Gates! Are You Having a Laugh?

Once again I’m playing on playing Modern Warfare 2 on my PS3 with nothing but a handful of friends, my young brother-in-law and his friend (giving me abuse in a search and destroy session) and I think to myself “Is this it, is this what multiplayer gaming has come to?”

My mind drifts back to the beginning of the year – a Friday night, having beers and laughs in another Horde mission on Gears of War 2, each game better than the last. There was a seemingly never ending wave of invites going out as other mates logged on for a mammoth session. Then I’m back in the present where no one is on the same game, on the same system at the same time. I think to myself “What Happened?”

Two things happened. Slowly but surely our XBOX Live Gold memberships ran out and a new wave of multi format games flooded the market which split is up as a group of mates.

Root of the Problem

Herein lies the problem, no of us can agree on a format for a game. Personally, I refuse to pay Microsoft £40 plus or some guy on Ebay £30 and my bank details for a black market membership to play games on the XBOX.  Where as a big proportion of my online mates were happy to keep shelling out for Gold. What game is really going to convince me to pay the additional online cost to rejoin my friends in a session of multiplayer of epic proportions?

Another issues – I have a gaming circle of friends that seems to have more money than sense when it comes to buying games isn’t helping either.

I like to think I’m a discerning purchaser of games much to the annoyance of my friends, I don’t care whether Metacritic has given it a good rating, I don’t like it therefore I won’t be buying it.

Since when did we start relying on other people’s opinions to bully us in to buying games?  Don’t get me wrong, I read reviews just like the next person but if a magazine rates a game I hate and then slates a game I like I take their next comment with a pinch of salt.

What happened to the values we all had when we had to save our hard earned pocket money for a game? What happened to the days we used to read a review and then hang out in Dixons playing a game before getting thrown out by the manager?

Insert Credit

I’ll tell you what happened: Credit. It destroyed all the gaming values we had, we’re no longer saving cash to buy games, we’re a bunch of spoilt brats with the “I want it now” attitude.

So when my mates ask me what system I’m getting a game on if it’s not something I like, if its not something I have my mind up about owning and I know my other mates will be up for some heavy duty multiplayer action on with a money back guarantee well I’m sorry Microsoft I’m drinking from your furry cup.

No chump on a website is going to tell me that because a game on the PS3 has 2 fewer frames per second I should pay an extra £40 for a membership to play it on the XBOX.

People need to stop, take reflection and access that inner child that was once told you that if you wanted Super Mario Brothers 2 then you bloody well had to save for it.

Saving took time – usually spent reading gamer magazines in WHSmiths for input on your future purchase (before again getting chucked out for not buying anything by the store manager).

Savings Account

In the old days no body would dream of trading in a game they’d saved months to purchase before completing it? Not just the main story but every single challenge, collecting every coin on a level, looking for a magic whistle, Christ thinking about it we made up our own challenges and achievements before Microsoft integrated them into the 360.

So Mr Gates and whoever is running Sony at the moment, (as for Nintendo, well there’s nothing I really want to say to them in this post) I will not be a pawn in your game churning machine, not only will I now only buy a game I actually want (i.e. not based on peer pressure or review scores) but I will also be saving for them, that’s right people saving.

Mr Credit has been banished from my house never to be seen again for 12 months and well see what the future brings.