# Do you think the internet ruined or improved socialization between people who play video games?



## Sonic Angel Knight (Aug 17, 2017)

Back in the early days of playing games, people did stuff together in the same room, played video games, talked to each other, share information about games they learned, read magazines about tips and tricks and even helped each other out. Fast forward to present times where the internet is super huge to almost prominent in everyday life (not to everyone) where instead of going to some friend of yours to get some help on a video game you get stuck at, you go to youtube and watch a video of some person who looks like they been playing the video game even before is released and showing off so much is like they worked on the game, and the game has just been recently released. 

Instead of asking your friend "hey, come over, I wanna show you what I found out in the new final fantasy game" You instead can simply turn on twitch to show a live broadcast of a game, record all evidence, make some silly compilation video that gets attention and upload to youtube and other sites. Instead of inviting your friend over to play video games with them, you instead send them a invitation through the game network and play without leaving your house, making such things like social interaction a new dynamic.

So some good things, you can play games with other people from around the world, think everyone in america isn't good enough for your Street fighter skills, well play against someone from Japan, or England, or Italy, or wherever. Meet new people, make new friends across the globe. Wanna watch some people who play games you never heard of cause of failure to localize them like Puyo Puyo or tetris? Go find someone on twitch or Youtube who plays them, cause they have it there. Yes, admitting that the internet evolved allowing lots of nice things made easy.

But what about the bad? People don't bother inviting people over to your house cause you can just "Meet them online" or something, no need to spectate when you can just literally watch them live broadcast. Remember when you was 5 years old, and your older sibling was playing a game, telling you how to play cause you wasn't as good as they was? Welcome to live broadcasting where I like to call it the "Older sibling simulator" 

So I got two questions for you, do you feel the internet ruined or improved social interaction? Second is what is your opinion in modern 2017, you maybe want it to be more like it used to with the way people handled playing games or are you fine with the way it has become? Honestly is not my best written topic since I am struggling to find proper words for better clarity as well there being people who optionally do both what was described above and find none of this a problem, or just don't care at all.


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## FAST6191 (Aug 17, 2017)

Ruined mine when it sent local co-op the way of the dodo.


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## JellyPerson (Aug 17, 2017)

I like local multiplayer a lot. I agree with FAST6191 on this.


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## DarthDub (Aug 17, 2017)

Purely subjective.


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## jimmyj (Aug 17, 2017)

I like local multiplayer


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## Deleted User (Aug 17, 2017)

Sonic Angel Knight said:


> Fast forward to present times where the internet is super huge to almost prominent in everyday life (not to everyone) where instead of going to some friend of yours to get some help on a video game you get stuck at, you go to youtube and watch a video of some person who looks like they been playing the video game even before is released and showing off so much is like they worked on the game, and the game has just been recently released.


Uh, no? If i get stuck at a game, I just try to find another way or i'll come to it back tomorrow.
Even if I'm playing with my friends, we don't go to that cancerous youtube where dude screams "HEY WHAT'S UP MY SEXY BOKOBLINS" at 100% olume, massively raping my ears and destroying my headphones.


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## The Catboy (Aug 17, 2017)

One of the biggest reasons why I tend to lean towards Nintendo is because they still keep focus on offline multiplayer. I can still throw parties and everyone can still enjoy Smash or Mario kart without lugging along another system to play them (expect a 3DS for Smash, but I even supply those.) Where as with my PS4, I have no offline multiplayer games for the system and thus it ends up getting left out of the party, which kind of sucks. Which makes me feel like too many games nowadays focus too hard on online gaming and that kind of ruined them for me. I enjoy playing online with my friends, but if they don't lug their system to my place or they don't have the game/system, then we can't enjoy that together. That's something I find that online gaming has really ruined for me.


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## Alkéryn (Aug 17, 2017)

Local mutliplayer was great
But internet itself outweight the loss


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## Quantumcat (Aug 17, 2017)

My favourite childhood memories are of playing Super Mario on the NES and then the SNES cooperatively with my sisters. When someone died it was the next person's turn and we would give advice to the person playing and generally have a wonderful time. Then later playing Mario Kart 64 against each other and cooperatively playing Zelda 64. Then later, watching my best friend play Final Fantasy at her house and get watching me play Zelda at mine, and having big arguments / play fights about which was better, Playstation or Nintendo :-) The best part about video games was talking about them with other people. And the secrets were precious - discovering a secret area in a Mario Bros level or a shortcut on Mario Kart just felt absolutely amazing. Nowadays the secrets are cheap - you can look up any guide and have them all spelled out for you. Even if you choose not to look them up it still cheapens them when you do discover them. The internet may have given us some things but I think it has taken away from a lot of parts.


