Episode 13 - Together

Tennis For Two is considered to be the first video game. It was very simple and was designed for two people to play a game on a screen together. That was 1958. The birth of videogames was a multi-player experience. (See what I did there. I started the post the same way as the previous one, but then threw you a curveball)

Shortly thereafter arcade games hit the mainstream and started popping up everywhere. You and a friend could trade off playing Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, or any one of a hundred games. Videogames were a very social experience. They were fun, and something you did with other people.

After the arcade slowly died and the home console thing happened, playing videogames became more of an at home thing. But in the background, like an itch in the roof of your mouth that you just can’t get to, there was a want, for social interaction within videogames. This drove Sega to launch the MegaNet in 1991. Yes. 1991. It was a modem that attached to your Sega Genesis, which allowed players to utilize the Internet and link consoles to play a game together. And just like that, videogames began to emerge out of their alone stage.

Sega was way ahead of its time and included this functionality in the its following consoles as well, though it was most popular on their final console, the Dreamcast. Sega was the only console maker doing anything like this at the time. Unfortunately for Sega, they were a bit too ahead of their time and not enough people used it.

I think part of the reason was because not as many people had Internet access. That’s a big part of making online gaming work… the online part.

It seems over the past… I’d say 4 years online gaming has increased exponentially. Part of that is because now we are seeing console gaming hit the Internet like never before. The Xbox Live service debuted in 2002 and though Sega paved the way Microsoft really brought it to the console loving masses.

But is there something to this online gaming thing? Or is it just something we do now, and in several years we will look back and think, “hmm, remember that?” All indications point to that playing together is something we will be doing for a long time, especially as Internet costs drop and more people around the world get high speed. Also now that it’s more than just PC gaming online, developers are taking the multiplayer experience to consoles like never before. Finally the social experience video games were destined to be.

And we’re not even talking about MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games. In the game Second Life, well you have a second, virtual, life. You can hang out in café’s, wonder around, and shop for your character. It’s like life… but not. Then there are games like WOW and Guild Wars… where the adventure is almost never ending. With expansions coming out regularly (hopefully) it’s the game that keeps on gaming.

I am a console guy myself. I was never enticed by the whole MMO thing on PC’s because I was never into gaming on the PC. But I have seen how addictive this beast can be. And I have seen its effect on gamers. Why should we be limited to just playing through a narrative that has a conclusion? Our lives don’t have a conclusion… well, they do, but then you don’t get to start over.

The playing together thing is how arcades work and they are still around today. Playing together adds competition to video games. You strive to be better than the other guy you’re playing with. If he can get a perfect score in Pac Man, I’m going to have to do the same. Competition makes us strive harder, and play better. Without competition (if only in the form of a high score board) many of us would just level off in mediocrity.

Playing together probably is what William Higinbotham would have wanted you to do. You don’t know who that is? That’s the guy who invented Tennis for Two… weren’t you paying attention in school? Anyway, I see this whole playing together thing is catching on. Especially since online functionality is free now. I only wonder if we are on the brink of a turning point. Where no longer will games be played alone. No campaign. Everything is done online. Still have stories to tell, still have adventure to go on just completely different than anything I can think of currently… maybe a blend of the single player adventures we know, and the multi-player adventures. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong… I write this at 4:11 in the morning with insomnia and a cold so forgive the possible confusing ending.

Alone or together. Sign me up. If it can stay interesting, I’m in it for the long haul.