Failed To Connect To Server!

So I wanted to take a minute to reflect, not on what 2009 has brought to the gaming table, but on what this current generation has ushered into gaming, and discuss on whether it was going to bring better or worse issues to gaming.  We’ve all been there – comfy chair, cold beverage and a bag of Cheetos on the end table all ready to settle into a night of fragging with our friends.  There’s nothing better right?  Only to find out that the internet is  down.  No big deal you may say, and you might be right, but let’s look at how utterly dependent our gaming lives have become now that we are all tethered to this electronic leash we call the internet.

I happen to be one of the few who doesn’t live in a highly urbanized area, therefore my online gaming and connectivity is limited-something you know if you listen to the podcast and have heard me rant(or break up for that matter…lol).  It’s not only Xbox Live and the Playstation Network that require internet, it’s become an increasingly frustrating problem for PC gamers, which I typically represent.  We have Games For Windows Live, which is the PC’s version of the Playstation Network(no, that’s not a typo).  Imagine popping your favorite new game in the drive, only to see there’s an update, or heaven forbid, some new free DLC available that you must install before you can launch the game.  Not unfamiliar, you say, but not having a stable connection can drag that process out much longer than needed.

Even a game such as Dragon Age, with no online multiplayer, needs to sync up with a profile you have created online for the game – especially if you have any of the DLC for the game installed on you PC.  Your game can be played and saved locally, and then synced with your profile when you get back online, until you reach the points in the game that place you in the DLC missions.  From that point on you are not able to access your saves and progress through the game unless you are logged in online to verify the DLC and your saves. Luckily the Mass Effect 2 Cerberus Network worked well, although it is another need to be connected.  I have not reached the DLC portions of either of theose Bioware hits, but as of yet you are able to play without being connected, which is a bonus.  It is mind boggling how many games in my library are nothing more than coasters without online connectivity, or worse digital coasters on someone else’s servers that I cannot tap into.  It’s like having a gorgeous new Ferrari, that the dealer cannot find the keys to!  It makes you question how dependent we have come to be on the internet and those little lights flashing on our modems.

As if Bioware’s approach isn’t bad enough, let’s look at the two-pronged stance Ubisoft is taking with the PC port of Assassin’s Creed, due out March 16th this year.  Not only have they taken a page from Infinity Ward’s book by raising the price of the game to $59.99 but they have also added high speed internet to the system requirements.  Not for initial installation and validation, but the game’s requirements specifically say that the connection is required “to play this video game at all times and to unlock exclusive content”.  Call me crazy, but I say this is overstepping the line on  a system that already has major issues with poor sales of ported console games.  I’m sure the price hike would have gone over with much grumbling on the gaming forums, but like Modern Warfare 2 has proved, PC players will pay for it.  I dare say that the requirement of being online to play a SINGLE PLAYER game will affect the sales figures negatively, and it is an unfortunate trend that shows no signs of changing.

Granted, a lot of you out there are not PC gamers, but I’m sure you can sympathize with my plight.  Unless your XBOX or PS3 remains free of internet connections, we are all accosted by the need to download and install updates or lose our online features periodically.  It has not been until the inception of Xbox Live, furthered by the connectivity of the 360 and the PS3 that these features have been so integrated, almost ingrained in the gaming that we do.  We have seen leaps and strides in what online gaming and communities can do, but what price do these features come at when the modem lights go out?  For me, as a PC gamer this is further complicated by the need for online authentication and digital distribution via sites like Steam, Impulse, Gamers Gate and Direct2Drive.  The holiday sales those sites all ran were mind-blowing, amazingly cheap and hopefully a new trend that will continue.  Except, that once you’ve made those purchases and finalized your transactions, all have various requirements for being connected to the internet.  The most frustrating of which can be Steam’s online save feature, Steam Cloud, which will back up your game’s progress on Steam’s servers, not just your own PC.  Sounds great right?  Until you launch a game when you are not connected to the internet and your new save wipes out the copies of your old saves on your computer AND the ones saved via Steam Cloud.  Whoops.  As I mentioned, this is an increasing problem with the PC because of the need for even brief online authenticity to activate a game.  Yes, Steam can run in offline mode, but if and only if the game you want to play has already run and been verified with an active internet connection.

Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of bonuses and great things that online functionality has brought to gaming-XBL, stat tracking and digital distribution are all amazing new additions at gamer’s fingertips.  As we all know though, serious gamers definitely live and breath on the online functionality of their games–and let’s not forget that many of these features were available long before the internet became the crutch on which gaming now rests.  It can just be maddening when the lights on that modem go out, and it makes us realize just how much of a crutch the internet has become  for today’s gamers.  It’s definitely something we take for granted when it works and curse when it doesn’t, but what will this mean for the future of gaming and the future hardware generations?