So, as we established recently, I’m an old man who’s been playing video games for a long time, and nothing’s had as big an impact on gaming during the 25-years I’ve been at it as the Internet. The Internet’s changed nearly every aspect of being a gamer, but have the changes been for the better?
Being an old crank, my knee-jerk reaction is to scream “NO!” while shaking my fist at nothing in particular, but that wouldn’t make for much of an article. So instead, I’m going to look at various facets of being a gamer and decide in each case whether they were better before or after the Internet irrevocably changed them. Hit the jump for my findings…
Getting Hyped
Before Internet
If there’s one thing gamers like more than actually playing video games, it’s obsessing over games that haven’t come out yet. Before the Internet was widespread there was basically three sources for news about upcoming games…
a) Gaming magazines and their tantalizingly vague descriptions and stamp-sized grainy screenshots.
b) The back pages of the Sears Wishbook.
c) That kid in your class you didn’t really like, but who had a dad who worked at Nintendo who told him that Super Mario 4, 5 and 6 already exited in Japan and were totally coming out here really soon.
This was the only book I cared about as a kid.
All three sources were generally considered equally reliable. Every schoolyard rumor, Sears misprint or bit of shoddy game mag journalism was treated as if could be, and probably was, true. Your mind was constantly a stew of half-truths, misinformation and excitement.
After Internet
Every game big and small is exhaustively covered from the moment development begins until it hits shelves. By the time you finally get your hands on a game you’ve seen dozens of videos, hundreds of screenshots and know exactly how it plays. Kids who try to pull the “my dad works at Nintendo” routine get laughed off the playground because, come on, wouldn’t Kotaku have reported on a Super Mario 5 where Mario teams up with Sonic to fight the Decepticons? I mean, really.
The Verdict
I’m tempted to say things were more mysterious and exciting back in the day, but that’s just me doing that old person “dating was better when it took a year to get to first base!” thing, where you claim the crap you had to go through was more challenging and fun because f–k the kids today and their gaming blogs and their sexting.
In reality knowing when a game’s coming out, and something about how it plays before you buy it is quite helpful. I definitely wouldn’t have DecapAttack and Castlevania 2 sitting around in a box somewhere if I’d had the Internet back in the 80s and early 90s.
Winner – A.I.
Buying Games
Before Internet
You’d walk into a store, shake off the guy trying to sell you a 32X, copy of Bubsy 3D or whatever else they’d drastically over-ordered that month and check out the racks, where you stood maybe a 30 to 40 percent chance of finding the game you wanted. If you weren’t feeling particularly picky that day (or somebody was waiting for you in the car) you’d just grab something that looked good. Finding a specific game usually meant going to a minimum of three or four different stores.
“Argh! Dammit, my mom’s waiting…I dunno, I guess this one looks good.”
For your money you got a copy of your game, a box to keep it in and an instruction booklet packed with stuff like a backstory that wasn’t even hinted at in the game itself, and useful “tips” like “When your health is low, use a health potion.”
After Internet
You can now download games from the comfort of home without the hassle of running around to a bunch of stores! You don’t get a physical copy of your game when you download, but at least you usually save a bit of money.
Many games are, of course, still only available in plastic hardcopy form, but even these titles haven’t been unaffected by the Internet. Instruction booklets have dwindled to a couple pages of epilepsy and eyestrain warnings in favor of virtual manuals, and significant portions of many games are locked away as DLC.
On the PC annoying DRM (digital rights management) that limits installs and requires a constant Internet connection has become the norm — a norm that may be coming to the next round of home consoles if rumors are true.
The Verdict
Right now it’s pretty much a draw — downloading games is less trouble, but the fact that you don’t get a physical, resalable object out of the deal is a major drawback. To me the ideal system would see all games available in both downloadable and physical retail form, but most publishers don’t share my point of view.
The games industry has it out for physical media — it’s expensive to produce and ship and people have this annoying tendency to share and re-sell it, which publishers and developers get nothing from. If game makers have their way, we’re headed towards a download-only future, and forgive me, but I don’t entirely trust them to handle that without subjecting us to out of control DRM, excessive amounts of DLC and other such dickery. Basically, it may be a draw now, but it won’t be for long.
Winner – Draw
Multiplayer
Before Internet
With some degree of difficulty, you’d gather a small group of friends to huddle around your TV with you for some hot split-screen action. If anybody got too out of line with their trash-talk, shoving them off the couch and gas-pedaling their balls usually put things right in a hurry. You’d usually win because you spent eight hours a day practicing the game when your friends weren’t around.
