So random thought here... I was considering playing some COD today, but at the last second backed out and loaded up some DOTA 2 instead. Looking back it's making me think as to why I like to play most of my multi-player games on the PC versus the console. There's a bunch of personal reasons which nobody would probably care to hear, however the main reason I do is simple. I have way more fun playing against other people on the PC than playing anyone on a console. With a PC you have better control so I feel like it's more personalized, the people who play on PC's are usually dedicated gamers and play more seriously and respectfully, and the maturity level is usually much higher. Last one gets a double bump... The number of wanna be "gangsta's", do-nothing in real lifers, and kids under the age of 12 who think they're mature is down right laughable on consoles. I understand some people like playing against people who are like that and that's fine. It's just not the kind of group I like to play against. Although, every now and then it's a great way to get some entertainment, even if I have to be the one who is trolling to get it.
Now I can totally appreciate a good console game given I was born and raised on them. But that was just the way it was back in the 90's and early turn of the century. If you wanted to play against other people your only real choice was to do it on a console. Sure people watched your screen while you played against them, fight ensued because of it, but whatever, it was social! That was the point. It's not like today, were people play anonymously and you never see them again. It's kind of sad really. It was the biggest draw to why I loved to play multi-player over any other game in single player. Ever. Even though there were issues with playing multi-player games with everyone on the same TV. Two words, Screen watching. EVERYONE who played multi-player games (especially fps games) screen watched. Case in point... Goldeneye.
When the game first came out there wasn't a 24 hour period where I wasn't playing it. And when I wasn't playing it alone, I had one or more of my neighbourhood friends over or was at their house getting in a good console fragfest. And since the number of ways you could play a Goldeneye multi-player game was seemingly endless the fun was extremely high as was the variability. Which is why it probably was as popular and as genre defining as any other FPS of its time. Without even thinking I can think of my favorite modes to play. Proxy mines only, rockets only, and slapper mode. How fucking hilarious and aggravating all at the same time was it to run up behind someone (only for them to screen watch you and turn around) and then get into a Bruce Lee style karate match to see who could land the first hit. And then whoever lost went on a suicidal revenge binge for the one person who killed them. Unless someone else wanted to engage in another kung fu match along the way...
However, it does bring me back to why I was talking about console gaming in the first place. It was a foundation, but over time I've outgrown what a console has to offer for multi-player. I do appreciate everything Xbox Live, for example, has to offer and I think Microsoft is on the right track by trying to make their console an all-inclusive media center for the living room. And with some work on their ends it could very well eventually bring me back to being a console gamer. But there's still some work there which needs to be done before. Mainly on the way I find other people to play against and how I can tailor my multi-player match finding in any game in particular.
I think with some enhancements to the types of people you'd like to play with or against on a console, it would open up some pretty incredible possibilities. First off, you could easily begin to filter out the people you would never like to play with, but at the same time indicate your preferences and delight when you find someone who you had the pleasure of jabbing sticks with (insert gay joke here). Possibly do something along the lines of how internet radio stations work. When you find someone you liked playing with you could favorite or "like" them which in turns tweaks the search settings for future games. Or countering that indicating your absolute hatred, disgust, rage-face, etc... against someone who just made you want to track that son-of-a-bitch down and beat the shit out of him with his own TV. Yes, I've been there... as with many millions of others. It sucks. You can't do anything about it. So you just try to ignore it and move on... But I think that's a pretty poor way to go about it. Which is why I bring up the search preferences possibility.
The criteria for which something would be compared against would be the hard part. Simply relying on say everyone honestly describing their likes and dislikes in a profile would simply never happen. This is the real world and there are just as many assholes as there are honest people. (The Law of Polarity ftw). There would probably have to be some kind of algorithm tracing a gamers history. Like what games they played, how often there were on, whether they talked a lot, whether they spammed a lot, etc... From this data some kind of a personality profile could be constructed over time and when the profile has enough data it would allow a gamer of all types to be matched against people which match his or her personal criteria. It could also open up all sorts of lobbying possibilities if someone wanted to switch the kind of people he wanted to play against at any time. Again the metrics for all of this would all have to be worked out, but it does have promise if it was ever to be implemented.
On that note, I think I'm going to get a few good rounds of DOTA 2 in before I crash for the night. If anything I'll get a couple good laughs reading the ragers/trolls in the chat. ^_^
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