A thought experiment: It’s a month before the PS3 launch. You live alone, a recluse in deepest Alaska, a land of nothing but snow, grizzly bears and oil or a hermit in the Australian outback, watching kangaroos and vast expanses of nothing all day. You’re so isolated you couldn’t have an Internet connection even if you wanted to.
On your monthly trip into town for supplies you notice a sign announcing the PS3 launch. It triggers a memory of a time before your self-imposed exile, sitting with the original PlayStation and playing Gran Turismo and Crash Bandicoot, Pandemonium and Metal Gear Solid.
A month later you return, picking up a PlayStation 3 and the cheapest TV you can find, never having owned one before. The launch PS3 returns with you to your exile, never to see an internet connection. The firmware’s never updated and you never download anything from the Store. It’s almost as if you’ve got your childhood PlayStation all over again. The question is: can you still enjoy it?
We’ve touched on this in the past, with Blair sharing his experiences while in university halls, the network blocking his access to the PSN. But if you’d never been online could you still have a good experience with your PS3?
This is the situation for a good number of gamers (according to Sony at last year’s E3 about 20% of PS3’s aren’t online), those who’ve never worked out how to connect their PS3 or simply never cared enough. They, presumably, still purchase games, and maybe even play Blu-rays, but that’s it. No Netflix, no online multiplayer, no store or firmware updates (except those forced onto them with certain games).
This sounds oddly pleasing if I’m honest, a simpler existence. Never having to worry about PSN maintenance or a patch appearing as you try to start the game, never opening yourself to the potential abuse that seems to come along with almost any online interaction these days – there’s a lot about it that appeals.
I wouldn’t even miss gaming online with my friends, something that I rarely take part in now anyway. For me gaming is something I like to do by myself most of the time, displaying my lack of skill often feels embarrassing rather than entertaining. There may be some readers, hopefully not too many, who remember the hilarity that ensued when I took part in a Killzone 2 tournament some years ago. My sheer ineptness was mildly entertaining for me too but more often than not I’m content to not show people just how bad I am.
There’s so much I’d miss though. Despite the issues I have with the PSN at times, I’d miss games like LIMBO and Journey, games that would never make it onto a disk (at least here in Europe). It would be near impossible to strike a deal with a publisher to get those kind of games on a disk, but online stores allow them not only to exist but to thrive.
I’d miss PlayStation Plus too, and the sheer value for money that it gives you. I probably wouldn’t have bothered to pick up Just Cause 2 or inFamous, even pre-owned. However, when they come as part of a subscription, a reasonably priced subscription at that, then it seems crazy not to branch out and try something new. I’m incredibly grateful to Sony for PlayStation Plus, and hope they can present a similar service when the PlayStation 4 rolls around.
Even so, to be content in my own company, to not have to worry about entering an online pass for a game or to never feel betrayed by a publisher because they decided that something would be better as DLC than as part of the game would be truly wonderful. Just imagine being happy with a game as it comes in the box, not worrying about whether or not it will connect properly or figuring out how to download whatever extras your special edition came with.
And consider the hermit in our thought experiment, never having known what it’s like to go online with his shiny new console. You wouldn’t miss it because you never had it. If you’d never once been online, if you weren’t even aware of what the PSN had to offer you, would you really feel like part of your PlayStation was missing?
Would games like Uncharted and God of War become any less satisfying because you couldn’t access the online portions? Would the wonders of BioShock’s Rapture or the emotional connections in Heavy Rain be lessened because you couldn’t flip over to Netflix if you so wished? Would even Gran Turismo or MotorStorm feel unfinished without the ability to showcase your skills online, to challenge your friends to cross the finish line first?
My honest answer has to be, surely, no. I don’t feel those games would be any worse if you could never take them online. I even enjoy Call of Duty and Halo without straying online, why should other games be any different?
Maybe I’m living in the past, but I miss that simplicity more than anything in modern gaming. Perhaps I should become the recluse in this thought experiment.
I hear the Alaskan tundra’s nice this time of year…
Bambo_19
If you didn’t know what you were missing because you didn’t have internet will you really miss it? I doubt it. I love playing online, playing with friends and being competitive however if I didn’t know I could enjoy such a thing then I probably wouldn’t think I was missing out.
