The Next "The Next Generation" of Consoles

As the Xbox 360 rapidly approaches the five year lifespan that most consoles traditionally adhere to, I frequently find myself wondering what the new offerings from Microsoft and Sony will bring to the table. In the current marketplace, graphical horsepower and raw performance matter a lot less than they did in the era before the Wii re-wrote the rules on what it took to be successful in the console world. The one area in which consoles could stand to see some improvement is in their ability to foster and maintain online communities. The 360 has admittedly done a much better job thus far than Sony and Nintendo, but moving forward the abilty to stay connected and find and make friends to play with is only going to need to improve.

Developers have certainly answered the call of the gaming public when it comes to having a social experience while gaming. The number of big AAA titles that feature cooperative play is at an all-time high. The only thing better than playing Gears of War 2's impressive single player campaign is playing it with a friend and experiencing all the action together. It really amplifies the experience when you can share it with someone in real-time and then re-live your exploits later when you go out to lunch or just hang out. Now that games are placing an emphasis on social interaction it would be nice to see console makers begin to place a strategic focus into their console design that reinforces this trend.

It would be interesting to see a console company take some cues from Social Media and add some "Twitter" like service to their dashboards or homescreens. A location based feature would also be a pretty cool thing to have the option to turn on or off that would actively try and match you with people in the same City, Town, or State. Personal touches like these might alleviate a lot of the bad behavior that one usually encounters in a more anonymous play session and put more of an emphasis on making friends. In the age of cell-phones and text messaging people are increasingly accustomed to being "plugged-in" and accessible to their friends and family at anytime anywhere. It seems like a logical step forward for this to expand into gaming moving forward as the medium continues to grow and adapt with current technological trends.

Traditional Gaming

For the last 8 years I've been heavily into video games to the exclusion of any other type of gaming. After this holiday season I find myself growing a little disenchanted from gaming though. I still love video games, but the constant onslaught of sequels and "me too!" games is really making everything seem a little repetitive and boring. I increasingly find myself longing for the good old days when most of the games I played were of some sort of physical manifestation...like the collectible card game "Magic: The Gathering." There is something to be said for gathering around with friends and playing a game. Sure you can have a "social experience" online now with your friends but the whole thing is more than a little detached. Things definitely have room for improvement in the console world when it comes to social networking and interaction.

I remember years ago when I played Warhammer 40,000, a table-top miniature game, at my local comic book shop. There was a strong sense of community and friendship that prospered there that online games have a hard time rivaling. There was also the hobby aspect of assembling my troops and hand painting them. I took real pride in the appearance of my troops and I had a strong personal investment in each piece of my army. Playing war games online is not nearly as fulfilling as I'm essentially pushing a button to deploy a polygonal avatar of what implement of destruction I want to place on the battlefield.

More often than not my opponents in video games are people I hardly know or don't know at all which limits the amount of fun I have with them. Getting to know my opponents well was part of the charm of the comic book shop atmosphere. Now and endless sea of faceless opponents awaits online, which makes finding a match easy, but I would argue it also makes the whole process much less satisfying for those looking to just have a good time instead of trying to take the top spot of the leaderboard.

I've certainly met many great people through playing games online and I certainly don't mean to diminish that aspect of video games, it just seems that there is something being lost as many young people will never have the traditional gaming experiences that I had growing up. Maybe its just the post-holiday gaming doldrums talking for me and Killzone 2, Street Fighter IV, and Resident Evil 5 will erase all the doubts I'm having about gaming right now. In the mean time anybody want to play a board game?

End of the 1Up Era

I was extremely saddened to hear about the acquisition of 1Up by UGO today and the subsequent layoffs caused in its wake. I've long been going to the 1up website for news and listening to the 1up yours podcast and watching the 1up show. All of the folks at 1up did a fantastic job with their coverage and I will miss hearing their opinions on the games industry. My thoughts are with those who were laid off. I have no doubt that all of the talented individuals who were casualties of this situation will land on their feet and I'll be there to support them in their new endeavors.