I Miss the Old Days of Gaming Sometimes

So, I just read an article about the issues plaguing the online multiplayer aspect of Friday the 13th. Apparently there were quiet a few issues with people not being able to log in and play. The servers didn’t work quite as planned and some people didn’t even get their codes to the game itself. Luckily, the developers are on it and most of the issues have been fixed by now. So that’s good.

A lot of people were pretty excited for the game. The online gameplay had you either hiding with fellow campers from Jason or hunting campers down as Jason. Early impressions said it was a blast to play. It’s too bad that early adopters had to deal with server issues.

Granted the developers have been hard at work smoothing things out so I guess I can’t complain too much. And I commend them for being on top of it. But I sure miss the good ol days when I could just pop a game in play it right off the bat. I didn’t have to wait for bugs to be patched or even for the game to install.

I remember when Diablo 3 came out. I bought it for the PC and brought it home expecting to play it right away. And I couldn’t. I couldn’t play it at all because the servers were down and you had to be online to play the game. Even if you didn’t want to play online you still couldn’t play until the servers were running. That’s frustrating. Here’s a game I just dropped 60 bucks on and I can’t even play it.

On top of that, more often then not, you have to install games before you can play. Which I guess isn’t a huge deal. PC gamers have been doing that for ages. But when I pick up a game at the store after thinking about it all day at work, it would be nice to just plop down on the couch and play it. Instead I have wait for it to install onto my PS4. Which can take quite some time for some games. And then I usually have to wait for a patch as well because, again, most games get patched as soon as they come out.

I get that games are much more complicated then they used to be. I know that they need a little more work then they used to. And that there are lot more things that can go wrong with them. And I get that they need to install the game so that it can run on the machine. Games have a totally different infrastructure then they used to. So of course games are going to be different then they were back in the day.

Most of these issues are usually solved in a fairly short amount of time. And installing a game can be solved by some careful planning on my part or pre installations. It’s not the end of the world.

I’m old enough to actually say “back in the day” as far as games go though. I grew up playing Nintendo until the Playstation came out  and I’ve been playing those ever since. I think there is something to be said about popping in a game and playing right away. And I think there’s something to be said about playing a game that works out of the box and doesn’t need patched. I miss those days sometimes.

But I’m probably just getting old. I may be stuck in the past a little bit. I still have a huge bout of nostalgia for those old games. Partly because they were so much a part of my life growing up. Games are important to me. As I’m sure they are for a lot of other people. And they still are. Which is why I get frustrated.

So I’m not going to give up on games by any means. As much as I want to throw up my arms and say “the hell with it” at times because I have to wait on a game to install or the thing won’t even play at all, I won’t. It’s a new era and games are still growing and becoming ever more complicated. Games now are giving us experiences that we couldn’t even dream of back in the day. Or they are giving us experiences that we did dream of.

Games are amazing. Especially now. And I understand why they have to have these sometimes frustrating issues. But sometimes, just sometimes, I miss the old days of gaming.