If only local multiplayer in video games was still popular
They say the holidays are the time to give. This is exactly why my biggest gaming wish this Christmas is something that would benefit gamers around the world and not just myself. In case you are wondering why I am writing about my biggest gaming wish, check out this post/contest going on with @hivegc. Now let's get started with my wish.
We may need a Christmas miracle 🎄
Video games are more popular today than they ever were. I started playing in the 1990s and it was frowned upon by many at that time. Gaming was a waste of time, bad for the brain, and all sorts of things adults would say. Now if you are against gamers, you are against the world. Things have changed in more ways than most people care to see.
There is one major thing that kid and adult gamers are missing out on in our futuristic world today. I am talking about the glory days of split-screen and couch co-op video games. The remnants are still there with a game every so often, Nintendo Switch still drops awesome local multiplayer games for instance. Even then, it's just not the same.
The balance of nature has fallen out of place. Children used to spend hours playing outside together all summer and then run inside one of the neighborhood homes to cool off and play some video games together. Now, it's kids staying at home by themselves and playing all of their games online. Their friends are often people that they will never meet in real life. They have no clue what they are missing out on.
Have you ever had to worry about your friend knowing exactly where you are on the map during a match of Halo? I'm not talking about radar or some in-game cheat code. There is nothing more frustrating than somebody who has every map memorized and can just look down in the other quarter of the screen to find your location. We called that screen watching in my neighborhood. At first, we had no idea how to solve this problem, but eventually came up with a fix thanks to some cardboard and tape.
I know most of us have probably heard of stream snipers. The people who watch live streams and then get in the person's game just to ruin their chances of winning. They are able to watch the live stream and know exactly where the person is at all times. This is modern-day screen watching. It works quite well, but not being able to face your opponent in the same room just makes it feel so dirty.
Screen watching was a major problem, but there was also the issue of who would get to use the good and bad controllers. Not all parents were able to provide four of the best controllers for their one or two children. It was overkill to have that many and quite costly. Oftentimes they had two, maybe three good ones. Then one really cheap off-brand controller for the rare times that there was a full house.
Nothing is worse than being the best gamer in the room, but not being at your own house and getting stuck with the crappy controller. I can remember playing Super Smash Bros. Melee on GameCube and getting stuck with the horrible Mad Catz controller. I never stood a chance on those days.
Did anybody ever figure out what the Macro button did on the Mad Catz controller?
What is my gaming wish❓
Now that I have explained where I am coming from, let me tell you what it is that I wish for gamers worldwide.
I wish that we could once again be in the prime of local multiplayer games.
Those days of playing with friends in real life are something that kids today will probably never get to experience. It really was one of the best parts of my childhood. I am so thankful that I got to play some great games with some amazing friends.
I got so good at being under pressure, talking shit, adapting to my environment, and just making clutch plays. I may never get to talk to all of the kids I used to play video games with around my neighborhood anymore, but I have memories that will never be forgotten. It sucks knowing that so many gamers will never get to experience what I had.
We all are missing out on something at one point or another. I never got to enjoy going to the arcade for instance. I haven't hit the circuit and participated in professional gaming tournaments ever. I don't do live streaming. There are all sorts of things in the gaming realm that I have yet to experience. The thing that sits at the top of my gaming memories is playing games like Halo and Super Smash with my buddies in one of our living rooms. If you got to enjoy times like those, consider yourself lucky.
My NFTs: https://inji.com/@daltono/nfts
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One of my friends used to hold what we would call "Shed Nights". His parents would set up the TV and xbox in the shed, give us a bunch of blankets and order pizza, and we would all be in there playing Halo until we all passed out and fell asleep on the cement shed floor, haha! (Good grief, couldn't do that today, my back can barely handle my mattress let alone a cement floor.)
But yeah!! Those were the days!!
Also that controller thing. 😂🤣 At home I knew which one was the good one, and it was mine, my brother and sister could have the other crappy things.
Ahh, the good ol' days.
Those shed nights sound unforgettable. Sounds like you were lucky enough to have a crew of gaming friends at a young age. I know my neighborhood people loved playing outside and gaming. It was a great balance.
It was hard to find the motivation to carry around my good controller from home all day while we played outside, just so I could use it in the evening when we started playing games. I did that a few times at least.
I remember playing 4 player split-screens on my cousins N64, for Smash bros and Starfox screen looking was no problem but then when they got an Xbox and we played Halo then it become an issue. When we all upgraded to Computer games and had LAN parties we would build walls to hide our screens so nobody would know where on the map our bases were located in Real Time Strategies. When consoles started to go online they slowly phased out Co-op gaming which I never understood, I mean the multiplayer was there why not just add an offline version? But I guess the companies wanted players to subscribe to their internet services. Thank you for sharing, brought back some fun times. I hope your wish comes true and everybody can get back to building the cardboard walls, haha.
Some games it didn’t matter for like the ones you mentioned on N64…. But we know that in multiplayer arena shooters like Halo, it can be detrimental to winning if the enemy can always know your location. Hard to keep a streak going like that.
It’s nice not having to construct walls just to play, online gaming has its luxuries. It still would be nice to re-live these awesome memories a few more times.
I’m glad you enjoyed. Thanks for the awesome comment.
In some places around here local multiplayer is still the main thing people play, especially CS or Halo CE.
I wish I could say the same for around here. We don’t have any gaming cafes here. I also don’t know of many people they get together just to play games anymore. Heck, I don’t know a lot of people willing to get together to do much of anything at all. A few friends and family still like to meet, but not many of mine are hardcore gamers like I always have been.
Love those representations of the "screen blockers" I can't say that I ever got to that point but I do recall at certain points playing Mario Kart thinking i was doing awesome only to later realize that I was watching my friend's part of the screen and I was actually stuck in a corner somewhere.
Oh wow. Making the mistake of looking at the wrong part of the screen, totally forgot about that possibility. I’m sure it happened to me a few times back then as well.
The screen blockers actually worked really well. Was really only possible because we all had TVs well under 32 in at that time. Now it would be pretty hard to do this with my giant 63 in television.
Only true OGs know the struggle of monitoring your 1/4 of a 24" TV while playing a multiplayer game 😂 Those were the days though...
That’s an OG thing for sure. This new generation has no idea how vicious those neighborhood gaming sessions would get. Better not get caught screen watching.
We used to call this ghosting. “Don’t ghost me bro”. I haven’t played any split screen shooters since I was in the army. We played a lot of Modern Warfare 2 back then.
We’re gonna play some four player Mario Kart 8 later today with @emuse’s two nephews. I don’t think they’ve tried it before so it will be fun.
Split screen action was always so fun. 4 players in a game was a good number. Now I’m used to 8 minimum pretty much always and never have to worry about anybody seeing my screen.
Mario Kart will surely be fun. Nintendo is still the best at the local games.
Sadly the only companies I see doing couch gaming are both Microsoft and Nintendo. Though I do wish Halo Infinite came out with co-op campaign in release instead.
I played a pretty awesome couch co-op game on PlayStation this year called It Takes Two (https://www.ea.com/games/it-takes-two).
The game not only has couch co-op, but it also includes a friend pass so that if your only co-op friend is hundreds of miles away, you can give them a copy of the game for free so that you can play online together.
Other than that, yea it seems like Nintendo is the main co-op gaming console. The Switch works so well for that.
I think it is crazy that Halo Infinite went away from their co-op roots. That was the only reason I ever enjoyed playing the campaign in previous Halo games. Without that, I just don't care much for the story in Halo.