Note: This is a semi-rant, but I hope to have presented myself well. Also, I haven't even gotten into the whole 'Always On DRM stops pirates' argument. I may do another blog on that particular gem in the near future.
Having been a major player of World of Warcraft for the last 8 years, having garnered approx. 200+/- days of played time (4800+/- hours) in essentially an Always On environment, you would think that I would be totally fine with the current push towards it as the 'next big thing'. Well here are my thoughts on it.
I come from Australia where the ISPs have no clue what 'unlimited data plan' means. I spent around 5 of those 8 years playing in Australia with 500-2k latency every day constantly balancing the fact that if I downloaded too much that month, my internet would be so throttled that playing anything online would be an exercise in extreme patience.
The next 2 years would be spent in the US under the machinations of Comcast, in an area where apparently our ISP didn't know the meaning of the word stable internet. For 8 months my wife and I would be constantly calling them, wondering why our internet was either bouncing from 1 mb to 11 mb download or disconnected entirely. Needless to say, raiding in WoW was severely hit and miss during this time. At least in Australia I could simply cut back on my YouTube browsing for the month to be able to play.
The last year has been spent with AT&T (and I am currently on hiatus with WoW). Compared to my previous ISPs, AT&T have been like a dream. I think we have only had a few minor disruptions after a year of being with them. However, I have heard stories from people who have used AT&T in other areas that they can be just as hit and miss as my experience with Comcast. Especially after a large storm, which, as I currently live in Alabama, happens quite frequently.
The two major 'always on' games that have been published of late, ActiBlizz's Diablo III and EA's Sim City both had the most horrible launches in gaming history. Bar none.
I actually was a big fan of Diablo II, so when Blizzard announced their annual pass deal that allowed one to receive a free copy of D3 for paying a year's subscription, I was all into it. Why not? I was going to be paying for a year anyway. After installing D3 on launch and getting to play for maybe 30 minutes, I put it down and never picked it up again.
All that to say this: The infrastructure is simply not in place. It isn't. It may be one day, but that day is not now. It won't be now by the time the xBox720 comes out and it probably won't be now until a.) ISPs start swapping to fiber optic cable exclusively and b.) Publishers start making sure their games actually are properly stress tested before release rather than simply shoving them onto the consumers and letting them take the brunt of the fallout.
Even if it (the infrastructure) was ready now at this very moment. The consumer base is clearly not. I have read maybe 1 in 40 (if that) comments actually defending the always on paradigm instead of simply blasting it.
The main gamer demographic is still getting older, as kids who grew up playing Mario get older. It hasn't stabilized yet and probably won't for at least 20 years. The fact of the matter is that your average gamer now most likely a.) has a job b.) is married and c.) has kids. This cuts the average free time from 16 hours a day to 8 hours, to 2 hours, to maybe 1/2 an hour every 2 days if you're lucky. What these customers don't want is to get to that incredibly rare free time slot and see this: 'Error logging in. Server down.' or this: 'Cannot connect to the internet. Please call your service provider.'
The fallout of publishers jumping on the always on bandwagon may not be instantaneous, but it will be inevitable as more and more consumers get pushed into finding better ways to spend their time than wasting it by staring at a login screen.
I don't know what they think or how they come to the conclusions that they do at major game companies, but statements affirming consumer consent to always on are clearly and unequivocally false. I know that I will probably not be purchasing the next xBox. I know that EA has lost a potential buyer for at least a long time, and many more publishers are heading in the same direction. And finally, I know that there are literally thousands of older games out there that are looking really good to play right now. None of them have always on, or DRM of any kind and to me they look better and better every time someone mentions 'always on' being the way the industry is headed.
