One of the main reasons why we like DDR, Rock Band and Wii Sports in our house is because we can play them at the same time. We play them together as a family or if we have a party. Those games never see the light of day when one of us wants to play alone.
I’ve been playing a lot of games online over the last few years and noticed an interesting pattern in my play. I want to play games in real time and with friends. Turn based games or playing alone doesn’t provide anything close to that experience.
I started playing Call of Duty only because I was able to play (or get my ass kicked) in real time with the folks at Bug Labs over the network. I wouldn’t play that game on my own. It’s just not my thing. But playing friends at the same time is so much fun.
I see it with my kids online play as well. They don’t want to play single player games. They want to play other kids on Webkinz. They are doing that more and more.
I want to discover & play more games online with my friends in real time. But I don’t want to play it with them on some walled garden though. I want to play with them on my blog, or maybe twitter, or notify my friends on AIM or Skype. I want to play super cool games across the internet in real time.
And I need the games to be as easy as fun as Rock Band or Wii Sports. I just don’t have time or interest make it to level 8 in WoW.
Maybe we can have virtual parties across the web playing real time social games next.