Just got home after a long day, tried to log into Steam and on the second click, got this message. I love the holidays, I don’t love the thronging shops and I most definitely dislike the on-line rush as sites time out and you have waiting screens post log-in page. I still don’t think of the internet as a place that happens in real time, despite the fact that most of what I do on-line is instant: instant messaging, multiplayer/coop gaming, voice/video calls, but it is. Gone are the days when you used dial-up once a day to retrieve your e-mail, write your replies and then get back on-line to send them. I now fully expect to be on-line 24 hours a day, wherever I am. I’m still not a very regular e-mail checker, but when out use instant messaging a lot, exchange snapshots with friends and game on-line. There is no real distinction between on and offline, the two blend together seamlessly.
There are advantages to the festive hustle and bustle in a virtual world. I used to love World of Warcraft over Christmas; everybody is on-line, the cities are bustling, trade is up as everyone are buying virtual in-game Christmas presents and I thought I was getting the best deal; the spirit of Christmas but sat in a lounge chair with a glass of mulled wine and Belgian chocolate. Virtual Christmas suited my disability as well; I didn’t have to do anything physical and with my hearing being rather variable, it’s great that in-game chat was text for strangers and voice with friends only as I have a harder time understanding in crowded environments, out of normal context and when talking to people I do not know.
Being connected is changing rapidly. My friends lists across different gaming platforms are very similar; although I can’t cross-platform game, most people access multiple platforms. Again, gone are the days were e-mail was the primary means of contact. E-mail is a rare commodity when it comes to gaming networks, text, voice and video (conference) calling is the norm. Everything happens in real time as long as the system holds and when a particular service goes down, you simply migrate to another.
I couldn’t get on to steam for a few minutes and my instinctual reaction was to load up the 360 instead; knowing that I could either entertain myself or find the same friends that are on Steam on XBLA and if not, it would only take an instant to grab them on Skype and say turn on your 360 lets do some coop. Reliability has improved as well; a while ago having a break in service multiple times a week were the norm, now we have issues a handful of times a year and as a general rule, any break in service is resolved pretty quickly. Steam is back up and running quite happily, so there may still be time to take on GlaDOS in the new Defense Grid DLC. If you haven’t checked out the Steam Holiday Sale, I’d highly recommend it. New deals daily until 2nd January.
