Dakka, dakka, pow!

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1770371]

Notes:
Playing social games on Facebook totally counts as "multiplayer with friends" (if you interact) or "single player" (if the only interaction is trying to beat each other's high scores).
"On the sofa" means a console, a TV, and two or more people playing a game at the same time. Not two of you sitting on the sofa with laptops. That would be "on a local network".

Comments

[andrewducker]

I don't play online with friends much at the moment - it's mostly co-op stuff with Julie on our PCs. Magicka has been a favourite recently, although we just completed it. We need something new to sink our teeth into, if anyone has any co-op games to recommend that aren't first-person shooters.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

My non-phone portable device is also a computer. but yeah.

Also: Magicka is neat, but I'm having trouble finding anyone to, y'know, PLAY with. And single-player it's fun but more than a little fiddly and unforgiving. The number of times I've auto-died by casting BSOD and clicking on an enemy but having it target me instead of some reason, oi.

[andrewducker]

BSOD kills a random person on the screen:
http://www.magickapedia.net/wiki/Crash_To_Desktop

You want Thunderbolt, which does a shitload of damage to someone else :->

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

.... wow.

Confirmation bias at work: I thought that was a funny spell name, cast it, and the enemy I clicked on died. Cast again, and the dude I was clicking on died. Cast again, I died.... repeat several times, with me concluding that it was me misclicking to misdirect the spell.

Oi.

[andrewducker]

"I looked behind door number one and found a dead enemy."

:->

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Using Bayes' Theorem I can demonstrate that I was clicking on the wrong enemy only 5/11 of the time!

PS: Steam ID. Come play Magicka sometime! If you see me playing Mount And Blade, that's okay, feel free to interrupt. That game is eating my life.)

[andrewducker]

Added you - but I'm not generally up for multiplayer gaming at the moment. When stress levels subside I'll be up for it more. You'll still be around in three months time, right :->

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

'Multiplayer' here for me actually means playing Scramble with a friend over Facebook, which may not be what you had in mind! But it does require more than one player for our games to work.

[andrewducker]

It totally counts (just updated the post to make that clear).

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your clarification about sofas, too. I often play my moves while sitting on the sofa, but my Scramble opponent is not on it with me.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I ticked 'not at all' because I hardly play at all nowadays.

But I tend to play a lot of dance / music things on the PS2

And I play Simon Tatham's pocket puzzles when stressed ;-)

And M has an iPod, and I play world of goo on it when I can get it off him.

I used to play a lot of starcraft, single and multiplayer, but haven't for years.

[simont]

And I play Simon Tatham's pocket puzzles when stressed ;-)

Which is cause and which effect? ;-)

[hirez.livejournal.com]

I don't play computer games at all. Your modern world of 'the pokey-mans' is terribly confusing.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

I ticked "on the sofa" but I'm referring to two desk-chairs at one computer. I ticked that option because the key element seemed to be "one machine, no network involved".

[ckd]

I counted "across a table on the same iPad" as "on the sofa", since that seemed to be your version of "on the same device in the same place". I counted "across the table on different iPads" as "on a local network" (even though those games are actually going out across the Internet[1] to exchange game info), since that seemed to be your version of "on different devices but in the same place".

(Devices: iPhone, iPad, PS3, MacBook Pro.)

[1] I still say this gets the capital letter, since there is one The Internet and many other possible internets. The Economist's style guide is wrong about this, even if my original definition of "The Internet"[2] is now long out of date.

[2] "Can you telnet to SRI-NIC.ARPA?"

[andrewducker]

I think you counted correctly :->

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

No multiplayer games on the console; occasional Facebook word games online on the computer, which are multiplayer.

[innerbrat]

Nearly all of my computer gaming is livejournal based RP, or Solitaire.

[andrewducker]

I'd say that LJ RP is internet based gaming. Stretching the normal definitions, but I'd count it.

[innerbrat]

That's how I counted it. It certainly doesn't fit anywhere else.

I also said I hadn't met the people, because they're friends NOW, but they weren't before I started gaming with them.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I initially answered "not at all" to all of these and then remembered that I play Wii Fit quite a lot. I think of it as exercise more than gaming, but the game aspects are definitely part of what keeps me coming back, so interpret that as you will.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

My only 'videogaming' is on a PS2 and nearly always with Erin. On a PC I mostly play little flash puzzle games although I do play a wee bit of FB poker.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - I figured the two of you for "Couch play" :->

[alextfish.livejournal.com]

I think I probably still manage more single-player gaming than either multiplayer-Starcraft-in-a-team-with-friends (which counts as "on the internet (but just with friends)" although technically we're also playing against people we don't know) or me-and-woodpijn-playing-a-game-on-my-computer (which probably counts as "on the sofa", although there's no console or TV involved in the strict sense).

When I think of "playing computer games", I think of playing single-player games. That's my 24 years of gaming speaking. But the proportion of "multiplayer games" (counting both the above-mentioned options) has definitely grown a lot in the past couple of years, and might outstrip single-player gaming before too long.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I'm in the 'not at all category' these days because I haven't played a computer game since I banned myself from Farmtown on Facebook over a year ago (which I used to play with friends and strangers). I get my games fix from board games and RP ;)

Having said that, the Boy and I keep debating buying a 2nd hand Wii because I have enjoyed group sofa gaming on a similar device in the past.

[andrewducker]

I can vouch for the fun inherent in playing Mario with one's partner.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I would play online games with friends more, but my friends a] play the same games but on other platforms b] play computer games less or at different times to me or c] play different games to me. Were the opportunity there, I would take it.