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Plug and play
By CHIP CARTER Sean Ingram has played games online for years, participating in online sports leagues and now starting one of his own. All on his home computer. Yet Ingram couldn't wait to try out Sony's new online service for its PlayStation 2 console, which went live Aug. 27. "It was great," said Ingram, 28, of Houston. "You get to chat (with opponents) and actually play someone -- a human being, not a computer. It makes it more realistic and challenging." For the uninitiated, the image of a video game console is that of a kid playing alone, shutting out the world as his fingers twitch away at the controller buttons. But competing against others has always been a big part of the appeal. Now, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are betting they can bring the social experience of console gaming online, where battle-hardened vets of PC games have ruled.
"The draw of gaming on a console is always competition, playing with your friends, not just being a solitary gamer," said Gwen Marker, senior manager of corporate communications for gamemaker Sega. "Online, the game play itself is actually enhanced with other users. You don't have to have your buddies over, you can do that independently from your home with an ever-expanding circle of friends, or foes." Sony got out of the gate first, with about a dozen games going live online Aug. 27. Microsoft launches its online service Nov. 15. Nintendo promises to get in on the fun this fall, but for now it's watching the others cautiously. Sony shipped 250,000 PlayStation 2 online adapters at $39.99 apiece in North America, and it expects to have about 400,000 on the market by year-end. The question is, how big an impact will online gaming have? Aren't people who want to play online already doing so through PC offerings such as the popular fantasy adventure Everquest, the space-colonization combat game StarCraft and the PC version of Madden NFL football? "We don't expect online play to be a huge thing this generation, but it is something we think the hard-core fans will want, so we'll be there for them," said Trudy Muller, corporate communications manager for gaming behemoth Electronic Arts (makers of Madden and other hits). So why the buzz? Figures provided by Sony show that about 40 percent of U.S. households have a console system, and expectations are that up to 5 percent of those will go online this year. By the end of next year, that number should hit almost 12 percent and rise consistently for several years. The real plus to online console compared with PC gaming is user friendliness. Popping a disc in your PS2 and signing on is about as close to plug-and-play as online gaming is going to get. The rest of the appeal comes in always having somebody to play with. When it comes to video gaming, there have always been two basic camps: players with friends, and players without. Those with friends played multiplayer console games such as Madden football and the James Bond romp Goldeneye in the family room. Those without went online via their PCs to compete with people they had never met and never would. The big question will be whether gamers will pay to play games online that they've already bought for consoles they own. Electronic Arts is not yet charging gamers to play, even though Madden's a sure bet to be the top title played online. And, outside of the initial investment in the adapter, Sony has no plans to charge online users either and is allowing third-party content providers to set their own pricing, if any. Microsoft plans to charge gamers an access fee and provide third-party content via its own network. Fees for a year of Xbox online will be $49.95. There's an Ethernet modem built into the Xbox, so you won't need new hardware. Unlike the PS2, the Xbox online supports only broadband connections. Not surprisingly, broadband connections are best, and not all PS2 titles work with dialup connections. "We've done head-to-head Internet play on the PC for years, so this isn't a huge experiment for us," Electronic Arts' Muller said. "We look at it as a feature of the game. Because we have the infrastructure already in place, this isn't seen as a huge investment." Added Marker of Sega, which first brought online console gaming to consumers a couple of years back with the groundbreaking but ill-fated Dreamcast, "It's an evolution, not a revolution. It's going to take time. We believe that in the long term, consumers are interested and that it will enhance the gaming experience, but I don't think it's going to be an explosion right out of the gate." Online gaming wasn't enough to save Dreamcast, and it won't be enough to radically change the face of console gaming in the near future. But gamers who are taking advantage of their new online options are having a ball. "Playing online is great, (except for) the wife griping about it all the time," said Ingram, the Houston gamer. "But every blue moon (even) she will play." -- Chip Carter is a syndicated video game columnist who lives in Tampa.
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