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PlayStation (Games) The Internet Entertainment Games

PS2 Online User Base Passes 1.4 million 42

Posted by timothy 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?"
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PS2 Online User Base Passes 1.4 million More

PS2 Online User Base Passes 1.4 million

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  • I'm stuck with a one-way cable modem, you insensitive clod!

    What? This isn't a poll?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Why would someone pay $40 for a piece of hardware and then not use it?

      Your rationale is that because people pay for XBox Live, they're playing online. But people paid for network adapters so why doesn't the same argument work?

      • 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?
        • this is a good point: i bought the bundle, and frankly, i've only played online a couple times, and ATV offroad fury 2 is only entertaining till you can buy a better game. am I glad i got the bundle? sure: gave me something to do till i could get a game, let me get the console a week earlier.. and its nice to know the adaptor is there should I want it, even though as it stands, i hardly ever use it.
      • The PS2 network adaptor isn't just a network adaptor. It's also an IDE hard drive adaptor, allowing you to plug in an IDE hard drive and copy most games to it.

        This speeds up load times, allows you to take your game library over to a friend's place without lugging along all the CDs, and allows you to more easily copy/pirate games if you have a mod chip.

        I'd say that if sales of the network adaptor are far beyond the number of online users, that would be a big sign that a lot of people are buying the adapto

        • "I'd say that if sales of the network adaptor are far beyond the number of online users, that would be a big sign that a lot of people are buying the adaptor just to get the hard drive capability."

          Yeah, so? SCEA is fairly tight-lipped about how they've computed the user base. They make no mention of how sales of the network adapters correspond to their user base calculation. I'm glad that you have all this information in your head regarding how the network adapter can be used to plug a hard drive in but i

      • Why would someone pay $40 for a piece of hardware and then not use it?

        I own a PS2 network adapter and have never used it.

        My GF gave it to me for Christmas because I am an avid (PC) online gamer and also play PS2 games. But I haven't yet seen an online PS2 game that I wanted to buy, and haven't had the desire to string ethernet cable from my home office to the living room either, so the PS2 adapter has been gathering dust in the back of the closet for 8 months now.

        Then again, I suppose the same situat

      • "Why would someone pay $40 for a piece of hardware and then not use it?"

        Because they didn't enjoy it?

  • Hell Is Other People (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 2Flower ( 216318 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @09:01AM (#10127175) Homepage
    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.
    • Agreed! Wtf is up with people, sometimes one really are ashamed of humankind, online gaming and usenet seems to draw all sorts of trash.
      Not to mention cheating, what fun is cheating ?
      Online game servers ought to have moderators.

      --
      mod parent up
    • 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
    • I have little experience with Xbox Live, but can you choose to play on regular servers? Pretty much all of my games on Call of Duty have been fun since I stopped visiting the big, 64-player servers and played on small servers. I got to know people, played regularly, and it was fun. Clan gaming is another way to meet like-minded people who don't have any interest in annoying you (although it depends on the game)

      Microphones have made it worse, though. One annoying person can wreck the fun for everyone - hop
    • Reminds me of when a friend of mine got a network adaptor right after they came out over here. All he had was the demo disc, so he brought the adaptor over and we gave the demo disc a try.

      Three demo runs through Madden, three disconnected opponents as soon as it looked like they were going to lose. You run into this sort of thing on any platform when you're online. It's enough that I only play online in groups of people I know and trust not to play that way.

    • Re:Hell Is Other People (Score:3, Interesting)

      by karnal ( 22275 )
      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
    • 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.
      • No, they're approaching 1 million ACCOUNTS. MS gave away a shitload of free 1 year accounts. How many of those users are paying is unknown. I'd expect to see a huge drop in accounts when they start dieing off.

        We also don't know if the numbers MS is releasing are including inactive accounts or not.

      • 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.

        I think that what it needs is a rating system and a friends-of-friends system, such that your immediate buddies are ranked up significantly, their friends are ranked up less, and so on.

        Furthermore, you should be able to rank people, and your rankings should

    • Build your XBL friends list by adding those people that you've had good experiences with and then only play with those people. You can start by adding me, I promise not to call you a loser :)
    • I agree but to do that you really need to pay people to moderate. I mean sure in games with keyboard chat you can filter words but people will still be able to use infinite variations of f4GG0t!!! or whatever, and i cant see any practical automated solution to voice chats at all.

      And of course if people are paid to moderate that cost is going to be bourne by the users. Maybe theres a big enough base of users willing to pay for moderation to set up a smaller select network but Im not sure that this would b

    • Try Xlink Kai [teamxlink.co.uk]. 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.

      • A total of 66 games on three platforms are supported. At the moment, the site indicates 32,600 registered users, with 132 currently online. Have you had much success in finding teammates/opponents to play the game(s) you really want to play, or do you find yourself settling for what the rest of the pack is playing? I tried one of the other non-Live tunnel apps, and was disappointed that no one else was playing PGR2.

        • Have you had much success in finding teammates/opponents to play the game(s) you really want to play, or do you find yourself settling for what the rest of the pack is playing?

          Right now I play more with my friends (online, through Kai) than with the rest of the community, mostly because there are few people playing other online games. I hope the situation changes... Maybe the problem is that most of those 32K users get online once, can't find anyone to play and never come back.
    • 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 y

  • PS2 Network Adapter is also a HD adapter (Score:5, Interesting)

    by vasqzr ( 619165 ) <`vasqzr' `at' `netscape.net'> on Wednesday September 01, 2004 @09:11AM (#10127259)
    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 [arstechnica.com], 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.
  • Does this growth signal the arrival of online console gaming?

    No, XBox Live did. Anyone remember that?

    -E-
  • Truthfully, I picked up the adapter because it was $15, and I was sick of typing in gameshark codes. Now I can download them. Yeah, I'm a very casual player.
  • Nintendo recently came out with data suggesting that 1.2 million of those people were not having fun, and would not play online again in the future, and .2 million of them "accidentally went online and now can not get back offline". See? Nintendo was right to shun online play!

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