Tweet
During the era of the PS3/360/GameCube, a PS3 was my primary gaming console, though I did own a 360, and paid their 'subscription fee' (more like a bribe to flip a switch to allow for online play), I never really saw the 360 as THAT much more superior, as far as an online experience was concerned. The ONE thing that they objectively had on PS3 was Party Chat, and although I can admit that is a biggy if you have friends that all own the same console, there's definitely a downside to it that people don't really give much attention to, and that's how it splits up and blocks people from communicating with one another - Fairly strange bi-product of something designed to help people communicate with more ease.
What brought this into my head is my experiences recently trying to play two games on PS4 where communication is fairly integral: Earthfall (a Left 4 Dead clone), and Firewall Zero Hour (a Rainbow Six clone for PSVR). A lot of times I would join games and nobody would be chatting, which would make the whole experience a lot less fun, and more difficult than it needed to be. But, then I realized, that doesn't necessarily mean that nobody is chatting - It could very-well mean that the other players were in a Party Chat of their own, and just didn't bother to dissipate it for the sake of chatting with everybody playing the game. I do admit I'm guilty of this as my brother usually wanted to just stay in Party Chat whenever we played Rainbow Six Siege - In our defense, we always played Terrorist Hunt or other co-op modes, so communication wasn't as necessary. But, the point is, you could have a room full of people with mics in a game, and hardly anyone is communicating with one another because they're all in their small designated chats.
Whenever I revisit my PS3, I generally go back and play Need For Speed The Run which has maintained a player-base for an astoundingly long time (I never would've guessed when I tried connecting to it years after PS4 and Xbone have been around, I'd be able to find a game). What struck me was that I was actually able to babble with random people on there, and that actually made it quite a bit more enjoyable than a lot of games you can connect to nowadays, because everyone is silent (likely in their own parties) - And that's even despite how much of a pain-in-the-ass it was to connect a headset to the PS3 and the fact that you have to charge it, and it's not included with the console itself, and doesn't cost $6 for one, like you can buy for your PS4.
This overall lack of 'community communication' in favor of streamlining and allowing for more private forms of communication also extends to why I didn't enjoy Monster Hunter Worlds as much as I did previous entries, despite the fact that it's pretty much objectively the best Monster Hunter game ever created. Making it so you could search for any quest at anytime and just join it on-the-spot took a lot of the social elements out of the game. You no longer have to barter with people about what quest to do next or ask for help - Then again, there's less backstabbing where you do someones' quest first with the promise that they'll help you, and they just up-and-disappear on you, so that's definitely a plus! It definitely takes a bit away from gaming that used to be there before all this streamlining was a thing, though.
So, just me thinkin' out-loud, but I thought I'd put this out there for others to think about. I'm not saying I would get rid of Party Chat if I had a magic wand that could make it disappear - I'm just more/less going on somewhat of a technological nostalgia trip back to when if you wanted to chat, you had to chat with everyone playing the game. There were pros and there were cons to that, but there definitely has been elements in gaming that have been watered-down as a result of Party Chat and streamlining everything to the point where we no longer need to communicate with other people in games. It's just slightly unfortunate, but I probably notice more than most since I oftentimes play with randies.
What brought this into my head is my experiences recently trying to play two games on PS4 where communication is fairly integral: Earthfall (a Left 4 Dead clone), and Firewall Zero Hour (a Rainbow Six clone for PSVR). A lot of times I would join games and nobody would be chatting, which would make the whole experience a lot less fun, and more difficult than it needed to be. But, then I realized, that doesn't necessarily mean that nobody is chatting - It could very-well mean that the other players were in a Party Chat of their own, and just didn't bother to dissipate it for the sake of chatting with everybody playing the game. I do admit I'm guilty of this as my brother usually wanted to just stay in Party Chat whenever we played Rainbow Six Siege - In our defense, we always played Terrorist Hunt or other co-op modes, so communication wasn't as necessary. But, the point is, you could have a room full of people with mics in a game, and hardly anyone is communicating with one another because they're all in their small designated chats.
Whenever I revisit my PS3, I generally go back and play Need For Speed The Run which has maintained a player-base for an astoundingly long time (I never would've guessed when I tried connecting to it years after PS4 and Xbone have been around, I'd be able to find a game). What struck me was that I was actually able to babble with random people on there, and that actually made it quite a bit more enjoyable than a lot of games you can connect to nowadays, because everyone is silent (likely in their own parties) - And that's even despite how much of a pain-in-the-ass it was to connect a headset to the PS3 and the fact that you have to charge it, and it's not included with the console itself, and doesn't cost $6 for one, like you can buy for your PS4.
This overall lack of 'community communication' in favor of streamlining and allowing for more private forms of communication also extends to why I didn't enjoy Monster Hunter Worlds as much as I did previous entries, despite the fact that it's pretty much objectively the best Monster Hunter game ever created. Making it so you could search for any quest at anytime and just join it on-the-spot took a lot of the social elements out of the game. You no longer have to barter with people about what quest to do next or ask for help - Then again, there's less backstabbing where you do someones' quest first with the promise that they'll help you, and they just up-and-disappear on you, so that's definitely a plus! It definitely takes a bit away from gaming that used to be there before all this streamlining was a thing, though.
So, just me thinkin' out-loud, but I thought I'd put this out there for others to think about. I'm not saying I would get rid of Party Chat if I had a magic wand that could make it disappear - I'm just more/less going on somewhat of a technological nostalgia trip back to when if you wanted to chat, you had to chat with everyone playing the game. There were pros and there were cons to that, but there definitely has been elements in gaming that have been watered-down as a result of Party Chat and streamlining everything to the point where we no longer need to communicate with other people in games. It's just slightly unfortunate, but I probably notice more than most since I oftentimes play with randies.
Comment