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PS2 Online User Base Passes 1.4 million

Posted by timothy on from the but-most-of-them-are-dogs dept.

Jane_the_Great writes "The number of PS2 owners who have ventured online with their consoles has passed 1.4 million users. This article cites SCEA Executive VP Andrew House as saying, "What I think is particularly interesting is, not only are we seeing a lot of the numbers being driven off the Network Adapter bundle, but consistently there are sales of the standalone Network Adapter." Does this growth signal the arrival of online console gaming? And if there are so many people online, why can't I find someone that will play Madden 2005 like a reasonable and polite person?"

10 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Hell Is Other People by 2Flower · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That PA cartoon sums up while I STOPPED paying for X-Box Live. It wasn't the money, the DRM, the hatred of MS, or anything like that -- it was my fellow players.

    I never had a single session of XBL where I wasn't subjected to some of the worst filth the human race has to offer. Cheap players, cheaters, droppers, and countless trashtalkers. What fun is it to play a game when the other players are complete and total assholes? What's worse, because *gasp!* I'm not a particularly amazing gamer, I'd lose a lot -- and that meant being mocked and humiliated and treated like elementary school playground trash.

    Eventually I decided that I wasn't actually having any fun, and I cancelled my X-Box Live. Huzzah.

    This isn't limited to X-Box Live. My first online game, Tony Hawk 4 on the PS2 (with keyboard chat, not voice!) not a single session would go by where I wasn't called a faggot and had to put up with endless stupidity.

    I'm aware the standard defense for acting like a complete dick is "Dude, it's just trash talking, so what?" but not everybody ENJOYS declaring the skewed lineage their opponent's family line. All I want to do is play games, not constantly be reminded why we could use another forty days and forty nights of worldwide flooding, you know?

    Online gaming is in severe need of some player moderation -- some way of getting a rundown on what other people think of that player. If I saw that the folks who were challenging me were flagged as being immature bastards, I'd avoid them. True, that might mean only 5% of the total online population would be worthy, but at least I'd know I wouldn't have to worry about that 5% and could have a smooth gaming experience.

    1. Re:Hell Is Other People by GamingEngineer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think online players can be almost categorized into two groups: Group 1: Players that are generally polite, do not want to give anyone a hard time and do not want a hard time in return. They're just there to play. Group 2: Players that for some reason or another act like total jerks. (Hey, doesn't that sound like real life?) My theory is that most of group 1 are pretty quiet around people they don't know online, simply because they're too busy playing and don't have much to say to others that they don't know. That means we're left with group 2 in voice or text chat. This is why I mainly just play with people I know. I play Socom 2 a lot, and tried getting my brother into the game. He didn't enjoy it because (a), the game has a steep learning curve. And (b), as he tries to learn the game he is constantly ridiculed by people with more experience. Combine the two and his motivation to play is lessened. But I find online play to be great fun when one finds a nice group of people to play with. Online clans and teams help make this easier to do.

    2. Re:Hell Is Other People by karnal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What's funny is, every night about 10pm, me and 2 others join into UT2k4 matches. Lately it's mostly been assault, but we've been known to kick butt through invasion and others.

      The point is though, we've only ever left certain servers for two reasons:

      1. Once (note that: ONCE) there was a guy chatting on the server, repeating himself over and over and over (the text to speech stuff.) We got annoyed and left after the round was up.

      2. Bad maps. Some user-made maps are just nuts.... one we played last night for example was so not fun - you couldn't get away from your spawn point (a no-no in an assault map, since the defaults usually have a gun to defend you the first few seconds of life...) We left since we knew once we were defending, we'd probably be doing the same thing. for 20 minutes.

      So, on the internet gaming side of things, it appears people are a little nicer. We'll make jokes with other guys and have fun with some of their names (especially clan names :) but never take it to the point of annoyance.

      --
      Karnal
    3. Re:Hell Is Other People by *weasel · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, there needs to be a jackass-ometer big time.
      A level of feedback that doesn't necessarily lead to being kicked off xbox live (which the current 'feedback' system is geared toward). But instead just focuses on communicating who's immature.

      In the short term though, XBL just needs 'leagues', so to speak.

