Playing With Myself

Unintended sexually explicit title aside, I'm a gamer whose never really enjoyed competitive multi-player. It is not that I have anything against online multi-player, I totally understand the appeal, much like sports the feeling of superiority upon defeating someone is a joy anyone would be lying to themselves if they said they did not enjoy. Yet for one reason or another I've never found myself heavily invested in a game primarily for the multi-player aspect, perhaps its because I'm not very good, maybe its because I can't invest the time to get good at a multi-player, maybe I can not be sucked into an experience so inherently repetitive or maybe it is the fact every competitive bone in my body died a few years ago.

This thought came about while playing Castle Crashers, which I recently purchased upon its PSN release. I enjoyed every moment in which we were a team and working for a cause, yet the second it became a competitive moment the joy was lost. This got me thinking about my experiences with multi-player last year. I did not enjoy Modern Warfare 2, somewhere between the dry caricatures and dull action movie plot Modern Warfare 2 is a game I'd never really mark as an incredible experience. Yet for one reason or another I put a healthy amount of time into multi-player, and I wondered why I had remained there so long. It wasn't the game, I quickly realized, that kept me coming back, I was there to play and talk with my friends, looking back all of my favourite moments weren't game-play related but moments when so and so said this. Had it been any other game these moments would have been translated over, so how do you quantify these kind of experiences. In a review I can't guarantee that the person reading has a group of friends similar to mine, and I can't reference something my friends said as a great part of a game.

Well just a thought, until next time.