NPD: 72% of US played games in '07, online gaming still 'small'

sorry im just in a really happy mood. its been a good day for me. sorry for being myself

It's actually the second.

You got the first post.

And?

Does it seriously make you feel good to say that you are the 1st poster? Hopefully it does, because it makes you appear like a fucking idiot.

How does this happen?

Is seems to come in waves. We are good for a couple of weeks or more. Everyone is posting normally: trolls are trolling, fanboys are defending, and samfish is being, well, samfish.

Then, in a single day, all of these asshats come out of the woodwork and kick off the comment thread of every other post with "FIRST POST!!!11!!!".

Is it just the same handful of people becoming unbanned? Or is that the race of the perma-banned have a generation interval of exactly 13.5 days and it takes 12 or so hours to teach their offspring to register with Joystiq and carry on the legacy of their forefathers?

Or maybe I just happened to click on the same posts as they did today. I don't know.

hmm, weird, unless there was a large percentage who declined to state their age...

yeh i didn't get that...how is online gaming "driven" by a minority of people?

Well, say the under 18s are between the ages of 12-18, and the over 18s are between 18-40. And the under 18s number 40%. Wouldn't you say that the under 18s are the driving force as they are in the minority but still command such a health percentage.

I can see where they are coming from.

i think u hit the nail perfectly.

My free gaming time is split between TF2 and Pokemon Pearl, and whilst I can see the fun and stuff in TF2 I can also see why it isn't as big as 360 owners (assuming) make it out to be.

I'm on a 2mb connection yet I still get lag from foreign servers. Plus some people like to spoil games by being a twat in team games, abusing the mic and messaging bits. Most of the time I'd much rather play a good story rather than a series of bouts online too.

Looking over the 2 highest rated games and they don't have an ounce of an online feature... 1 of them doesn't even have any form of multiplayer!

I'm sure that's part of it. But also remember that not everyone likes multi-player (which basically constitutes all of online gaming).

If you were to look at my game collection you would notice that single-player only games outnumber multiplayer-included (or MP exclusive) games about 9 to 1. I, for one, prefer single player gaming over multiplayer for a number of reasons including: the story, not having to depend on others to play, and the fact that I can exploit the CPU controlled characters and enemies at times. I'll admit, that I feel like a bigger/smarter person when I can completely waste a CPU enemy that would normally be difficult except for a certain strategy or exploit that works well against them.

Or it could be due to the fact that CPU enemies don't usually T-bag you or call you a homo.

Some of us just prefer single player experiences. I dabble in online gaming every once in a while, but I am primarily a single-person gamer.

For certain games like RPG's and action adventure (platform) games you are absolutely correct, with shooters and strategy games I prefer equally as good or better online functionality than their single player campaigns. In the end though going online is much more exciting than playing RPG's or action adventure games IMO. There is more of a rush.

Yeah thats a good point... Bioshock for example was a great game and deserved accolades... If it had an online component with the plasmids I would probably still be playing it now... So for shooters your right but a good story and campaign is still the reason I buy any game...Even a game like Madden or MLB 08 has to do more in the season or career mode than just let me play the game... I need more than just gameplay... Funny thing is I actually enjoy UT3 quite a bit which has the worst campaign of all time...Its a death match against the computer with a few cut scenes... But the mods add something different.... I will take a game like Uncharted or Bioshock with great story and gameplay over a game like frontlines or UT3 that is just basicly an online game... what would be cool is if there was a shooter that was an MMo like Huxley is supposed to be or that Tabula Rusa (?) that combines a story with the gameplay in an online world... Even though FPSMMO games have not done well traditionally

@Leobebes - Not everybody is constantly looking for a rush. It's nice to be able to relax and play an offline game at your own pace without some fucko yelling at you.

John, The Agency for the PS3/PC has potential.

@Kodros

Thanks I have not heard of that one but I will keep an eye out for it... Appreciate the tip!

Ok seriously, the more I think about this the more it bothers me.

They really should have either given us that number with regards to people that play 20+ hours offline, or they should have given us the percentage of players that spend at least half their time or a third of their time online or something.

I'm going to go publish a report that says that less than 1% of people play games offline for 100 hours per week and reason that my finds are "OMG NOBODY PLAYZ OFFLINE EVERY1 LOVEZ TEH ONLINEZ!!".

Seriously, 20 hours per week for strictly online games is a pretty high number. That's 3 hours per day if you play EVERY day. Miss a day or two and we're talking 4-5 hours per day. I would consider myself a pretty hardcore online gamer (I'm on every night after the wife goes to bed) and even I struggle to keep up an average of 20 hours spent online per week.

Really, that 13% number is awfully high given the criteria.