What happened to party video games?

Back in the 90s and early 2k there was always buzz games being played at every ones house. We all owned Tony Hawk Pro skater or Guitar Hero or some similar games that we passed around the controllers or even group played with each other. Now it seems all we have is Call of Duty games we have to stay at home to play with our buddy's.

I remember playing games with friends back as young as I can remember. 2 player take turns or co-op on early consoles. When I was in my late teens and early 20s they were games we all played just the same. Popular as mentioned was Guitar Hero after the age of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. We even had drinking games or just sat and smoked ourselves stupid playing games for a weekend. This was an average hangout for me and my gamer friends. Slowly I noticed we either played less games or they weren't as fun or nothing new was coming out. I don't know for sure what it was but social gaming slowly became a rarity. Also I have grown up and have other things taking time in my life like more work and responsibility and less free time.

So what happened to gaming aspect? I may not have as much gaming time as I used to but I still game. I don't live in an area where I am sociable like I was in my 20s. I still game. I am not a huge fan of COD games even though I still enjoy a few rounds playing them occasionally. I do still sit through my RPGs and other ARPG or single player games when I get the chance.

It's not really the social part. Its a couple things I noticed. The social games are still being released so that really isn't the main problem. Even with constant updates and new releases on these social games they just are not as fun or interesting anymore like they were during their prime. This still isn't the issue. Even with new features and graphics going up the game play quality has gone down. I think they add too much to keep it interesting. Yet this still isn't the problem.

The real issue happened on the last half of previous gen and the next gen systems. The network play games marketed as party games didn't keep everyone hanging out at the same place. They added the party features but made it remote network play. Now this is just one aspect of social gaming being lost. The loss of sitting at same place playing at same time seemed to disappear and the social games we were used to seeing multiplayer split screen basically disappeared. They kept the online social strong. I believe it was for marketing purposes. They take and make network required so every house was guaranteed to keep purchasing so you could still play with your friends. Guaranteed 2 or more copies sold to keep playing games with your friends from home. Split screen gone from mainstream for a long while.

Ok so the companies saw this as a marketing opportunity and option for more sales. Also leading to hearing about people complaining about loss of split screen games the let the indie-gaming market create cheap cloned of some old retro game styles. This was also a sales boost for gaming market and rise of some smaller indie game companies. Still not bringing back the games in force so social gaming still not coming back well.

One other aspect I have noticed was the development of phone and tablet clicky games that have ruined the face to face portion of gaming. We are getting set on timers for turns on these games that are sucking us into the 10-15 minutes of play time before we have to wait 1-24 hours to play again. We lost track waiting for the notice that we can play that again. It even gives the illusion of social gaming by creating clans and basic chat that in some cased is used like a messenger or others that are just used for updates. But these restrict us form the gaming options because its not multi user friendly platform.

Recently all the music games and skating games released new versions for the next gen systems. This brought a little back but again the games seemed to have lost momentum. Now we have some of the multiplayer options back but people are not back playing the games like they wanted to because we acclimated to not going elsewhere or having people over to play these games. We still had the online networking options. This is where we sit now. We have gotten used to the change and it’s easier to stay home than it is to go out and play at a friend’s home.

Is party gaming dead? No, not by a long shot. We all may have grown out of our social gaming habits and gotten too busy to do it regularly but we will still try to have a game party or an option when we are not just socializing or being out and about or even just watching TV. In some cases it will be the children we introduce to the options to keep them busy. The options are there again and we can do it as we please. I know the only thing that slows me down from this now days is I don't live close to the people I used to game with anymore. My new area I have devoted to other group activities like live music socials. If I could I would have a gaming party like I was in my 20s again but it’s not as likely to happen without having a lot of friends that like to game.