impossible.

I actually bought Prey used recently because I enjoyed the demo so much (and it was cheap). I just haven't gotten around to playing it yet due to all the hot games out right now.

Are the online achievements you need something that a two player match can get you? I wouldn't mind going on there one night and helping you get them.

Another way to get people to play might be to have a certain "game night" like OXM does. They have a calendar in every issue stating different games on different nights to stimulate players on that night and time. Don't know if that actually works for them or not. For example, they have a night for Need For Speed Carbon and DOA Xtreme 2 at the end of November and those are pretty old games. No night for Prey though. :(

Maybe have a DVDTalk/VGTalk game night (and post it at any other forums you attend) and post the date and time. We could get some stragglers in for a few older games (if they can be torn away from Halo3, GHIII or COD4...and now Assassin's Creed according to my friends list last night) but only if they have the game. I don't think Prey was very popular, was it? I do like the idea of a "dead game" night.

Anyway, I am in to help if you would like.

Yes you can do 2 player. This was a summer title so not a whole lot else going on and that's what I did. Hooked up with someone to get them all. Took a few hours trading off.

I had booted doom3 up a few months back to see if anyone was still playing this online. Surprisingly there were quite a few people playing deathmatch.

People still play Daikatana Deathmatch online. This is not a joke.

With PC games there's always a chance you can find other people playing your favorite games from decades ago. I hang on to all of them.

Grosse pente paresseuse d'Américains lue ou jeux de jeu.

What to do when online play is dead?

go outside?

I was wondering what John Romero was up to...

Read a book perhaps? ;)

Yeah, I still haven't gotten past the barrier of entry for online gaming myself. I'm about 4 to 8 months behind the curve on games, and whenever I get to something the online community is dead, or they're all super death 5 star ninjas who have dedicated considerable time to mastering a games skill set. From what I hear, the COD4 single player is dope, so there is that.