Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Longevity of games and how platforms affect it.

       I am a heavy gamer and thus spend a lot of time online. Online multiplayer spans many types from competitive to cooperative and they both play differently to the longevity of the game. One game I would like to highlight is Halo. Not 4,3, reach, odst, or even 2. Just Halo CE, a game that launched on the xbox in 2001 and changed the gaming world forever. The game had an along side launch for the PC and even had exclusive maps. This makes the game nearly 13 years old now and you would think that that's it right? No. While the Xbox Live service for the xbox was shut down many moons ago people still play it online, lots of people. The last time I logged on to play an online match of halo ce there was more than 450 servers. 450! We have seen console games abandon and shooters thrown to the side for the sequel that comes out a year later later, but for a nearly 13 year old game to have more than 450 active servers? That should speak to the longevity of the games on pc. I have witnessed console gamers exclaim at how amazed they are that a game that is more than a year old still has an active community. that is nothing to sneeze at. I believe that the console, if it wishes to survive, needs to allow user created servers. It is what keeps a game alive once the publisher/developer forgets about it.

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