On the other hand if you did know that you could enjoy all the online gaming, ps+, playing with friends and then suddenly your internet connection didn’t work anymore, then you would probably be pissed.
I do miss the good old days of just playing crash, spyro, MGS, GT, GTA etc etc without worrying about online nonsense though.
Michael
No. All my time with the PS and GameCube, and N64 and so on were utter rubbish. Dreadful experiences.
mrfodder
I would have really missed the cloud save file backups last week when my PS3 crapped it’s file system and I lost everything on it. Ended up only losing one evening of Borderlands 2 (typically the one where I killed Jack).
MuggleMind
I wasn’t worried about online gaming when I got the PS3… Then came Warhawk…
Michael
Oh yeah. Warhawk. Still the best ever PS3 game ever.
ron_mcphatty
Yep! I’d only played Counter Strike online before Warhawk, the lighthearted action and vehicles were massively exciting! I think if I’d been the guy in Alaska (Solid Snake?) I’d be as happy as Larry, but I’ve been spoilt by the PSN, there’s no going back now.
boeboe
Kind of unrelated, but does anyone know why the hackers took down the PSN back in 2011? It always confuses me when people do things like that, because surely its affecting them too. COD 4 on PS3 comes to mind too.
Bilbo_bobbins
well I remember playing my ps1 and ps2 without it, along with my pc. So I would say yes. I would play single player. Infact the more I go online the more I find games not finished, annoying little brats and similar games.
teflon
I can’t think of a week in the last 3-4 months where I haven’t played a game online with someone. It’s either been co-op with bunimomike, AG2297, Phillis, bodachi, topgearsam and whoever else is around, or weekly bouts of racing in GT5 and F1 2012 with Manor, Freeze, THL, Jambo and all the rest…
But the main thing is that this is really all happy fun times with TSA people. I’ve barely touched an online shooter since packing it in on UC3.
This is in stark contrast to 2009-2010 where it was Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, BFBC2 (although often alongside TSA guys). A much more competitive set of games, playing against the old foe, “randoms”. What I do now is much more equatable to LAN parties and couch co-op, just that it’s with people on the ends of the country.
If I didn’t have this avenue, I’d be happy too. Tomb Raider is the latest game I’m playing, and it’s a wholly SP experience, and I have no interest in the MP side. Similarly with Far Cry 3, and all the other SP campaigns.
I’m not sure I’d want to go back to playing solo exclusively, but lets put it this way, if my PS3 had no net connection, my pile of unfinished games would be considerable smaller!
Roynaldo
Could I live without online gaming? Yes, quite easily. Could I live without the internet?…. not so easily now.
My gaming is often single player adventures like Uncharted, Huge RPGs or sandbox type games. The only online gaming I seem to do is FIFA and occasionally other coop based ones. I just dont touch them because I dont enjoy being competitive and angered by the depths players are willing to go to in order to get a +1 on their record.
wolfang
funny u shud ask… and before starting let me bring to ur attention that im not some shabby casual gamer OR a gamer who is ignorant to what’s going behind the scene in games.. before u take me as some PC gamer who just with a heavy wallet and a FEW big words like ‘tessellation’ think they are a ‘superior’ race.. i am in fact a 21 year old CORE gamer who has a fine line drawn between gfx, gameplay and story… that comes later.. what i want to say is that YES, YES you can own a ps3 or any other console for that fact and not use online… i have in my possession a pc, 360 and a ps3.. played cod4 online on pc for some time and even though i found it fun but in no way found online play as even half of an equivalent experience of a single player game… co-op also to some extent can be fun but feels forced in most games… i currently have almost all ps3 exclusive… lots of 360 titles and ive never had the urge to go online… online play witch i my self consider as a sort of sport may have its share of fun.. but neither online play or any block buster movie can give u the immersible experience only a single player campaign has to offer
Roynaldo
Very strange defence to something that didnt need defending. Erm…..carry on :)
blast71
I wouldn’t miss the online gaming side, prefer the single-player games.
But, due to me not owning a computer or laptop, i don’t know how i’d cope without my ps3 being online to keep me supplied with a regular dose of porn ;)
ron_mcphatty
Haha, it only does everything! ;)
blast71
That would be true if they’d get round to releasing the usb groinal attachment i wished for ;p