Practicum Post #1

I have owned a video game console ever since I can remember and since the era of the online gaming, I have had no interest in it whatsoever. I have never attempted to explore what online gaming has to offer or how it differs from the regular game. The main reason for this was because I was not really in to killing people repetitively (or, what I really mean is, dying, respawning, only to die 3 seconds later).

That is why I chose to play Madden 2011 online instead of the ever-popular Call of Duty: Black Ops. I just created my online username/avatar for my Ps3 today and played in my first ever game and a half. The half comes from the first game I played and my opponent (somewhere in the world) left. So, I started a new game and proceeded to play all the way through. My feelings towards killing/shooting games should apply to the realm of online sports-play as well because I got my ass beat 24-3. I was the Packers, playing at home to the Giants.

Let me walk you through my first online gaming experience. First, I am amazed at how specific you can search for people: whether you want to play with the "Gameflow" of conventional styles, time limit, gamemode (whether ranked, unranked, etc), and something called DNF, which I have yet to figure out what that means. I just wanted to play the damn game for Christ's sake. Well then I progressed to being matched up with an opponent and before the game starts it displays his username and her record with was something like 62-45 or something ridiculous like that. So I knew that he would not be frightened by my intimidating record of 0-0. The game itself went pretty much like I thought it would, one-sided. Not much more to explain there.

What I have concluded from my first online gaming experience is three-fold. First, people have way to much time on their hands and need to enjoy the good outdoors or be with "real" people. Whatever happened to going over to a kids house and beating the shit out of them there? Atleast you can ridicule them to their face. Secondly, I have been playing the wrong types of games for online play. I am used to the storymode, individual player games like God of War, and Darksiders. So, essentially I need to practice. I need to create a team, create my own playbook, or something that can make up for my lack of skills during the game. Finally, this was a very eye-opening experience because when I was finished, there were 3462 games being played online with 28,430 online users. So some where playing, some where practicing, and some where setting up there accounts.

Needless to say, I am amazed how many people play online. Until next time...