Always Online is Never a Good Idea

We live in a very tech-savvy world and the internet, our primary go-to source for information can easily be accessed on just about any electronic device imaginable, even our gaming consoles. Most of us use the internet every single day in our lives for one thing or another and as much as I love being connected to the net, having a constant connection in order to play a game, any video game has got to be one of the most ill-conceived ideas I've ever heard.

Lose your connection in the middle of a fight?
Tough rocks, chump!

Over the weekend, Adam Orth, creative director of Microsoft Studios in his infinite wisdom set the gaming community ablaze with a string of posts on his Twitter account, saying that he doesn't get all the "drama" about how always online is a raw deal for gaming. Rumors have been circulating that the Next Xbox or whatever Microsoft decides to call it will require a constant internet connection to play games. There are a laundry list of reasons why this would be bad.

I have a pretty solid net connection but I still experience problems from time to time where I lose my access. Now if I were in the playing a game that demanded that my connection always be on and it went out for whatever reason, I would be furious. But I know there are people out there that live in areas where their connection is nowhere near as stable as mine so they could experience disconnections at a much higher rate. Then, you have those out there that don't have internet in their homes. Yes, there do exist people in the world that don't have their own internet and go out to places that offer free Wi-Fi. What reason would these folks have to purchase the new Xbox if it requires always online just to play Halo? At most, the Xbox would serve as expensive door stopper.

Orth, showing you how NOT to
handle damage control.

Game developers, publishers and console manufacturers should look at two games for the biggest example of why always online is bad: SimCity and Diablo III. These two heavily anticipated PC releases were bogged down because they require a constant internet connection just to play them. If your net goes out due to hiccups, an unstable connection or whatever and you want to play these games, you are completely and utterly screwed. God forbid your net goes out while you're in the middle of these games doing something monumental, but it could still happen and there won't be anything you can do about it.

The 360 may have a lot of pretty-looking games but other than Halo, Gears of War and Forza, the console didn't have many exclusives. The PS3 and Wii came out with much more attractive options in that regard. When I look back on the console, I really don't regret not buying the system. If that's all I have to look forward to when it comes to exclusives on their new machine, then I'm less enticed to give this one a chance. This always online business for the next Xbox just makes things even worse and could tip the scales to Sony and Nintendo's favor.

Always online is a serious deal breaker in determining whether I buy games and in Microsoft's case, a console. I can play so many of my currently own systems without fear of the gaming freezing or shutting down because they don't require a net connection to play. If I purchased a new Xbox and it was always online for every game and my connection was killed, I would be one very unhappy camper and that's one risk I, and it would seem, a copious amount of other gamers are not willing to take.