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## FAST6191 (Aug 17, 2017)

The internet did exist during the N64 era. I remember following a guide to get some bomberman 64 costumes. Or was the Australian internet even worse then than it is now?



Lilith Valentine said:


> One of the biggest reasons why I tend to lean towards Nintendo is because they still keep focus on offline multiplayer.


Trouble is I don't like their games that much (Mario and Smash could be good but need an awful lot more polish, and far fewer gimmicks or at least the option to select them better, mores the pity that everybody trying to make similar games seems to want to clone them rather than work from the ground up). Equally their options for streets of rage type games, dungeon crawlers and such (what I really want) seem a bit thin on the ground, or a bit single player.


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## The Catboy (Aug 17, 2017)

FAST6191 said:


> Trouble is I don't like their games that much (Mario and Smash could be good but need an awful lot more polish, and far fewer gimmicks or at least the option to select them better, mores the pity that everybody trying to make similar games seems to want to clone them rather than work from the ground up). Equally their options for streets of rage type games, dungeon crawlers and such (what I really want) seem a bit thin on the ground, or a bit single player.


That seems like a you thing on this one, although my parties involve a lot of drinking. So really the games are just there for drunken fun and laughs as we watch we each other completely fail at Smash while getting smashed.


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## Quantumcat (Aug 17, 2017)

FAST6191 said:


> The internet did exist during the N64 era. I remember following a guide to get some bomberman 64 costumes. Or was the Australian internet even worse then than it is now?


I "discovered" the internet at the same time I got up to the Forest Temple. I printed out guides using the school computers and got most of the way through the Fire Temple and some assorted overworld stuff before I realised this was a bad idea, and I was ruining the game for myself. I changed my mind when I got up to the Water Temple (it's a hard slog for a 13 year-old even with the help of her 11 year-old sisters) but after the Water Temple I managed to avoid looking at guides. We had a PC at home, but I wasn't allowed to use it, it was my dad's special toy, and he only begrudgingly occasionally allowed my mum to use it :-p


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## TVL (Aug 17, 2017)

Playing in the same room is a million times more fun than playing online. I don't watch people play games because I find that to be a boring waste of time.


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## smf (Aug 17, 2017)

FAST6191 said:


> The internet did exist during the N64 era.



The internet started in 1982, although the world wide web only became public available in 1991 (after being designed in 1989).

People think of the internet as youtube/facebook/etc but they are only content.


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## DinohScene (Aug 17, 2017)

Actually it's the mirror opposite for me.
I and me brother are frequently 100%ing games.
We don't play on one console no.

He plays on his own 360 on his own telly and I bring a small telly + me RGH.
Together we're on his couch playing the same game.






It's an oldie pic from ~dec last year?
100%ing RDR together.

We're both no fans of multiplayer.
Co-op we do but we syslink the consoles or we go into private servers.
But that's incredibly rare.


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## Cyan (Aug 17, 2017)

I don't play local-coop, and I don't play internet multi-player either.
To me, the socialization only covered exchanging games and talking about them at school.

Now, Having internet, is helpful because I'm not at school anymore and don't know anybody to talk video games with.
Having this forum is like a breath of air I wouldn't have got offline. internet made me meet (virtually) hundreds of people from around the world, and even once physically (went to Tokyo once, meeting someone I met in an online game, from one of the rare 2 games I played online).

the socialization is limited, as we don't really talk together and become friend, we don't play together, but I know where to go to talk/exchange info about a game.

edit:
Sometime I wish I knew some people in my town which shared the same interest, but more to let them discover what I like than the reverse (sometime, I don't like listening to other people's passion, I like new things but not from people who are 100% in it and nothing else)


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## Touko White (Aug 17, 2017)

I feel like some of the feel of multiplayer is definitely lost when online, however online play is still a good thing because it connects more people and can make you online friends in some cases. Online has made things easier for some people. Plus I've never played a game multiplayer with anyone in real life besides a 5 year old sister who is just picking things up... though Kaillera and Netplay on emulators has made it easier for me


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## Abu_Senpai (Aug 17, 2017)

It only ruined it in regards to Spoilers

But it also made it better due to the fact that you can meet other people like yourself who share the same passions as you.


