Let Your Friend Grab Your Stick

If you know me whatsoever, you know that I cower from online multiplayer the way that a craven hipster flees from a reasonable BMI, loose-fitting clothing, appropriately corrective eyewear, and shaving their crustache.

It doesn't matter if it's team deathmatch, co-op, or any of the multitude of variations produced by the mega-bucks franchises. I don't like playing games with you*, especially if I don't know you.

* - private sessions of Horde Mode are the exception here

It wasn't always like that. I used to enjoy your virtual company, but then you had to go and invite your friends, and then they brought their friends, and the next thing I know, I got Mason Dixie barking 'faggot' at everyone like some kind of bigoted dog with Tourette Syndrome, then there's the guy who's expending a lot of effort pretending to be high, assuring everyone, at every moment, that he is, in fact, high, and then there's the jaded trolling GameStop employee, He Who Is The Highest Authority On Games Ever, and every game we play with him kinda sucks, and is not as good as this one other game, which in turn, kinda sucks, and is not as good as this one other game, etc.

Really, I'd like it if you and your friends just shut up and let me focus on the game.

Now, I'm going to commit the sin of hypocrisy, and make a statement that is in line with the aforementioned hipster party line.

(Console-based) online gaming was better before it became cool.

Really, though, that's true of everything. Generally speaking, communities are more fun when they're more insular, and the population is such that there has been a bit of community-driven selection and filtering of new members. It's one of those things in which you only tell the friends that you really like about it, so that 'the one guy that you're all friends with, but you all kinda think he's a douchebag, but for some reason, he's always around' doesn't come in and fuck it up for everyone.

It used to be simpler, and I hate being the guy that says things like that.

While I love being a grown-up and owning a home and having a family, I will confess that one thing I miss about having roommates is 'pass the stick.' That is probably my favorite approach to multiplayer gaming.

For those of you too young to know of this practice, 'pass the stick' is when you have a buddy or several hanging out in the same physical space as you, and you each take turns while playing through a single instance of a single-player experience as a team. Sometimes, each dude will play until he dies, or each dude has a specific skill with which he's stronger than the others, and the stick will get passed based on each presented challenge, or maybe you rotate by 'level.' I played through Metal Gear Solid this way, Resident Evil 2, Silent Hill, the PS2 GTA games, and countless other gems, and it was incredibly fun. Controllers and beers would circulate all night, and we'd play into the wee hours after having gotten off work from our crappy retail or restaurant jobs.

Hell, sometimes, the girlfriends would want to get in on the action, which would add even more fun.

It would be interesting to see something like that worked into XBL, PSN, or Steam. If everyone owns the game, have one player initiate the session, have everyone share the same view while one dude's got control. That player can then delegate control to another player, if he wants. Something like that.

It's hard to imagine it being as fun, though. There's something to be said about everyone in the room crying out at the same time when something awesome, scary, or crazy happens, not to mention the running commentary.

I remember Adam and I slowly turning to look at each other during a particularly scary part of Silent Hill and our eyes bugging out when that one shared look confirmed something terrible that we'd both seen or heard.

Or playing through various Japanese survival horror games with my college roommate Kensuke.

Or taking turns on our respective KotOR saves with my college roommate Mike.

And as I talk through this, I'm realizing that maybe I just need to get that stick out of my ass about online gaming.

Part of my preference to shun co-op is that I want to be able to focus on the story without you crunching fucking Doritos in my ear while a very touching death scene unfolds, or an interesting plot point is expounded upon.

What I'm the most guilty of, though, is feeling like true multiplayer is a waste of time. While that is a post unto itself, it bears mentioning here. As I get older, I find myself, more and more, thinking that I could be advancing the story in something instead of playing this competitive multiplayer. I don't feel any kind of accomplishment in MP. It feels like a time-wasting treadmill most often. Is that the wrong way to look at it? Do you experience anything similar, or is that just the wrong way to look at it?

I am curious as to how other people approach their multiplayer gaming. Do you have any basic ground rules for yourself, or what you'll put up with and won't? What do you try to pull from the experience? What's most important to you in multiplayer?

Also, how do you feel about 'pass the stick?' Any good stories?

-Blaine
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