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?!).
beeje13
great read, well i moan when i have problems connecting with people on fifa, mostly because i know its not my fault (i’ve spent hours configuring my router)
Hell knows what i’d be like in your position.
hazelam
having just come off a week long forced non internet period i can say you don’t realise how much you come to rely on the internet till it’s gone.
i was only without it for just under a week, and that was bad enough. :o
if i knew that long term lack of acces was on the cards i don’t know what i’d do.
well probably get a mobile dongle and connect that way but, you know what i mean.
jediryan123
3g internet to laptop, cable or adhoc wireless network to ps3. it will be laggy as hell but at least its something.
stueeeee
Well I always thought I’d be fine if I was disconnected coz I enjoy a lot of rich single player experiences. And there’s still plenty about, RDR, heavy rain, ratchet and clank, mgs, uncharted. But I have found myself playing online a lot more recently. Even uncharted 2 online is awesome. So I think id be crap without PSN, trophies and tsa.
Roynaldo
When i got YLOD a couple of years back i was distraught. I played online poker a lot and hit my box sets like never before.
The upside… FFIX got some serious playtime. Dug out my PS2 to play it and was immense. There is always something to do you just need to be forced into doing it. The internet is a luxury not a right but if you have t you expect it to be value for money. I dont like paying for a 2Mb connection.
tobo_56
I used to have this problem with my Home Network and my ps3 constantly disconnected from the PSN and a new router fixed my troubles :) So boring without online play after you’ve finished all of your single player games 5 times lol :P
Deathmunger
I’ll tell you what’s worse than being completely disconnected, being connected, but with such a bad connection you can’t actually download your updates because it takes 10 years or when you finally get online you lag so much you wish there would be a powercut to end the pain. Yes I do live in a place where this is often the case, yes it is hell… yes I still try anyway!
Waaachow
I just moved into my first flat, it took 8 weeks to get internet set-up… I was just praying that it was set-up before NFS:HP and DC universe ( at time of moving in was due for release november). I coped well (had to take the PS3 back to my parents to download Sonic 4) but I think had one of the mentioned games been released during that 8 weeks I would have been very down. Are there any games coming out this year that will be really hard for you to miss out on?
Shlomi1995
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! ”
I thought I was up for the meat of the article when all of a sudden I notice it’s only being followed by the ending sentence. :( :)
mynameisblair
There’s more to come, that’s what the writing was talking about!