The Golden Age of Multiplayer Gaming

Playing games online is something that most of us do, and something we all take for granted. Video games can be a very solitary experience, some of them best experience on your own, or away from spoilers, often in singleplayer adventures. But ever since their inception, video games have always had a multiplayer-oriented aspect to them. From the NES coming with two controllers standard, to DS Download Play, to MMOs and modern live service games, video games have always wanted to bring people together in one way or another. This obviously has some downsides (I already mentioned live service games by name), but overall I think it's a wonderful thing that people can come together and bond over gaming easier than every before.

With the rise of the Internet as a mode of communication and community, even a singleplayer experience becomes a communal one when you share your thoughts and feelings on a game online. Games like Undertale have shaped Internet culture in a dramatic way, despite the fact that it's a 10-hour singleplayer RPG. It inspired people to talk about the emotional and mental impact of the game with people online, and even now, over 10 years after release, it continues to bring people together and bond them over shared experiences.

"Well Alex, if the Internet makes this easier than ever, then what's the point of the title or this article? Isn't the modern era the best by default?" No! But thank you for asking :3

When I'm talking about "the golden age of multiplayer gaming", the answer will always be subjective. It's the kind of thing that's tinted by nostalgia, by when you played with friends the most, by what was new when you were 13 years old, what you were able to afford as a kid, and countless other variables I can't possible make a comprehensive list of. This articles serves two purposes: 1, to voice my own opinion and recount some memories, bias and all; and 2, to spark discussion and hopefully some nostalgic joy while getting you to think about what you consider to be "the golden age of multiplayer gaming".

So, with that out of the way, what do I consider to be the golden age of multiplayer gaming? Well, I never claimed to be creative, but I am gonna mostly talk about the DS family of handhelds. Ooo, shocker! The DS girl likes the DS! Shush, you knew this was coming.

When I think about playing multiplayer games, my mind immediately goes to handhelds. My first real multiplayer experience was LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 with my friends around the spare room TV as a kid, but the one with the most lasting impression was playing Pokémon on the Gameboy Advance with my little brother, trading through a link cable, and later with the wireless adapter. I get a certain emotional nostalgia thinking back to that time of my life, even though I would never go back to that for any reason. For all of it's struggles and hardships, I still wish I could fill a bottle with the feeling of playing through user-created levels on the PS3 with my neighborhood friends, or capture the scent of a spring day trading Pokémon on my front porch with my brother.

Anyways, that's not why I'm here. Maybe I'll write a piece in the future about gaming nostalgia and memories. Could be fun.

Those memories are great, and I'll actually come back to that PS3 later, but for now, let's get back on topic with the DS. I actually had a 3DS before I had a DS, even if the DSi is now my favorite handheld. I used the PPS in Pokémon X a ton, constantly Wonder Trading and looking at people's profiles as they scrolled across the bottom screen. I did the classic "duck under the covers to hide the light of your game in case mom or dad walk in" move a lot, and even though I was completely alone in the dark of my room at 11 at night, I didn't feel alone. I felt like I was connecting to dozens, more like hundreds of people who all shared the same interests as me. People were saying hi on the PPS, people were trading and battling Pokémon, people were new or veterans or returning or hanging out, and I'm sure plenty of them were also under the blanket on their bed, hiding the light of their screen so they could do just one more Pokémon battle. There's something special about sharing a digital space like that with someone, especially as a kid who didn't have many friends who played games, and almost no one with a DS of any kind.

I got my hands on a DS Lite after a while of using my 3DS. Using Download Play and Pictochat was so exciting to me back then, and when my best friend got a DSi, we would sit around and draw and type in Pictochat for hours, having tons of fun sitting together and doodling whatever we wanted. There might be no way to save chat room logs from Pictochat, but I'll always treasure those memories we shared having fun with our handhelds.

