I used to feel the same way, then my son suggested I get an xbox so we could play some grand theft auto 5 together (and lately it's battlefield 4). Since then I've come to really appreciate when I turn on my xbox knowing that whether he's already playing. And it's sort of annoying having to turn on my xbox just to see if he is available.
Over time I started joining parties with his friends, and adding them to my friends list, and chatting with them independently. For all of them, the normal routine is to hop on the xbox and join whatever friends you have online doing what they're doing. From the people I've talked to online, the number one factor about whether they will use ps4 vs xbox one has to do with which one their friends are going to be using.
So I'd say that the hyper social gamer is a very common creature indeed. You just need one good game and one good friend, and before you know it you're making memories together online and having a great time.
Oh yeah, I understand the fun that's had by playing with friends. I have 2 or 3 friends I play games with regularly...and I can find out if they want to play Borderlands by texting them, 'Want to play Borderlands?'
I realize my own experience can't invalidate the entire idea of needing consoles to be so 'community' centric. I'm just wondering if it's true that a significant amount of gamers (or even an insignificant amount) are getting so many messages and invitations over Xbox Live or PSN that switching inputs for a second completely destroys their experience.
You're not going to text 24 friends and see if they want to play Borderlands. What I'm talking about is more like "Cheers": there's a place that everybody you know hangs out, and you show up, and there's people already there. You chat with them, do stuff, catch up. That's the currently reality of console gaming for tons of people, and it's very common.
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I used to feel the same way, then my son suggested I get an xbox so we could play some grand theft auto 5 together (and lately it's battlefield 4). Since then I've come to really appreciate when I turn on my xbox knowing that whether he's already playing. And it's sort of annoying having to turn on my xbox just to see if he is available.
Over time I started joining parties with his friends, and adding them to my friends list, and chatting with them independently. For all of them, the normal routine is to hop on the xbox and join whatever friends you have online doing what they're doing. From the people I've talked to online, the number one factor about whether they will use ps4 vs xbox one has to do with which one their friends are going to be using.
So I'd say that the hyper social gamer is a very common creature indeed. You just need one good game and one good friend, and before you know it you're making memories together online and having a great time.
Oh yeah, I understand the fun that's had by playing with friends. I have 2 or 3 friends I play games with regularly...and I can find out if they want to play Borderlands by texting them, 'Want to play Borderlands?'
I realize my own experience can't invalidate the entire idea of needing consoles to be so 'community' centric. I'm just wondering if it's true that a significant amount of gamers (or even an insignificant amount) are getting so many messages and invitations over Xbox Live or PSN that switching inputs for a second completely destroys their experience.
You're not going to text 24 friends and see if they want to play Borderlands. What I'm talking about is more like "Cheers": there's a place that everybody you know hangs out, and you show up, and there's people already there. You chat with them, do stuff, catch up. That's the currently reality of console gaming for tons of people, and it's very common.