Features

Loose Threads: Is online gaming a good fit for handhelds?

Why wi-fi? Why not?

Loose Threads: Is online gaming a good fit for handhelds?
|
iPhone + N-Gage + DS ...

Handheld consoles have a wealth of obvious advantages over their less nomadic brethren, but one area that is arguably yet to be conquered by handhelds is online gaming. All of the platforms have made commendable progress; the PSP and the DS both enjoy plenty of connected extras and the new N-Gage looks to have connected multiplayer gaming at its very core.

But in the shadow of the comprehensively connected world of home console gaming, the inroads made by the handheld crowd seem merely like so many good intentions rather than bona fide triumphs, prompting us to ask if handhelds are really the right place for online gaming.

First to the discussion was TazUK, a fresh face to Loose Threads:

"I think multiplayer games on mobile can work, but only if it is easy to access sessions that are running as soon as you connect. You don't really want to be searching for games to join or hanging around for ten minutes waiting for someone else to come along."

Very true, especially if you're on the move with your DS/PSP and access points are an issue. Regular user danskmacabre soon chipped in with his views:

"I think I would want mobiles to be more powerful before I would want to play a MMORPG on them. Maybe with a bigger screen and a touchscreen. Hmm, starting to sound like an iPod, actually, but I wouldn't spend that sort of money for a mobile that had gaming capabilities. "I reckon in a few years I'd probably be into it, once a standard contract phone was decent enough."

Locking online gaming to some sort of monthly contract has been a bit of a sticking point for handheld gaming, but then it doesn't seem to bother Xbox Live subscribers or any of the millions of World of Warcraft fanatics out there so if the service was compelling enough – a crucial point – perhaps it could be a winner.

Not one to shy away from a vibrant verbal exchange, SetsFireToPoshHammer brought the discussion back around to consoles:

"I think that it should be a good fit, especially for playing handheld games in the house, but the problem is that there just isn't the sort of online following for the experience to be consistent. "There are no groups of hardcore followers clinging on to servers the way the Halo 2 or Counter Strike crowd still do. Worse still, even new titles seem to be forgotten quickly – I have yet to manage an infrastructure multiplayer game of Wipeout Pulse, as the servers are almost always empty. "Perhaps it will be a slow creep with this generation and then an explosion with the next, kind of like it has been with he PS2 and the Xbox and their subsequent replacements."

Indeed, there are no handheld classic online experiences that can take the fight to the likes of current Live darling, Call of Duty 4. From our own experience, we've often given up on the infrastructure multiplayer component of a reviewed title (and we're not just talking about finding fellow journalists online – the nature of handheld is such that review copies are often released alongside the retail version) because we can't find anyone to play against.

As far as Accelorata Jengold is concerned, it's the genre that's the root of the problem:

"As always, it's about the games. There are no worthy handheld equivalents of Halo 2 or Counter Strike because FPS games don't really work that well on the hardware. "I think a simple MMO on either the DS or the PSP or mobile could be a real winner, perhaps with some level of interoperability with their big brother home consoles. Surely an Animal Crossing MMO for DS or a very simple MMO expansion for something like Vice City Stories on the PSP would be pretty easy to craft?"

It certainly sounds like sense but perhaps the logistics of those sorts of games on handheld consoles are a little more complicated than you might think. What we really need is blanket wi-fi coverage, preferably before the PSP 2 and the Nintendo TS (Nintendo Triple Screen, or so says our overactive imagination) arrive, although a couple of triple-A online multiplayer titles before then certainly wouldn't go amiss either. We're not entirely convinced we'll see them, though.

Alas, time dictates we move on. Elsewhere on the forum, then, one of our woe stricken gamers, $JP$, is languishing in the Help! section, desperately in need of some assistance with (would you believe it) an online handheld game:

"On SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Fire Team Bravo 2, how do I get a password to get on the internet? HELP PLEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Anyone have any suggestions or words of comfort? If so, you should know where to go.

And so, on with next week's topic:

If you could make a mobile game, what would it be like?

Answers in the usual place dear readers, where you will also find a few more details. This one could be lots of fun, so click 'Track It!' to be sure not to miss it.