Play Together! But Not Really, Please!

Please, allow me to geek out for a second.

When I was younger, I was a big video game guy. Some of my fondest memories, and long running in-jokes, revolve around me and my buddies huddled around a 32 inch TV at 4am trying to beat the impossibly hard, yet astromically entertaining, "Conflict: Vietnam." On weekends, one of our friends would bring over a few extra controllers for the PS2, and four or five of us could play college football, hockey, the aforemention Conflict games, and whatever else tickled the fancy of 16 year old us's.

We were stoked when PS3 and X-Box came out, even though those 4am gaming sessions wondering when the next Vietcong was going to scream "RPG!" have turned into occasionally plugging in a first person shooter late on a Saturday night after grabbing a few drinks.

With the near release of the soon to be mega-hit "Call of Duty: Black Ops," we actually got excited. We had heard that the game was going back to the roots of old, offering 4 player co-op (meaning four people could play the game in the same room). Even since PS3 and X-Box came out, the concept of co-op died. Every game is supposed to be played online via social networking and LAN sites. Naturally, this rumor was dragged out for months only to be eventually squashed, like has happened with basically every other game that even thought about going back to regular old co-op games.

To a bunch of almost mid-20's guys...this isn't the end of the world. We would have had an f'ing blast playing it like the old days, but oh well. What does upset me though is the hypocracy of "social" gaming.

What exactly is more social: sitting in an empty room talking s**t to complete strangers via a microphone, or sitting with three friends playing the game at one in the same room?

It's not like the technology doesn't exist...it did ten years ago. And it's also not an obvious cash grab for the PS3 people...their online network is free.

Maybe it's the World of Warcraft-ing of video gaming...but I think this all kind of sucks. I don't play games online and, even if I did, I'd sure as hell rather have the option to play with my friends in the same room without having to bring an extra three TV's and a Best Buy's worth of LAN cables. Considering gaming is evolving just as quickly as social networking and cell phones, it's amazing that none of the "Scream Into Space For Attention" parent groups aren't pissing and moaning over the promotion of solidarity that PS3 and X-Box are promoting. I'm sure once Rock Star Games comes out with a new role player where the main character does coke off of a dead hooker's stomach, we might get a few hits...but until then what? Just a bunch of kids sitting in dimly lit rooms with pouches of Capri Suns calling each other "noobs."

Call me a crotchety old man...but I liked it better before. I mean, at least then we could throw the empty Capri Suns at each other when we called each other noobs.