Gamers Prefer Local Multiplayer Over Online

Logan Frederick

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Gamers Prefer Local Multiplayer Over Online



Ars Technica's non-scientific study found the personal touch of gaming within punching range of your competitors trumped talking over headsets and dealing with lag.

Gaming, since its early days of competitive Pong play and the 80s arcade boom, has been a somewhat communal affair. With the advent of the Internet, the ability to connect instantly with available gamers around the world has grown exponentially in the past decade. Has such newfangled technology overtaken more intimate forms of gaming as a group?

Ars Technica [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/gaming-community-still-favors-local-multiplayer-to-online.ars] sought to answer this question in its own informal fashion, asking industry professionals their feelings on the online versus offline multiplayer debate.

"What kind of meek, sheltered recluse would ever say online multiplayer is better than local? When you're physically together, you get to laugh with your friends, you get to enjoy a more social experience, and if all goes wrong, you can throw a controller directly at the guy causing all the grief," commented former Electronic Gaming Monthly editor Dan "Shoe" Hsu. "Sure, online play is a bit more practical and easier to organize, but whether sharing the same Mario Party screen or having to sift through mountains of wires at a LAN party, nothing beats good ol' fashioned in-person gaming."

Freelance writer David Thomas agrees, believing face-to-face interaction is the "only way" to truly enjoy multiplayer gaming. He added, "This question reminds me of a joke: Sex is like pizza, when it's good, it's really good. When it's not so good, it's still pretty good. So to beat the analogy beyond all recognition: local multiplayer is really fun. Online multiplayer is still pretty fun."

GamePro senior editor Casey Willis provided a dissenting opinion, stating, "It's not always realistic to crowd into your tiny apartment to play splitscreen. Plus, there's no cheating online because your opponents can't see your screen!"

Clearly a decisive verdict has not yet been found in the preferred multiplayer environment debate. As natural internet users, do Escapist visitors prefer the convenience of online gaming? Or is the trouble of gathering friends together make the gaming the experience that much more exciting?

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Zankabo

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Sep 14, 2008
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I miss the days when we got all the machines together on a network and played games.

My group played Diablo 2, Starcrack, Worms 2, Mechwarrior (I think 3, maybe 4), some FPS or another, Dungeon Siege, and so on and so forth.

Plus, if we didn't feel like playing a video game we could break out Magic, or Munchkin, or some board game. Sadly though we are all spread out enough now that gaming via the interwebs is really the only way we can go.
 

Pimppeter2

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Who wouldn't, Its much more fun being able to humilate friends than strangers, and being able to make fun of em
 

sms_117b

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Oct 4, 2007
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I love mini-LAN games, I miss split screen gaming, getting shot and giving them a dead arm for it, awesome
 

Fronken

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May 10, 2008
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Nothing new about this really, i've never liked online gaming (except for MMO's), when it comes to RTS/FPS/RPG games everything is better playing local with friends, actually...the same goes with MMO's, used to go to LANs with mates and play WoW back in the day, and we had great fun playing together and being able to see/speak to each other without headsets and stuff like that.
 

Slug Nut

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Turok 2 splitscreen was a blast. Those were the good old days. Now you need to connect to the internet and hope your buddy not only bought the same game as you but for the same console.
 

nova18

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I can't see why we cant have games with bots, split screen, LAN AND online.
I know its a lot to ask for from any developer but we have the technology and the disc space to accomodate it.

I love Killzone2 for having bots in offline play, and online unranked when they patch it, but I want split screen and LAN goddamnit.
 

L.B. Jeffries

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meatloaf231 said:
Yeah, did they just figure this out?
Had the same reaction. Next they're going to tell us that electricity is a key component to making a console work. Split-screen all the way.
 

Eldritch Warlord

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I love LAN parties, they're almost worth it simply to make jokes about the mess of cords and sheer energy required to run it.

Internet is much more convenient though.
 

keptsimple

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Feb 26, 2009
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Four player split screen is the way to go if you can organize it. This, I felt, is one area where Halo 3 really shines over COD4. Everything about COD4's local multiplayer felt like COD4-lite. No custom classes; no maps that work well with only 4 players; no co-op whatsoever.
 

ChromeAlchemist

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L.B. Jeffries said:
meatloaf231 said:
Yeah, did they just figure this out?
Had the same reaction. Next they're going to tell us that electricity is a key component to making a console work.
Where have you been? It's been magic and wench's blood for some time.

...hasn't it?
 

Citrus

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Zankabo said:
... Munchkin...
Respect +1

Anyway, I really dislike playing games online because I hate lag to no end. It's not a major problem with some games (like RTSs), but with shooters or fighting games it really just ruins things. It becomes less about who is more skilled and more about who has a better connection, who the host is, etc.

Unfortunately, online play is far more convenient. I guess we'll just have to saddle down and await the day when a 5 millisecond delay is considered laggy.
 

Lukeydoodly

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"When you're physically together, you get to laugh with your friends, you get to enjoy a more social experience"

I do that online.