The internet is both the greatest and worst invention ever. It’s absolutely brilliant when you’re online; it has everything you need and you’re always connected to people. It’s the worst idea ever when it’s taken away from you, you’re left alone and you don’t have everything you need at your fingertips. It’s the same with online gaming; you’re connected to people, you have everything you need and it’s really great.
So, what would anyone do if this was to be taken away? You’d be disconnected from everyone, your trophies and achievements would soon become worthless, all those games that you spent sleepless nights playing online will cease to exist, it’s the worst. Unfortunately, after moving into my student accommodation, I seem to have found myself in this situation; I’m stuck without online gaming.
Sure, I can go home some weekends, but that’s an eighty mile journey with a PS3 just to download some stuff, sync my trophies and perhaps get a few hours of online play. Even though I may be going home next weekend, I’m still disconnected and I know that I’ll only have the luxury of PSN and Steam for a few days at most (and I’ll be downloading constantly during that time).
I’ve seen grown men cry at the fact there is going to be some PSN maintenance, or their new game needs a patch before the online will work; I’ve seen the internet explode with rage as the Store Update is delayed by a few hours; I’ve seen people in both of these situations complain about how badly supported their console of choice is. That’s nothing compared to being completely disconnected.
Well, here I am, stuck with near permanent PSN maintenance, only the single-player and local multiplayer portions of games, no store updates on time and no up to date online support for my consoles. The fact that Steam doesn’t even work, so I can’t download PC games or get the latest deals is horrible. However, I’m not just going to sit here and complain about how bad the internet at my student accommodation is, I’m adjusting to it.
What I am going to do is write a series of articles about my experiences and how to survive whilst disconnected. So that if you ever find yourself disconnected from the gaming world for a week or 20, you’ll know where to start in order to have fun without sticking to the latest trends. I’ve only been disconnected for over a month and I think I’ve adapted quite well so far.
Each article will tackle a different area; I’ll take a look at the benefits of local multiplayer and how I (re)discovered it, how single player can be so much better than multiplayer, why RPGs are actually the best genre and of course I’ll write something about the downsides of being disconnected – there always has to be downsides. You can expect them every weekend until, well, I get bored. Sound good?
Where do we start, then? How about right at the beginning? The first thing that I did when I found myself PSN-less was to get rid of the games that I only played online and to keep my local multiplayer games close. Modern Warfare 2 went straight into some trade-in credit along with a few other games to buy Move. There’s not really much online functionality with Move yet and I’ll find a way to patch the games that I need patched. I was all set… or so I thought.
Then I realised that I still miss online gaming. I’ve just got Black Ops from Lovefilm and I’m at that point in the story where you think “Hey, I should try out some online”. Sadly, I won’t be able to test it out at my leisure, so this is a big downside to being disconnected. Anyway, enough about the downsides and on with the writing! This time next week, we’ll be discussing why local multiplayer is awesome and I might even talk about Rock Band some more (wait… where are you going?!).
Harinero
Personally, I couldn’t care less about multiplayer, DLC, and other “delights” of internet-connected consoles. The only thing I like about it is that games can be patched which, depending on how you look at it, is a mixed blessing.
I actually was surprised when once, for accident, I left my 360 disconnected from the internet. The NXE is so much pleasant to use with all the ads go away. It even defaults to the actual game I’m playing, instead of trying to sell me their Fancy Webcam or their Internet tax (the nerve).
/me crawls back into his hole and hugs his PS2
Charmed_Fanatic
Without internet, my life stops :P will look forward to the rest of the series
ii3illy
Local multiplayer gaming shits all over online gaming.
Uni, 1999, 4 house mates, 1 tv, 1 N64, Goldeneye – pure gaming heaven. It’s never been the same since. I’m such an old bastard now…..
Spence1115
Last year in cardif uni halls, couldn’t sign into PSN ever due to firewall that we couldn’t do anything about (Cardiff uni policy, no online gaming). Didnt care about that so much as PSN store, so had mobile Internet to get into that – slowly. Standard Internet connection could still get patches and carry on already started downloads thankfully. Xbox could get through the filtering strangely enough. Never knew why.
KeRaSh
Local multiplayer > online multiplayer any day in my world. Looking forward to your next article.
SuperHans
agreed
Kennykazey
stock up on offline games and grow a pair… That involves stealing your neighbours interwebs, and I don’t want to sound mean here, but not writing weekly whiny articles.
Raen
These aren’t meant to be whiney, they’re meant to be light hearted.
mynameisblair
What Kris said. They aren’t going to be ranty or moany, I stated that, they’re going to explore other types of gaming in a light-hearted way.
And all my neighbours use the Uni internet since I live in halls…
Blayney
Whilst I was in uni for my first year I couldn’t get the PS3 online because of the uni halls internet.
This was the year modern warfare came out.
So instead I played the single player to death, completed it on every difficulty, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. It’s still one of two standout storylines for my experience of the current gen (the other being uncharted 2).
Being disconnected is actually, not bad.
KeRaSh
Wow, you must have missed some great games if a FPS counts towards your top storylines.
SuperHans
I wouldn’t mind not being able to access online games coz I hate online MP! :) it’s the cancer of gaming imo. Single player FTW! With 99% of my games i dont bother with online whatsoever! I’ve only enjoyed 2 games online out of at least 60 or 70 PS3 games i’ve owned, LBP and Burnout paradise.
Single player >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Online multiplayer!
SuperHans
I hope online goes out of fashion after the ps3 and 360. If the next consoles are online only, I’ll find a new hobby.
Harinero
It won’t. If nothing else, the industry will continue to push it because it generates way more money than single player.
One can dream though…
leon
I have been visiting this site for a while now but have been to lazy to sign up, but after reading this i just had to, I to know what it feels like to have no internet and to make sure that it never happens again I now have two broadband lines one 20mb with sky, a 10mb with virgin and a pay as u go 3g dongle with O2 now the only things that can stop me from going online is my wife or a power cut
PriceKitty
Welp, that’s 4 minutes of my life spent reading this article I’ll never get back.
There I was thinking that the PSN ran into some problem that would take forever to fix,
and it turns out to be a long “what-if” scenario.
I mean, how to survive? Really?
It’s not that hard to find something to do when maintenance occurs.
Sheesh.
mynameisblair
It’s not meant to be completely serious, I’m just going to explain in a few articles why everyone shouldn’t care about online as much as they do.
bunimomike
I don’t think you got the jist of the article. Blair’s talking about a lack of connectivity and what that does to Blair’s generation (or anyone in his current situation). It’s not the end of the world but Blair knows this. Just that as an avid gamer and journalist for TSA, it’s actually quite a serious dent in services.