So, as we established recently, I’m an old man who’s been playing video games for a long time, and nothing’s had as big an impact on gaming during the 25-years I’ve been at it as the Internet. The Internet’s changed nearly every aspect of being a gamer, but have the changes been for the better?
Being an old crank, my knee-jerk reaction is to scream “NO!” while shaking my fist at nothing in particular, but that wouldn’t make for much of an article. So instead, I’m going to look at various facets of being a gamer and decide in each case whether they were better before or after the Internet irrevocably changed them. Hit the jump for my findings…
Getting Hyped
Before Internet
If there’s one thing gamers like more than actually playing video games, it’s obsessing over games that haven’t come out yet. Before the Internet was widespread there was basically three sources for news about upcoming games…
a) Gaming magazines and their tantalizingly vague descriptions and stamp-sized grainy screenshots.
b) The back pages of the Sears Wishbook.
c) That kid in your class you didn’t really like, but who had a dad who worked at Nintendo who told him that Super Mario 4, 5 and 6 already exited in Japan and were totally coming out here really soon.
This was the only book I cared about as a kid.
All three sources were generally considered equally reliable. Every schoolyard rumor, Sears misprint or bit of shoddy game mag journalism was treated as if could be, and probably was, true. Your mind was constantly a stew of half-truths, misinformation and excitement.
After Internet
Every game big and small is exhaustively covered from the moment development begins until it hits shelves. By the time you finally get your hands on a game you’ve seen dozens of videos, hundreds of screenshots and know exactly how it plays. Kids who try to pull the “my dad works at Nintendo” routine get laughed off the playground because, come on, wouldn’t Kotaku have reported on a Super Mario 5 where Mario teams up with Sonic to fight the Decepticons? I mean, really.
The Verdict
I’m tempted to say things were more mysterious and exciting back in the day, but that’s just me doing that old person “dating was better when it took a year to get to first base!” thing, where you claim the crap you had to go through was more challenging and fun because f–k the kids today and their gaming blogs and their sexting.
In reality knowing when a game’s coming out, and something about how it plays before you buy it is quite helpful. I definitely wouldn’t have DecapAttack and Castlevania 2 sitting around in a box somewhere if I’d had the Internet back in the 80s and early 90s.
Winner - A.I.
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Fun read but… muliplayer better before internet? Poppycock. Getting to figuratively gas peddle my bro’s balls on Gears 3 or Battlefield 3 even when he’s stationed in Germany is a gift only the internets could give me.
I dunno, I just can’t take much pleasure from a virtual gas pedaling.
I have to agree with Nate, having a small group of people you know and like is way better than a group of 14 year olds screaming the words “noob” and “fag” at each other until you get sick of their shrill voices and leave to look for a room without annoying children, even if you get the whole screen all to yourself.
I hear ya about the screaming little kids, but that mute button does work.
And its def not all bad. I have a great group of of friends online that I game with on the regular and we’re pretty tight knit.
The funny thing is though, our group has slowly grown through just playing with other gamers and finding ones that get our humor and get along with us, and dont take it too seriously.
So yeah there are a ton of screaming immature idiots online but that just makes the good ones stand out. And the sense of relief is always palpable when they realize that we’re just like them, in that we still yell noob and fag at each other but now its all part of OUR fun.
So I tell you what guys, I will put my controller where my mouth is and if anyone wants to game (XBL) with a group of twisted, sarcastic, ball busting, not so serious guys that arent screaming 10 year olds, message me and I’ll send ya my gamertag.
Well, I love screaming slurs at 12-year-olds, so you do the math.
They *are* a lot easier to make cry.
especially when you wipe your bloody controller on their teddy bear…
I’d say multiplayer is huge win for After Internet because of, I don’t know, *mute buttons*. I think the whole screaming 10 year old douchebag angle is overblown at this point. I still play CoD pretty often and it takes all of 5 seconds in a lobby to know who’s getting muted (I’m looking at you Mr. I Have My Mic On and Am Blasting Hip Hop).
On the other hand, there are several people whom I have never met face to face who I game with on pretty regular basis who I met playing CoD.
Also, before internet, multiplayer was split screen (which always sucks when compared to full screen), and you had to either plan a multiplayer gaming session or have so much free time that friends were constantly dropping by. In other words, if you weren’t a single college student, multiplayer was not a spur of the moment thing. Now, if I feel like shooting some people in the face that aren’t A.I. stupid, I just login and play.
I admit, my mind has always been terrible at keeping track of which screen is mine in split screen games. Oddly whether I was looking at the wrong screen never seemed to have much effect on how well I did.