Use one more blue shell and we dance on your balls dad.
After Internet
With relative ease you can connect with strangers for some hot online action. If anybody gets out of line with the trash talk you’re stuck with turning down your headset and well, not much else, since everyone’s genitals are well out of gas-pedaling range. You always lose.
The Verdict
Being able to crush your opponent’s balls if he’s acting like a jerk always wins out — unless of course it was always you getting his balls stomped for playing like a douchebag back in the day. In which case, have you ever heard of Call of Duty? I think you’d really like it.
Winner – B.I.
Strategizing
Before Internet
Games were often vague, confusing and only half-translated from their original Japanese. Figuring out how to get through a game often meant shelling out more than you spent on the game itself — video game secrets were only available via expensive game guides and 1-900 tip lines staffed exclusively by people with a speech impediment that caused them to talk…very…slowly.
Or you could trust that kid whose dad worked at Nintendo who totally jumped over the flagpole once in Super Mario and got 100 1-ups.
After Internet
All games, from downloadable quickies to massive RPGs, have full guides written up for them within hours of coming out. Don’t like a specific guide? There’s 20 more! Every semi-challenging part of every game has been mapped and dissected from every angle by an army of amateur guide-writers with perhaps bit too much time on their hands.
The Verdict
Old games were a scam — they were made intentionally impossible to figure out so you had to buy the guides and/or call the hotlines. Some might argue guides are too easy to access today, but being a man of integrity, resolve and badass gaming skills, that doesn’t really bother me.
Winner – A.I.
Discussing Your Collection
Before Internet
As I already mentioned, quality intel about upcoming games used to be hard to come by, and so most gamers’ collections tended to be pretty random. There also weren’t any message boards, comment sections or chat rooms in which people could gather and formulate consensus opinions about games. As a result you felt free to discuss pretty much any game, no matter how obscure/bad. Your friend couldn’t get away with bashing you for owning and liking “Panic Restaurant” because he owned and liked “Whomp ‘Em”. Level playing field.
Oh, Panic Restaurant — I’ll never forget you and your completely insane box art.
After Internet
The most popular 5% of games monopolize 95% of the conversation, and the bigger a game is the more people you piss off when you dare state an opinion about it. The Internet allows people to form factions and polish their arguments — the end result is conversation about video games has mostly degraded to people just copy-and-pasting slogans and talking points about whatever’s in the NPD Top 10 that month.
The Verdict
I dunno, I preferred the days when I could talk about how awesome “McKids” was without shame.
Winner – B.I.
Getting the Games You Want Made, Made
Before Internet
Gamers had basically no power to contact or pressure publishers, and likewise game makers had basically no ability to reach out to gamers. Wanted a good looking game to be localized, or a sequel to one of your favorite titles? Tough s–t. The making of games was a mysterious and secretive process and you just had to take what you got.
After Internet
Now video game publishers all want to be besties with us! Read their blogs, follow them on Facebook and Twitter! Also, it’s now public knowledge which companies and people actually develop the games we play.
Publishers can now be pressured into giving fans what they want — for example, the Operation Rainfall movement recently convinced Nintendo, a company notorious for usually doing whatever the f–k it wants, to bring RPGs Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story to North America. Going the other way, game developers can now call on their fans to help them make the games they’ve been asking for.
Never mind being able to help fund his next game, you wouldn’t even know who Tim Schafer was back in the day.
The Verdict
This one isn’t hard — getting niche titles into gamers’ hands is easily the best thing the Internet has done for gaming in my opinion. I have zero nostalgia for the uncontrolled power publishers used to have.
Winner – A.I.
The Final Verdict
So, at the end our tally is two wins for Before Internet, three for After Internet and one draw, meaning the Net just squeaks by as having been good for gaming. Basically, the Internet has improved gamers’ access to information about their hobby and their relationship with the companies that make and publish games — unfortunately it’s also kind of turned gamers into dicks.
The balance could soon shift though — right now gamers have more influence over publishers than they ever have, but if the download-only, DRM-heavy future most publishers desire comes to pass, the balance of power will quickly swing back the other way. In other words, I may have to revisit this article sooner than I’d like.
Guy with windows around his head & kids gaming with dad via Shutterstock