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## Deleted User (Aug 17, 2017)

It's all just subjective. Like @DinohScene said, some buddys come over (last time it was Friday) and we just try to complete a game. Last time it was DOOM on Xbox. Super fun.


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## zSyntex (Aug 17, 2017)

Here is the same question for ever.
The problem is not the invention, but how it is exploited by humans .. even nuclear could be a positive energy, but the sick mind of man used it for another. 
As for the Internet, it is useful to connect thousands of people with common interests and games, unfortunately the generation of today's kids is too used to playing games with a missing plot that sucks money with the DLC and only based on the online. *The companies know how to make money with Online* and the kids are making use of it.

Of course improved really the communication between every people


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## Sonic Angel Knight (Aug 17, 2017)

Felek666 said:


> Uh, no? If i get stuck at a game, I just try to find another way or i'll come to it back tomorrow.
> Even if I'm playing with my friends, we don't go to that cancerous youtube where dude screams "HEY WHAT'S UP MY SEXY BOKOBLINS" at 100% olume, massively raping my ears and destroying my headphones.


Sorry but that was funny, no offense to you. Someone saying that is just silly. Not sure what youtube videos you be watching. 

But yeah, that is fair. Assuming game devs think we are smart enough to complete the game, expecting us to use our heads, some some take it too far out of reach when it makes us look stupid. For example the P.T. game that people played, not sure if kojima went too far with the puzzle or the youtube videos exaggerated it. Games could have a healthy balance of giving enough information not to confuse or lose player interest and having the player think for themself.

To the two people writing "SUBJECTIVE" Yes i know it is, i mentioned it already.


Sonic Angel Knight said:


> Honestly is not my best written topic since I am struggling to find proper words for better clarity as well there being people who optionally do both what was described above and find none of this a problem, or just don't care at all.


What I want to know is YOUR opinion.


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## vinstage (Aug 17, 2017)

This honestly withers down to ones opinion.

I think the fact Local is still an option is pretty good, so we still have the best of both worlds despite one being heavily used.


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## Saiyan Lusitano (Aug 17, 2017)

It mostly ruined. You don't have friends coming over anymore to play by your side, you don't have those stupid but funny chats and doing this all through online gaming just isn't the same.

Admittedly, it's still cool to voice-chat with strangers but yeah.


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## Kigiru (Aug 17, 2017)

I find that social groups based around a concrete game can be sad and rather toxic. Lately i was playing Hearthstone for fun and because i like card games. It was fun, i liked it despite being F2P player and being unable to get most "pro" cards.

...and then i discovered their official forums... and biggest unofficial community... and saw how stupid and toxic and retarded people can be. Gaming is fun when it's based around small, friendly communities. Socialization and creating big groups of various people tends to create cesspools beyond control.


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## Sonic Angel Knight (Aug 17, 2017)

vinstage said:


> This honestly withers down to ones opinion.
> 
> I think the fact Local is still an option is pretty good, so we still have the best of both worlds despite one being heavily used.


Thank you for understanding. 

I was aware this is a "SUBJECTIVE OPINION" situation, but I tried my best to list various reasons of pro and con, but not making it to controversial. I do think is only good with a healthy balance of both. Yes I like the internet cause i can play with people all over the world, if i have no one here to play with. I do like playing with people in the same room. So far, advances to simulate playing games like we used to in the form of online gaming is trying more and more to close in on the winning solution. Still people are free to do as they please which won't change but is always a interest of new things being introduced giving us people new opportunities and even some abandoning old ones in favor of new ones. Whatever the case yes, is a complete opinion based response I am looking for.


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## cvskid (Aug 17, 2017)

Have to deal with lag, input delay, and overall people saying/doing things they wouldn't normally do because they have the safety of the internet between them and you like taunting, teabagging, ragequitting, and overall having to deal with age groups that aren't even old enough to be playing said game/series in the first place. I know that some people say to have thicker skin and it's the internet so that's just the way it is but not everyone is like that. Almost seems rare to find decent human beings playing online these days.

For offline the main things you worry about is it you have any friends in real life with the time to hang out and play videogames offline or if they are even interested in what you like to play to begin with.
If you don't then you have to see if there is a local community for the games you like to play and if not then you try to see if you can get enough people interested to make a community or offline get together yourself.


