Online gaming

[Flint]

Okay i'm going to sound real dumb right now.....

But can someone explain to me how online gaming works?

Do you play with complete strangers?

Do you HAVE to communicate with other gamers, using headphones and your voice? (Not liking that idea).

(talking about xbox live).

[Guest Skuld]

Depends on what you are playing, but no you don´t need to communicate in most games.

[Guest Bellexia]

Only played playstation live a few years ago. The way it worked for me was I would play MAG (a decent fps) and I got pretty good, people notice this, they invite you to join their clans/guilds. You make friends from there. Or you don't have to talk to them and can just play by yourself. It's all up to you. I mostly play wow now, well did, kinda let it lapse because I was getting bored since playing from bc. I joined a guild but you can play by yourself. You will get more out of online play with others but it's not mandatory. Yeah they are complete strangers but most of my bestest friends are from online No you don't have to use a mic at all. I never do, I always feign "I can't use vent because it crashes my pc, or my head set broke and I can't get a new one"

[Guest Kelly-087]

But can someone explain to me how online gaming works?

With an internet connection you can use an Xbox Live Gold Account (Costs 10 dollars per month in the US, or about 60 if you purchase a years worth of subscription), you can play many of your choice games online. Some games don't have an online function, but a lot do.

Do you play with complete strangers?

You can. I used to play with friends in high school most of the time. Now I generally play random games. It your choice. On Xbox live, if you have friends you want to play a game with you can create a lobby that people can see you're in, and with some settings join that lobby or you can invite them too. You can then pick a game you want to play then all join it together. Most games allow this.

Do you HAVE to communicate with other gamers, using headphones and your voice? (Not liking that idea).

Nope. Although there's no real way to use just text efficiently in game. You can send people messages in text, however it is much slower and usually for out of game communication. I personally don't like to use the headphones since there's a lot of children on there that like to pick fights and guys that like to mock you. I haven't actually found a way to broadly block all voice communication in games yet, but I do usually take the route of plugging my headset in and then muting both ingoing and outgoing communication.

[Guest Hayleylady94]

There is no forced communication. Headset chat is optional. You don't HAVE to play with strangers, pretty much every single game that allows you to play with strangers gives you the option to play with your friends.

[Flint]

Thanks. Good to know.

Sometimes it's a little tiresome playing against the computer....

[Guest Alison Mendez]

It really depends on the online game. Some online games have only a small number of other people in an isolated pocket called an "Instance". Other online games there are people everywhere, kinda like walking around in a busy city. People going to their own places and doing their own things. Most of the time interaction between people is voluntary. Some people like to play online games completely solo (I feel it defeats the purpose of an online game but whatever, to each their own). Some online games require people to team up in order to progress and/or succeed. Not doing so means those solo people don't get very far.

In EvE I like flying my spaceship in a fleet of ships with other people. Most people in that game like to shoot and blow up the enemy. I personally find enjoyment in repairing my friends ships and preventing their destruction. It's a thankless job, but everyone goes home intact :-)

[Guest Melissa~]

It depends on the game. I regularly play against friends and family online since we are spread across the US.

A recent game I have been playing "Defcon" is intended for a very small number of players, (down to 0, right out of the movie War Games.)

Other pure strategy games are intended for very small groups as well. Being able to play pure strategy against strangers certainly tests one's skills.

At the other end is the graphic MMORPG ( Massively Multiplayer, Online Role Playing Game ) are mostly strangers(obviously when there are many thousand player.

Almost every game supports in game chat of some version and that's a big part of RPG's. I prefer to Skype with people I know while playing.

[Guest LuRay]

With headsets, they're not needed really. In Warcraft for example, you can clear heroic raids without them.

Our guild uses a "if you want policy" with Vent/Teamspeak etc. I use it as I like the way I speak, the other side of t hings is we once had our Swedish destolock sing to our main tank. For 2 hours. It was so hilarious, I just couldn't mute him

[Guest Bellexia]

With headsets, they're not needed really. In Warcraft for example, you can clear heroic raids without them.

Our guild uses a "if you want policy" with Vent/Teamspeak etc. I use it as I like the way I speak, the other side of t hings is we once had our Swedish destolock sing to our main tank. For 2 hours. It was so hilarious, I just couldn't mute him

Bwahahah things like that just make being on a mic so amazing. I used to blast the safety dance to our Naxx runs everytime we got to Heigan the Unclean. Every. Time. My Gm hated me for it so they banned that song from being played. I just started humming it.

[Guest ~Emmie~]

I miss Naxxramas! And Karazhan. The spookier instances and raids were always the best. As far as online games, it was mostly just WoW for me- a few of my RL friends played- though I tried Rift, the Secret World, and Old Republic, which honestly was a blast.

[Guest LuRay]

SWTOR was good. But there was literally nothing to do at level cap. Nothing. That and PvP was a joke,

"We use level boosting so a level 10 can go up against 50s"

BRILLIANT.

Oh wait, 4 level 50s again my 2 or 3 healing spells. Fantastic.