The Outsider's View by Russell Carroll

Offline: Why Online Multiplayer isn't all that Important (Feb 3, 2007)

With the release of Mario Kart 64 on the Wii Virtual Console this week I started seeing the expected complaints of people refusing to buy it because online multiplayer hasn't been added. Not buying a game because it doesn't have a tacked on online multiplayer mode is just silly. Sure, online multiplayer is nice, but I think it's a feature that is a bit over-rated.

James Smith, the developer of Ricochet, Big Kahuna Reef and several other games you should have played, said that "Online Multiplayer is something that seems like a great idea until you have it."

Multiplayer gaming is awesome, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that online multiplayer modes are all that great. Unless I'm playing in the same room as the person I'm playing against, I lose the emotional and physical connection that makes multiplayer games fun.

It's like going to a party where you drink and dance by yourself in your living room, and connect to everyone else through headsets, video cameras and HD TVs. No matter how you look at it, the end result is a lame party.

Not being able to high-five someone in a co-op game or taunt them to their face takes a lot of the fun out of playing multiplayer. Sure there are headsets and microphones to go along with crappy video cameras, but they don't come close to replicating what it is like to be in the same room.

Playing against someone I don't know or care about further dampens the experience for me, and adding a headset on top of that, just so that I can listen to some 17 year-old who thinks that profanity (and their M-rated title) somehow makes them an adult only makes me want to avoid the playing online any further. (can I cast my vote for changing the 'M' rating to 'J' for Juvenile)

I'm also dubious about online competition being better than offline. It seems to me that if a computer were able to record a human playing and duplicate it, so that you thought you were playing against a human, you probably wouldn't know the difference. I think the real issue here is the AI in most games not acting human enough. It's a problem that I believe this generation of games may solve.

Though hardcore gamers may master the computer AI to the point of it providing little intrigue, it is still more fun to win while playing than it is to lose. Getting pwned online simply because I don't have enough time to become a 'professional gamer' (real adults have jobs and don't play more than 10 hours of the same video game every single week) makes me all the less interested in playing online in the future.

However, there is clearly a good-sized group of gamers who love online play, but are they the majority?

Last week Nintendo announced that they had sold 1.5 million Virtual Console games on the Wii in just 2 months. There are few better ways for the majority to vote on what they like, than by using their pocketbooks. By my best estimate, under 400,000 XBLA games sold in the first two months that the service was available. (Geometry Wars, the best selling XBLA game at the time, sold 45,000 copies in the first 2 months. There were 14 other XBLA titles available, so do the math.) There were about 3 times as many Wiis sold, so at worst, the Wii has been selling VC games about as well as the Xbox 360 was initially selling XBLA games.

I can hear a Grinch-like voice puzzling in the background: "They sold without achievements. They sold without updated graphics. They sold without online multiplayer or demos or leaderboards."

On XBLA Gauntlet isn't just a port while on WiiVC, Mario Kart 64 is just a port. It's been said that online multiplayer and leaderboards are what make the XBLA titles great and make the Xbox experience better. I don't disagree that the experience is better for some people, but for many people the extras being added are just that. This isn't about WiiVC vs. XBLA, but the comparison does help show that online multiplayer isn't as important to the masses as some might think. Clearly it hasn't hurt WiiVC sales.

For me, having online multiplayer in Mario Kart 64 would not make one bit of difference on whether or not I bought it. If online multiplayer was available, it's something that I would be excited about right up until I played it.

And then, just like attending a virtual dance from my living room, that empty feeling of online multiplayer would creep in, and I'd soon find myself, once again, totally ignoring the online multiplayer mode, and instead solely playing the single player and local multiplayer modes (same room = real fun).

Online Multiplayer is an idea that sounds great until I get the game home. Once I have it home, online multiplayer sits in the corner unused with the PSP, my external Hard Drive, my PocketPC Cell Phone, and all the other cool tech that was really much cooler before I got it.

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By: Russell Carroll
Posted: Saturday February 03, 2007