Home"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! The humanoid must not escape!" - Berzerk
"@!#?@!" - Q*Bert
"Welcome aboard, Captain." Sega's Star Trek arcade machine
"Use the Force, Luke!" Star Wars Arcade"
I understand the online multiplayer focus, but I wish there were more local options, because while I do have plenty of family and friends who are into gaming, like you, none of them play online for various reasons, and our schedules don't coincide even if they did.
This lack of local multiplayer and the meat grinder of online play which throws new players (or those who don't have 40 hours a week to play) to the wolves have combined into my greatest disappointment with the current generation of consoles - I want to play these great games with my family and friends, and more often than not, I can't.
On a positive note, I had an idea for an online multiplayer mode for first person shooters which could be fun and balance the play experience so new players and veterans could play together and have fun, and offer it FREE TO THE WORLD if someone would implement it:
When Goldeneye for the N64 was consuming my and my friend's time, we ran into the problem of having fun playing with new players. The experienced players could hunt each other and have fun, but those who were just starting were just getting slaughtered unless the veterans would hold back - until we realized we could adjust health between matches, and created our own rule: If you came in first, you went down one level in health, if you came in last, you went up one level, and the two in the middle stayed the same. After a few matches, the play balanced out with the best players running around at -10 health and could be killed with a slap, and the worst/newest players at +10 could take a rocket to the face and keep coming at you. Everyone had fun and could play their best without the need to take it easy on each other.
An optional online multilplayer mode could be created for a FPS in the same way, with the best players having the least health and weakest weapons, but earning the most ranking points per kill (and maybe extra points for staying alive), and the worst having greater health and better weapons, but earning far less ranking points per kill. In this way, everyone can play to the best of their ability, everyone is getting kills and feeling like they're accomplishing something in the game, and EVERYONE gets to have FUN.
Of course, while I'm wishing, I'll take a pony named Speckles and a Ferrari, too...."
Regarding my immortal soul and Electronic Gaming Monthly, much of my EGM mad love came from the three member review crew scores, not because they frequently reached a consensus in their review scores, but because they frequently had radically differing scores, and were able to explain their differences. Often, one reviewer would be the odd man out, either loving or hating a game in the face of the other two reviewers. More often than not, that reviewer's opinion came down to how much FUN they had playing the game.
I'm with you, Siri. While a critical analysis of a game's elements is important in a review, I have found that most of my favorite reviews and articles written about specific games and games in general have related the reviewer's personal experience with the game, in all of their flawed, numberless, non-quantifiable prose. In other words, a review can seem empty without mentioning how much FUN it was. When a reviewer writes about how they hated the story, and how a game is flawed, but they stayed up all night playing and only stopped because they had to make their deadline, that speaks more to me about the game than a dry write-up any day.
Oh, and you former (and now current - Hooray!) EGM staffers, it's YOUR fault my wife beats up on me in Tetris Attack, and why Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast sucked away large chunks of my life. These are two games I picked up not for their review scores (which were excellent, admittedly), but because I read, month after month between articles in EGM, how these games were causing you to lose sleep and work time."
I remember reading in EGM years ago about one writer's idea for a game, "Firefighter Fighter," I believe, and it actually seemed like it would work. Sometimes I wish game designers would peruse game sites for good ideas to outright steal from gamers, if only because I would love these games to see the light of day.
Of course, as long as I'm wishing, I want a pony named Speckles, too."
She has the patience and skill for platformers I lack, she's my equal at Tetris Attack, and in co-op Resistance she had my back. I love her madly, and that's a fack.... That's right, I should be writing gamer greeting cards.
I guess I'm spoiled. I've grown so used to gaming with my wife, son, and two daughters, I take it for granted. My wife and kids actually play videogames more than I do, yet, somehow, I'm the gamer nerd.
A couple tips for those looking to introduce or expand someone's interest in gaming:
Skip competitive Madden unless you are evenly matched and interested. In fact, you might want to skip competitive anything, and focus on cooperative gaming.
Start simple - My wife and I got her sixty-something-year-old total non-gamer parents to laugh and have fun playing Gran Turismo - Oval track, split screen, one button for gas, joystick for steering, and lots of encouragement.
Lots of encouragement. Lots of encouragement. Lots of encouragement.
For God's sake, if you tend toward trash talking, BITE YOUR TOUNGE! No one likes not being good at something, but everyone hates having their face rubbed in it.
Whatever you do, HAVE FUN. They're games. They're supposed to be fun.
Loved the article - gotta go!"