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## tetrabrik (Aug 17, 2017)

yes local multiplayer is now an afterthought because the convenience of online play makes it a much more appealing prospect to potential customers, hence developers tend to leave local out. there's also complexities in the coding and rendering aspect, esp. if you do split-screen, which might make the feature prohibitively expensive to implement.

and at the risk of dating myself, man do I miss LAN parties... that was the best kind of local multiplayer


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## Deleted User (Aug 17, 2017)

I don't usually like playing local multiplayer in games, but for the few games that I DO wanna play with maybe my sister or something, there's a way to play multiplayer. Mario Kart, Portal 2, Minecraft PS3 edition, any of the Little Big Planet series, etc. It's even there in tons of games that I'll probably never have the chance to play with people I know in real life (or not for a long time anyways), like Borderlands. Also, the few friends I know in real life all usually have games on different platforms than what I own, so if I do wanna play a game with them, I have to go over to their house and do local multiplayer, or they have to come over to my house. I kinda wish we all had the same consoles so we could just play online since we also now live in different parts of the city and it's a bit difficult to just kinda travel over to someone's house to play a game.

Also, I've always had anxiety problems to some extent, but recently they've worsened. If it weren't for the internet, I'd probably be stuck with the few friends I made before my anxiety got worse, and even then I wouldn't really interact with them much if I couldn't talk to them over Facebook, Skype, Discord or something since I have this weird fear of talking over the phone. The internet in general has made it possible for me to actually socialise with some people with few anxiety related problems, and it's also made it a lot easier to meet people with similar interests.


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## FAST6191 (Aug 17, 2017)

cvskid said:


> and overall people saying/doing things they wouldn't normally do because they have the safety of the internet between them and you like taunting, teabagging, ragequitting, and overall having to deal with age groups that aren't even old enough to be playing said game/series in the first place



"Play with your little brother"

"Stop swearing"

"Don't be a pussy and let me beat you again."

All things I heard during the 8-32 bit eras.

Edit. 13 year olds have good reactions as well. Quite nice to have such people playing battlefield or something with me.


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## Sliter (Aug 17, 2017)

I like more local multiplayer too but well
I could never.. NEVER play my GBA mario kart multplayer and I was crazy for this when I was kid (because no one to play together)
I played a LOT of online mario kart on 3DS :B 
So there are bad things but also had some nice things


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## Deleted User (Aug 18, 2017)

I think the internet ruined part of the mystique that games used to have.

Back then, games were rather mysterious.  There could be secret levels or content that might or might not exist in the game, depending on whether what some guy at school said was true.  There could be outlandish theories made about some games, like Luigi being a super-secret playable character in Mario 64, or some malicious villager in Animal Crossing moving into your town, chopping down your trees, and kidnapping other villagers.  Theories like that may have been false, but they were cool, and added a sense of mystery to games.  Finding out a secret playable character in an arcade game through some random combo input must have felt very rewarding.  Same goes for capturing a legendary Pokemon you weren't sure even _existed_ until now.

Nowadays, if people want to know some aspect of a game, they can just look it up on YouTube.  Things are more concrete; it either is in the game or it isn't.  It's harder to mess with people in games when you can just go on GameFAQs and read up on all secrets a game has.  Even worse, people can potentially just poke around through the game's files.  It's gotten to the point where we literally have to go out of our way to avoid accidentally discovering secrets about a game on YouTube or any old gaming forum.

In a sense, I find this ruins the mystery games used to have about them, and in my opinion, part of the fun.


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## Quantumcat (Aug 18, 2017)

B_E_P_I_S_M_A_N said:


> I think the internet ruined part of the mystique that games used to have.
> 
> Back then, games were rather mysterious.  There could be secret levels or content that might or might not exist in the game, depending on whether what some guy at school said was true.  There could be outlandish theories made about some games, like Luigi being a super-secret playable character in Mario 64, or some malicious villager in Animal Crossing moving into your town, chopping down your trees, and kidnapping other villagers.  Theories like that may have been true, but they were cool, and added a sense of mystery to games.  Finding out a secret playable character in an arcade game through some random combo input must have felt very rewarding.  Same goes for capturing a legendary Pokemon you weren't sure even _existed_ until now.
> 
> ...


Exactly!!! This is almost an allegory of childhood. What's underneath the house or in the big drain? Treasure? The bones of a kid who explored too far and got easten by some animal? Who knows? The world is a big, delightful mystery. But adults know that all there is under the house is dirt and spiders, and the drains eventually connect to another drain and all there is inside is slime. No longer exciting because you know everything. Games were more exciting when you couldn't know everything.


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## FAST6191 (Aug 18, 2017)

In real life I pull things apart and figure out how they work. It is great fun.
In games I am also able to pull things apart and figure out how they work, be in games or with my disassembler. It is also great fun.