      Allow gamers to segregate themselves based on their self-perceived proficiency or intent, and the remaining smaller groups can police the abberant jerks with the existing 'ignore' and 'feedback' options.
      Let the jackasses battle it out on 'ranked' or '1337' servers, and if they intentionally join an 'over 40' or 'casual' game to heckle people, that's justifiably harassment, and ignore/feedback as appropriate.

      And to stave off the inevitable: it shouldn't allow any player rankings to be visible from one league to another. killcount in a casual game should have no bearing or effect on your '1337' league-standing.

      Back on topic: I think it's more telling that XBL is approaching 1 million paying customers. Considering that no-one has ever paid specifically for the privilege of playing non-persistent games online before, it's quite an achievement that they presented an experience that 700k+ console gamers think is worth paying for.

      --
      // "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
    4. Re:Hell Is Other People by jagripino · · Score: 2, Informative

      Try Xlink Kai. Seriously, since there are not that many players on Kai, we welcome anyone that wants to play, specially if you want to play any other game than Halo or Rainbow Six.

      I gave up on Live when I learned that there are no MS-run servers for the games, forcing users to run servers on crappy home connections. What makes Live better than Kai? Not much, and Kai is free. And the community is smaller, thus friendlier.

    5. Re:Hell Is Other People by xgunnerx · · Score: 2

      I have the same problem on Live. It's a wonderful service, but its dominated by the "OMFG IM SO HIGH RIGHT NOW!!!" crowd. I consider myself a casual gamer due to my work heavy schedule and video game hating wife. So when I jump online I like to have a good fulfilling experience. Unfortunately that rarely happens.

      There really is no silver bullet to this problem either. However I've found that the following does help:

      1. Run your own server so you can moderate

      2. Build up your friends list with people that you know are decent gamers (my fav)

      3. Start your own clan

      I would like to advise using the player feedback system so you can give negative feedback on poor players, but I don't think M$ acts on it. I think the last thing they want to do is kick off paying customers from their system.

      What would be nice is if they created a viewable reputation system. That way I could filter on servers that contained too much "scum". But that introduces the "rep whoring" problem you see on UBB enabled forums. Meh someone will figure it out...

  2. PS2 Network Adapter is also a HD adapter by vasqzr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lets rememeber not everyone purchased a PS2 Network Adapter to go online. Almost all the people I know, have used them to hook up hard drives, and the rip games to it.

    HD LOADER, most any bargain-of-the-week HD, and a little time and you can have 60+ games on your PS2, without needing a single CD.

  3. Re:1.4 million what exactly? by McKinney83 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because some network adapters came in a special bundle, which also came with ATV Offroad Fury 2.
    I work at a Game store, and I know that people get mad when they buy a console then have to pay additional for a game, so many people who aren't even online bought that bundle, just to have a game.

    Once Sony dropped the price on the PS2 to $149, the bundle went to the same price (at least at my store).
    So, $150 for a console and controller, or $150 for a Console, game and network adapter?

    --
    Winner of The Second Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.
  4. Re:A certain game by damien_kane · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I bought the network adaptor for SOCOM II.
    Later I bought the harddrive for SOCOM II. There were supposed to be extra maps, models, weapons, etc available from SCEA.

    At the time of release, there were no maps, no models, no weapons, nothing...
    Since FFXI and a 'free' (as in, the first one is always free) month of access came with the harddrive, I decided to pop it in.
    This was over 5 months ago. I still play it.

    Thankfully I have decent friends whoc an pull me away from it on weekends, and a job which pulls me away from it during weekdays.
    Weeknights and during the days on weekends I'm always playing it, though.

    I want (and am going to buy) MGS3, GT4, GTA4, and SH4, but I dont know if I will have time to play them and cessate my need to play FFXI.
    4 words: The Game Is Crack.

  5. Re:A certain game by sdhankin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Agreed. I decided to give FFXI a try against my better judgement - I'd been a beta tester for EverQuest Online Adventures, and didn't enjoy it much - it just seemed repetitive and got old fast.

    So I coughed up the bucks for FFXI ($100! - with the HDD) and tried it out. That was over Memorial Day weekend. I've never looked back - there is so much to this game I discover something new every time I play.

    Now games fall into two categories: FFXI and everything else. I'm looking forward to MGS3 and Killzone and Halo 2. But - then I'd have to stop playing FFXI! I don't know what I'll do...