The Life of an Offline-Only Gamer

StickSkills.com writes, "The mere possibility of the next generation of consoles going “download only” for game distribution is something that petrifies me. See, due to me living in the middle of nowhere I am part of a rare group of gamers who can’t get broadband internet. The kinds of things that take a couple minutes for the privileged many out there (like downloading patches or games off of Playstation Network or Xbox Live arcade) sometimes takes me a couple hours. So what’s it like to live in this dark world? Well, it isn’t fun."

[MariaHelFutura]

I still prefer SP to MP. Single player games are just so much more engaging, RPGs being an example. RPGs especially have just such a "magical" way of sucking you into the world as a SP expierence, that just can not be matched online.

[kevnb]

mmos are much greater when done right.

[Megaton]

It's gotta be rough being an offline gamer this gen. Half the games out there at retail are practically beta versions because devs are so reliant on post-launch patches.

[knifefight]

I'm in the same boat as the author in a lot of ways.

I don't even care about multiplayer in certain games (I prefer offline MP), but what I haaaaate is how many games need patched these days. It's insane, and what's worse is that so many people have come to accept and expect it. Ugh.

[kma2k]

Truth is most gamers dont just "accept" it we have come to expect it!

[kma2k]

Thats gotta suck, i use my internet for so many things i couldnt imagine not having it. Out of curiosoity where do you live? Satalite internet not an option?

[Transporter47]

an offline gamer without patches kind of sucks, a perfect example is Skyward Sword, or Skyrim without patches man that would suck, and sucks for the game breaking bug Zelda has : /

[lzim]

so thank god for certification.. but what if certification continues to dive off the deep end if games are download only... you'd have reason to be apprehensive.

however.. how many download only title (Xbox Live Arcade titles actually have updates after you download them? and can't you download them at a friends house? or have them mailed to you etc?

[morkendo23]

if games became downloadable only i would quit gaming instantly.

[Philoctetes]

This was a really good article. Until recently, I had no choice but to deal with ultra-slow DSL (like 256k down) thanks to living in the sticks, and it was a huge pain to download patches and demos, most of which required me to leave my PS3 on overnight to let the download finish. My internet is solid now, but people who have never had to deal this don't realize how bad high-speed internet penetration is in the US.