Having someone be able to skim the groundwork (give or take http://mentalfloss.com/article/85311/10-video-game-easter-eggs-took-years-discover ) does not detract for me and there is still plenty of mystery to explore.


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## Wolfy (May 11, 2021)

I know that both opinions can be supported in this world full of massively multiplayer server and spoilers ahead of release. Local co-op is the only thing that I feel died, but I don't even know if that's out of greed that less co-op means more people buying consoles or that porting co-op to PCs that may have not been able to run two separate perspectives( although I feel that's an issue of the past now ).

I don't think the situation will ever be black and white, since there's plenty of good like downloading games/updates straight to your console, whereas it enables developers to not care so much about release since they can fix issues later on through bug fixes. 

The only thing I truly miss is being in school where I was younger, able to walk home with friends to their house and play games together, or even with my brother whenever we didn't fight.


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## Taleweaver (May 12, 2021)

Heh...nice necrobump, @Wolfy. Digging up a thread for 2017 is one thing. But it's an interesting read. And the probable change with corona aside, it's probably still as relevant as four years ago. 


As for my opinion: it stayed somewhat the same for me. In my youth, video games were sort of a personal escapism. I consumed them like I did with books: I just explored the worlds more interactive than books. Talking about games wasn't something we did among friends. Oh, sure: the shared super nintendo we had saw quite some couch co-op play, but I can barely recall discussing anything in the sense you would expect ("this is too hard!" "Peach looks...kind of pretty, right? " or those things early teens kind of should say). I mean...my nephew and niece came over (ages 4 and 6) last weekend to, among others, play some wiiu. Nephew is usually very shy/introvert, but once we got on the mario race track or played Mario bros U, he could barely stop talking. 

...but back to me. In my UT days, I...erm...talked more than average. That is to say: Unreal Tournament (and later 2004) was a very fast paced first person shooter before voice chat became a thing. Merely stopping to type even one or two words could get you fragged instantly. So in that strange environment where most communication consisted of "GG" at the end of the match, I started using key binds to taunts to show sportsmanship. First were the included taunts ("nice!" "boom!" "Oh yeah!" "You like that?"...that stuff), later I added an entire scheme to communicate e.g. flagrunners positions with at most two key presses. It's not that I spammed those buttons, but about 4 or 5 of those comments in a 30-minute match kind of stands out when the other 15 players are complete mutes. 
Also loved the two or three LAN's I been to. Was great to meet clanmates and semi-clanmates in person. I thought things would be more chatty, but when we started playing the only real difference was that the ping was much lower (which ironically made the pauzes of gaming the best moments).

After that, I mostly stuck to singleplayer games again (starcraft 2 was the only exception...and I didn't talk there). Hung out on forums a lot (and still do, obviously  ), but about the only real co-op games I played were couch co-ops. As mentioned above: I like nintendo games for this feature. Their games are never about technological power but always about making sure it's a fun time. As such, I'm looking forward to the day my daughter's old enough to hold a controller. 

I've been with my girlfriend for nearly six years. Never got her into console gaming (awww  ). But I've grown into loving board games at least equally much. It's not just the social interaction (read: if board games mostly consisted of rehashing the same gameplay loops of the same franchiches in ever slightly better graphics, I wouldn't be into board games at all), but it's an important part of it.
When the pandemic hit, I had dabbled into tabletop simulator for a couple hours. It has since become my most played game (at around 300 hours), and continues to grow. For the obvious reason: I set up a hangout session with friends alongside the game, so we can chat as if we were together in all but disease-carrying ways. Sure, the excuse is "I've got to teach the rules", but really: that is sort of less crucial than just being able to chat with others.


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## Daggot (May 12, 2021)

This is highly subjective but it improved it somewhat at first and then as the years went by ruined it.


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## Wolfy (May 12, 2021)

Taleweaver said:


> Heh...nice necrobump, @Wolfy. Digging up a thread for 2017 is one thing. But it's an interesting read. And the probable change with corona aside, it's probably still as relevant as four years ago.



Ah you know what it was, normally I just check the news and go off the sidebar of interesting recently updated threads, pretty sure for the first time I saw something interesting in "similar threads" and didn't think anything of it. Sorry for bringing back the dead!


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## BlazeMasterBM (May 21, 2021)

idk either. But I still lonely


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## Hells_Judge (May 22, 2021)

Parsec has made playing fighting games with no netplay easier than ever before. Sure, you're not gonna be running EVO with it, but for most everyone, it's good enough.


