[lateStarter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('some_guy282', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lateStarter', 'O')mnitir,
Always being plugged in and available is not always a good thing. The flip side of living in an 'industrialised' society is that it seems to leave you with not only little free time, but less inclination to use whatever free time left, with interacting with other humans in a physical (as opposed to vitual) way!

[Omnitir]

Yeah, personally I hate cell phones as well…

But regarding the social value of games, the point I wanted to make is that games can be physically social. I’m not talking about playing Xbox live with the headset thingy talking to gamers over the world, I’m talking about a group of people coming together for each others company – in the same room – and playing games together as a form of social interaction.

As an example to demonstrate what I’m getting at, I was recently at a friend’s barbeque. In the back yard there was maybe half a dozen people playing a lazy game of cricket. This is the great social atmosphere of sports that people always talk about – people standing around waiting to catch a ball, occasionally someone gets bowled out and everyone shouts and laughs etc., and people telling the occasional joke, often at the expense of the larger gathering inside sitting around the Xbox. For the most part they don’t strike me as being involved in a particularly social activity. They are more concerned with the physical activity of their game.

So I go inside to hang with the people in the lounge room, and there are maybe a dozen people around the place watching four people playing simultaneous Halo. Those playing are being quite loud and obviously enjoying the social interaction, while those not playing are enjoying the spectacle and generally eating, drinking and being merry.

I’ve seen the exact same thing happen with two people competing in driving games or fighting games while others watch on, and even people playing single player games while others sit around and comment on the game and offer comments and suggestions etc.

It’s the exact same social atmosphere of sports in the sense that it’s a game of competition with the same kind of social interaction of competitors and spectators. The difference seems to be that people playing computer games together are more free to actually socialise while the people playing sports usually need to put more effort into the game, limiting social action.

So games can be highly social in the proper setting, regardless of virtual communities. In fact offline console games are often far more social then online PC games, which rarely involves more then one person in the same physical location.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')While you are busy conserving your 'human' energy, playing video games after society collapses (not sure how) your fellow citizens and neighbors will be busy 'harvesting' anything not nailed down in your area. At the end of the day, you will most likely be one of the top rated players on the planet, but will shortly thereafter starve to death...

[funzone36]

Omnitir, I agree we can still play video games after the oil crisis BUT we won't be able to buy video games. Video games are transported by trucks using oil so without oil, video games won't get shipped to the stores.

Remember that trucks can't be powered by batteries because they can't propel such weight and hydrogen has been explained by they aren't environmental and economical.

[Omnitir]

I disagree, funzone. There is a growing trend to purchase video games online and download the content online. The problem won’t be distributing games, it will be developing them. AAA titles currently are a risky investment for publishers, and as costs increase because of PO, more and more AAA developers will go out of business. The ones that survive will be the ones that learn to adapt to the changing economic environment by developing their product more cheaply, and distributing their product online.

You probably won’t be able to get a plastic wrapped game from the local Walmart anymore, but you’ll still be able to buy games online (and probably much cheaper then before) and download them.

And there will always be home brew games development.

[funzone36]

Oh yea, we can purchase and download online. I forgot about that. I don't do that often though.

I still see the entertainment industry losing a lot of money even if they distribute online for a fee. People are going to go to something like BitTorrent and download it for free.

[jesus_of_suburbia_old]

I won't miss them. Not that I never liked them, but my interest really tailed off when I hit my twenties.

I actually just gave my younger brothers my PS2. I stole it back because of Guitar Hero, though. That game is a riot. I suppose I should just learn to play a real guitar. It would probably be just as fun.