Social networks are a fact of our lives now, from Facebook to Google+, so we are almost always connected to everyone in our lives. Video games have started to get connected to these and seeing as how many of them are social experiences it makes a certain amount of sense. So this connection between the social nature of humans and video games is a natural element right? Well I believe it depends. Insert a quarter to continue.
So I'm going to assume my quarter is in the mail. Video games are a social experience in large part. Rather obviously in one way that can happen is through a few friends chatting about a mutual experience with a video game. Another way we get video games as a social experience is when we play them together. Finally and the most irritating social specter that hovers over video games are the so-called "social" games in one of the more redundant names in the world.
First off, the talking point. A lot of companies have branched into this by creating methods to share things, a good example of this is the Dirt 3 link to your youtube account. I don't know if the sequel kept it but I would imagine that it kept the feature. It allowed you to post things that you were proud of in order to run bragging rights on the internets. This allows single player games to contribute. I mean hells look at our Podcast, for the most part we're just doing what we do anyways; talking about video games. Some games really encourage this type of discussion to determine what exactly was going on. I played, and beat, Bayonetta and I wish that I'd had someone to talk to about what in hells was going on in that story. Talking about it can help alleviate frustration with games so that you can get that other people are having the same kind of struggles with a given point. I mean the other person doesn't even need to have played a game to allow you to talk about it. Tyler once saw me trying to beat a boss in Record of Agarest War and get wiped out. Long strings of expletives followed and I talked at Tyler for the most part but it helps to talk this kind of thing out. And I think we mentioned this on the podcast, some games come down to talking about the glitches, this is mainly the Elder Scrolls games where the procedural gameplay creates all sorts of minor bugs that creep in and create those kind of funny moments. So now moving along we get to actual social gameplay.
Playing them together. Well with some games this is technically not an option but as Geremy mentioned on the podcast, before I joined, when I played the first Portal I did so with both Geremy and my brother helping work through each one of the puzzles. Rather obviously thought when someone thinks about playing a game with someone else usually they are referring to playing it at the same time either against or cooperatively with that person. Now both of those have different connotations, take me for example. I have no problem with going head to head with people, in fact I enjoy doing so. However I will only play co-op when I'm playing with a person I know. The reasoning here is simple: when working toward a common end I want to know that I can count on the person I'm playing with to help me, also with a co-op game I play more for fun. It certainly doesn't hurt that many of these co-op games are shooters, which as we have stated I'm fair at. When you get into the competitive aspect things become more about winning. I'll admit it when I'm playing a game I like to win, enough said. Because of this desire to win I get much more into a game that I'm playing against the other two hosts and take things much more seriously. Thankfully the other hosts, and a few other people, have taken my obsessive drive to win as red and I don't catch that much crap for it anymore. However back to my point here, a competitive game also has a competitive drive, as Tyler said he likes competition and to prove that he is better, he isn't, but that is the point of competition. Rather obviously this all ratchets back to my first point about talking about games and using a collective experience to hang out with people who you occasionally want to make sure you keep around to help you move later in life.
The last social gaming deal is more of a nuisance in my opinion. This particular one is where the game makers, either the devs or the publishers, force social interactions as part of the mechanics of the game. This is mainly in the so called "social" games that we see on Facebook and the like. The issue here is that it is creating an element that is forcing people to at least make an appearance of socializing. This wouldn't be a problem if the games held back certain elements of progress from you unless you have a certain number of friends that play the game. For some people, like me, who are not as likely to go hunting for someone to play a game this leads to a brick wall against which I am no longer allowed to advance. The funny thing about this is while it claims to be a social aspect it really isn't. The social aspects of games that people truly remember are the strange moments that happen through gameplay, learn to look behind you Tyler, or the common experience of playing a god-awful game. This progress block unless you have a certain number of people playing with you is awkward and annoying if you are the only one of your friends who enjoys playing these games. I blame the aspect of Facebook that lets people add hundreds of people whom they will never actually meet to their feed. This goes back to my previous post, about the microtransactions or sponsorships. They want more people to play the game, not because they think the game is something that someone would enjoy but because it can make them more money which I think defeats the main purpose of playing a game. Only being a game player I don't quite get it but I would expect, as a creative mind, that the main reward for a developer is just that someone is playing the game. Granted though the people paying the dev may not agree.
Well that's it for this one so I'll let all of you go until I think up something else to go on about.
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