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## notimp (May 23, 2021)

I have an opinion on this. Its actually oversimplified.. 

Human socializing works on the principle of reciprocity. Actually on the expectation of reciprocity. (Good manners, being friendly to everyone, .. they all derive from that).

The internet works on the principle of faked reciprocity. As in - it rewards people who fake acts of reciprocity (f.e. large scale, low effort)).

As in "socializing" on social networks doesnt work. As in political movements dont work online. As in its easy to get large crowds of people to form at a certain place and point in time - but then they dont have the fixed social bonds, that would sustain lets say f.e. a political protest movement. So f.e. make them feel responsible for each other.

So online socialization is "different". More parasocial relationships ("I idolize Major Nelson!" (hes my default for many of the blogger related sociology stuff, dont pin me down on that too hard..  ), more "PewDiePie is my best friend", less real reciprocity. Less commitment. Lower stakes. Lower involvement level, ...

So it depends what you are looking for. 

I think of that stuff, whenever facebook tells me (usually in their marketing ads..  ), that it added so much value to the world, because it connected people from all kind of different suburbs, to give them common identity...


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## RandomUser (May 28, 2021)

This is slightly off topic,
I just wanted to say that online made me realized that I was actually the worst player out there, because when the family and I played back in the days, like the N64 days, we all played together and I was the best player of them all, even if I didn't occasionally win at times. Also around my relative, I was very good at playing games. Which lead me to believe I was a very good player, perhaps the best there was.
Also I did like playing co-op mode in Mario Kart Double dash, man you could punch the neighboring Kart drivers and make them spin out. To bad something like that isn't available online.
Now... we rarely play games together anymore .


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## ClancyDaEnlightened (Aug 1, 2021)

DinohScene said:


> Actually it's the mirror opposite for me.
> I and me brother are frequently 100%ing games.
> We don't play on one console no.
> 
> ...




fucking system link lobbies lmaoo, good times

 i've been using the internet and computers since i literally can remember, at first it improved socialization, now it seems that socializing is kinda dead,

you can't jump on consoles nowadays and literally get a whole 18 person lobby raging and shit talking trololol


not like it used to be playing 360, ps2,etc

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## jimbo13 (Aug 1, 2021)

No, I think it's akin to a prostitute.

Gets the job done, provides a placebo for interaction without any of the healthy mental aspects.

On a sidenote I think the coordination and reflex aspects are gone from modern gaming to, Grandpa's video games had this concept called "game over" most modern games you can continually play through without improving.


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## UltraDolphinRevolution (Aug 5, 2021)

Outsmarting someone in a game is a thousand times more rewarding than against a CPU. We could argue whether online gaming with unkown people is "socializing", but there is no question that the internet has made gaming more interesting.


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## osaka35 (Aug 5, 2021)

Local co-op all the way. it's really the only way to do it, unless you're playing private servers with friends only, or can remove the silly people.

online co-op was a pipe dream for me, living on bad dial-up in the early 2000s. I wouldn't get proper internet until university. First time trying online co-op resulted in a left-4-dead where my teamates were killing each other/me and screaming their heads off. definitely set my expectations of what online matches are like. I'll play matches online occasionally, but avoid chat like the plague. because it is. After hearing some of the incredibly racist and sexist things when i try and dip my toes in again, no way am I going to interact with that on a regular basis. bunch of edgelord 12 year olds who don't understand the horrific things they're saying, just like they're getting attention and "fitting in". 

So no. no, i don't think online is a good way to improve socialization. 

but my experiences aren't everyones, so hopefully mine is a rarer experience and I just have terrible luck.


smf said:


> The internet started in 1982, although the world wide web only became public available in 1991 (after being designed in 1989).
> 
> People think of the internet as youtube/facebook/etc but they are only content.


remember google video? remember 4-lane? how does a polar bear know what apples is?


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## smf (Aug 8, 2021)

osaka35 said:


> remember google video? remember 4-lane? how does a polar bear know what apples is?



I have a vague recollection about google video, it didn't last long. Never heard of 4-lane.
I don't know how polar bears conceptualize anything as I'm neither a polar bear or can communicate with one.

Remember altavista?

I'm not aware of any method that polar bears use for documenting their history, but we do & I kinda wonder why they don't teach internet history in schools.


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## Bladexdsl (Aug 8, 2021)

ruined it for sure turned everyone into trolls.


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