Gaming Discussions- Online Access Required Games

A lot of game now, including 99% of the EA games on the market, have moved to the point where in order to use the features or any features in a newly released game, you must be connected to the internet to play. This poses a problem to many gamers without a stable connection or any connection at all, but eliminates the possibility of copyright infringement of said games. Yet is that alright? To always be connected to the developers' servers, even during instances such as playing the person sitting next to you?

Many of the most popular games over the years (Starcraft 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Call of Duty Black Ops, and Army of Two to name a few) have required players to access the developers' server to use some of the features that most games have in the past offline or even to play the game itself. In some cases, simple Lan Connections. Us, ourselves, ran into this problem at our last event when "CoD Black Ops" wouldn't allow us to connect 360 to 360 with Cat5 cable for our challenge match without a connection to the internet. One console without network connection renders the direct to direct connection all but useless.

We all understand players can get the latest updates and patches for games when they're connected to servers, but forcing all players to play over the internet strains the servers they run on and constantly uses bandwidth at their location. This can be directly observed with games like Mercenaries 2, where the server is so overly unstable, that if a hiccup occurs on either side, it causes save data to corrupt. Although a few gaming companies have found some solutions to server issues, not all companies have come to a conclusion on how to establish a stable server to prevent mishaps during gaming.

Multiple times in online matches of popular fast paced games, such as CoD MW2, several of our own players have had issues with servers kicking them out of the game for no apparent reason but to switch host. With even more recent games requiring players to play on the developer's servers online, even if their opponent sitting right next to them, the servers themselves would be put to an even greater strain. If the connections with the servers was more stable and responsive, most players wouldn't have as many problems, yet the problems continue to persist on even the newest games on market.

Although I have my own opinions, I'm optimistic about the developers' choices in this regard. Many developers are looking into the future of gaming as an entire social existence with all users with access to the internet. This idea is not wrong in anyway, yet it seems possibly a bit too early. With the current average internet speed of users at 5mB down in just the US, not all players have a fast enough connection to produce a constantly stable connection to their servers (this assuming that the developers' servers themselves are stable). With most connections slowly upgrading to faster ones, this method of fair gaming and developer tweeks doesn't seem so much of a problem. Yet the sudden "all games must stay connect to servers" trend seems a bit demanding.

With required connections to the internet being phased in and lan connections being phased out, what will become of gamers hosting parties or events, such as ourselves? Will only the multimillion dollar groups with tons of cash to throw around be the ones to only host events due to the cost of internet access at various locations? Or will we maintain the status quo by our own need to be a gaming community? I believe or at least want to believe, we will survive and continue producing events for the gaming population.


What's your opinion on this subject?

Well, let me say first off, that I don't condone gaming companies making games that are internet dependent, gaming online is a plus, or to put it another way, a privilege, forcing people to play under there conditions is laughable.

But, to pose another point to the argument, internet connection is quickly becoming more and more common, so much so, that Ethiopia, a place devoid of almost everything, including clean drinking water, was trying to pass a bill that make use of internet a human right. So that a person who is given water, shelter, and food, as a basic human right, is also given internet.
So, with that knowledge in mind, it's a logical leap to assume that if Ethiopians have internet, that us Americans, who are generally not lacking in any basic human rights, are online as well.

My next point is, that even when companies make games that must connect to internet, to prevent fraud, piracy, and the like, the fail at it... miserably.
Let's take a look at the few most recent games, the ones that Cryno listed... why not?

* Starcraft 2: had a map hack, in the first week of release, one that revealed all of the terrain, and enemy locations (patched) and a hack that let you warp in any unit a Protoss structure could produce. (patched)

* BFBC2: (Had the redeem code required for online play as well.) MULTIPLE map hacks and aim-bots were released for all versions of the game before it even came out, as they were transferred from BC1 and is an EA game anyway. As well as a Piracy version still available at TPB.

* Black Ops: Do i even need too? especially after MW2... ( They've made a hack version available on TPB that can play online, no key code, or anything.)

* Crysis 2: (The Demo had to be played online too.) Just a massive disgrace to the already failure of a gaming franchise known as EA, this game has HUNDREDS of hacks, for weapons, auto-aim bots, and online play with Pirated software. Not to mention the fail that it was in the first place.

At any rate, the main point i am trying to get across, is that gaming companies should make the decisions of whether or not to make the game internet 'dependent', based upon the level of anti-piracy software the have, and the stability of there servers.

I still can't get fucking PnkBstrA/B off my damn computer, never touching an EA game again.

Also LAN should ALWAYS be integrated into games, and that i will remain firm on.

~Path