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In this generation of game consoles, it has become apparent that the Internet is the wave of the future when it comes to gaming. The Xbox helped to establish the idea of the connected console through its Xbox Live service and, although there may have been consoles before it that offered various connectivity options, none achieved the success of Microsoft’s console. However, it was not until the Xbox 360 that online gaming truly hit its stride, with over 10 million subscribers to Xbox Live.  Sony and Nintendo have taken notice and acted accordingly with their PlayStation Network and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection services.

The advent of online gaming has helped to spur an entire online community of gamers which, before the Internet, would have had very little means to communicate with each other. As Major Nelson of Xbox fame describes in his podcasts (or blogcasts as he likes to call them), the communities which have sprung up around the Xbox Live service are incredible. Games like Halo and Call of Duty have enormous fan bases and, thanks to Xbox Live, those fans can communicate and play with one another on a regular basis.

Although Sony and Nintendo may be lagging behind when it comes to their online services, both have nevertheless embraced, to varying degrees, the concept of online play. Whether its with the PS3 and Wii or the PSP and DS, Sony and Nintendo fans can head online to find thousands of other gamers to play with. However, is this new era of online gaming beneficial to the industry?

While online gaming certainly is fun (and profitable), there are several problems that it presents as well, perhaps the most significant being the pressure for developers to add online components to their games. In fact, it seems as if having a game which doesn’t have some online component has become stigmatized in today’s gaming industry. One way developers often incorporate this online component is by throwing in a multiplayer portion to their games. Games today seem to need both a single player component and an online multiplayer component.  More and more game developers are incorporating multiplayer aspects to their games, just for the sake of being able to say the game is multiplayer, while other developers of traditionally multiplayer games are adding single player modes for similar reasons. Take for instance, the Metroid series. Granted, while it wasn’t an online game, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes introduced a multiplayer mode to the series. While the new mode was decent enough, it certainly wasn’t anything spectacular and the time that it took to develop that portion of the game could probably have been invested into making the single-player portion of the game even better. It simply felt as though the multiplayer mode was tacked on to the main experience of the game.

Conversely, Call of Duty 4 presented an incredibly intense single-player experience, in addition to an extremely deep multiplayer experience. Neither felt tacked on and both were important aspects of the game. Upcoming games such as Fable 2 are incorporating seamless co-op, online or offline, which will allow players to drop in and out of the game world. Co-op has been a part of gaming since the beginning and now developers are starting to allow that same experience to carry over to the Internet as well. However, you don’t have to have online multiplayer to have a successful game. Just look at games like BioShock, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Ironically, both BioShock and Mass Effect have benefitted from online downloadable content, but that’s for a different article. The fact of the matter is that not all games need to be played online.

I would much rather see developers devote more time to a great single player experience than tacking on an online multiplayer component at the last minute that isn’t fleshed out. The ideal balance seems to be games like Fable 2 or Call of Duty 4, two games which, although very different, were built with an online component in mind. In Fable 2’s case, the online component being touted is seamless co-op, with Call of Duty 4, it’s an engrossing multiplayer mode. However, both games still allow you to play single-player. The important thing is that they give players a choice.  There are multiplayer games, there are single player games and there are games that are both, what’s unfortunate is when games that are traditionally single player try to hastily incorporate a multiplayer mode or vice versa. Is this to say that developers shouldn’t explore new grounds with established games? Of course not. It’s beneficial, both to developers and gamers, to take established games in new directions. What’s not beneficial, is when that change occurs out of obligation, when developers feel they have to add an online component or have to add a single player component to their games. Just because the connectivity’s there doesn’t mean you have to use it. Likewise, if you are utilizing that connectivity to its full potential and are creating an experience that is intricately tied to that connectivity, there is no need to invest additional time and effort to incorporate a single-player portion into the game if that isn’t really what the game is all about.

When it comes down to it, the Internet is merely an additional tool at developers’ fingertips; and should be used as such; it shouldn’t be an obligation. While it’s great to see such a variety of games taking advantage of this new technology to allow gamers to play together, it’s equally interesting to see games like BioShock or Mass Effect that only selectively make use of this technology. As with anything, moderation is key. While many developers have added online components, such as multiplayer and leaderboards, just to be able to say their games have online connectivity, there are an equal number of developers who are starting to recognize the true potential of this incredible new technology. Games like Call of Duty 4, Fable 2, Mass Effect and BioShock all take advantage of online connectivity to varying degrees, while games like Super Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess have no online connectivity, but are equally as engaging. While online connectivity may not be the standard for video games yet, it certainly seems to be headed in that direction, but at least developers are finally starting to realize that there are varying degrees to which this type of technology can be utilized, whether it be a comprehensive multiplayer experience, or as simply the ability to send a friend a photo from Metroid Prime 3 or download new content for Mass Effect.  Not all games need online connectivity, but what is nice to see is that developers are starting creatively incorporate this technology into their games versus doing it out of obligation. Adding this type of connectivity needn’t be a chore, but rather, can and should dramatically enhance the overall gaming experience.