I'm a regular at my local Pokémon fan club, hanging out and talking about the games, playing usually DS titles, just enjoying a shared space with like-minded fans. More recently, I've actually discovered a local DS club that meets on the college campus in my town. I've only been to a handful of meetings so far, and it's started up fairly recently, but the environment they've cultivated there is incredible. It's inviting and welcoming, everyone there makes sure that you come and can join the conversation, so matter what kind of gamer you are. Most people have spares DS systems in case someone wants to join in but doesn't have their own. We Download Play things like Clubhouse Games or Mario Kart DS. Just today I played NEW Super Mario Bros. VS mode against someone and had a great time! I used my R4 card and distributed a Celebi to all the gen 4 Pokémon players in the room at the time, and I'll likely be distributing something new each meet I attend. I got swept in a battle against someone's Dragon Dance Gyarados, which is valid, but ouch! We talked about what systems we had growing up, what games we played most, and we want to organize a group game of Smash 3DS one of these weeks.

It's indescribable for me to enter a room and see a dozen people all gathered around a table, DS and 3DS systems out, enjoying 8-player Clubhouse Games, or trading Pokémon. It's a certain kind of connection that doesn't happen a lot with modern games, and certainly not over the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I love that Internet multiplayer is an option, it's done wonders for so many people, myself included! But the feeling of gathering around with people who love the same things you love, booting up a DS and connecting to a group game... it's unmatched in my opinion.

"Wait, didn't you say you would talk about the PS3 again" yes I did, I was just getting there, shush >_<

I did indeed mention playing a lot of PS3 with my friends, yes. I mentioned LittleBigPlanet by name because we played more of that than anything else, but the other big multiplayer game we played was LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Again, not creative, but it doesn't need to be. That game rocks for all ages, it's just good fun.

I never did too much online multiplayer on the PS3, unless you count downloading user-made levels in LittleBigPlanet. I never played FPS games back then (still don't really), and the other console we might've done stuff on was the Wii, which was set up in the living room where my mom never liked to see us playing games. So generally, we were relegated to the spare room and the TV sitting on the floor with the PS3. Not to complain! We loved that thing! I still have that PS3 since my dad didn't want it, and it's my ride or die. What I'm trying to get at is that I did a lot of couch co-op multiplayer (hypothetically, of course, we sat on the floor). Sitting back from the TV on the floor, DualShock 3s connected wireless, playing games together was one of our favorite things to do back then. Over the years, I would end up loosing touch with those friends, my brother got more distant, and I didn't really have anyone to play games with like that... until more recently. I have a hacked Wii with GameCube support, and I loaded it up with multiplayer games. I've had friends over before where we all sit down and play Mario Kart Wii, or Mario Party 2, or Super Smash Bros. Melee, and it's some of the most fun I've ever had! There's a special kind of magic that happens when everyone in the room is together on the couch and all invested in one thing, whether they're playing or not, watching everything that happens and laughing and cheering together just for the sake of it. It's very much like the DS club I mentioned before, with everyone coming together for a shared interest, like-minded people sharing a moment together.

So beyond just emotions and memories, why do I consider these sorts of experiences the "golden age" of multiplayer? Well, it's because of that magic that I mentioned. Games can be good, consoles can be well made, but in the end it's all about that group that engages with it that makes or breaks the experience. You can have just as much fun playing Tetris Worlds for Gameboy Advance as Super Mario Party on Switch, or LEGO Fortnite, or Team Fortress 2, you get the idea. It's all about the people that come together and the atmosphere they create, and I really think that the era of the DS and the Wii and the PS3 was the best time for that kind of experience.

Maybe my opinion would be different if I had played online, or played different games, but for what I had it really was a magical time, and still is when I do it now! Something about that era is absolutely timeless in my eyes, and call it nostalgia bias if you must, but I genuinely believe it was the golden age of multiplayer gaming.

But like I said, that was just my experience. Everyone is bound to have a different view, and that's great! I think a diversity of opinions in gaming and in general leads to fun conversation and good discussion. That's part of the reason I made this post, is to encourage people to think about their favorite memories with multiplayer gaming, and what they think the supposed "golden age" was (if you believe one exists at all). The other reason was just to write out some of my thoughts on it, since I want this blog to be a good amount of opinion pieces on my thoughts on gaming, because if I'm not saying something unique to me, there's little reason for me to say it at all. Or at least, that's my stance.

So with that in mind, I want you to take this topic from me and think on it! What games have you played the most with friends? What are your favorite memories associated with that? What's you multiplayer experience like now? It's okay to be nostalgic and authentic with your emotional connection to certain memories or things, so let that flow and see what thoughts it leads you to!

~ Alex Amelia Pine