I stumbled upon a funny meme on X that showed some old first person shooter screenshots and a reflexive man, looking into the distance. The caption: “Man Still Chasing That High He Felt Playing Halo at LAN Party With The Fellas Back In 2001”
Not gonna lie, I miss LAN parties SO MUCH. In my case it was not about Halo but Unreal Tournament. There was something so satisfying about blasting someone’s digital avatar to pieces with a well placed rocket. Maybe two, for good measure.
But can’t we play online nowadays? Isn’t that infinitely easier to just connect to the internet and play any game, any time, with zero delay or lag, with far better graphics?
That’s the thing. In the early 2000s we had some technical limitations. I used to play online a couple times, and even if the connection in Venezuela wasn’t that good, I enjoyed solid Capture The Flag matches with international friends. Germans were especially good at this.
But a LAN party was something much more close: a dozen or so computers connected in one or two rooms, basically everyone in the match not only glued to their screens, but also listening to the live screams, laughter and other sounds that escape description while the constant fragging was taking place.
Since the computers were connected directly through a physical hub, there was virtually zero delay, so gaming was as smooth as today with your regular broadband connection. But again, it was not the quality of the digital experience but the human factor. All together, blasting each other, everyone willing to be the last man standing.
I think being in a physical place all together was the thing that made all the difference. And beyond that, the difficulty of having everything set up. Having enough tables, enough electrical outlets and enough junk food.
When I deconstruct those good times, I end up noticing both the friction and the difficulty to set everything up, and the human closeness factor. In gaming, those two are pretty much lost nowadays. Everyone plays at their own home or office. There is no friction, and there is no direct, immediate human connection. Not even shouting through a headset is the same thing.
Which brings us to the feeling I had in those matches: joy. Yes, I can have joy in today’s online gaming landscape, but that was something else.
Perhaps the joy was tied to the ‘difficulty’ of setting everything up, and the human connection?
For example, as far as I know, services like Disney Plus allow you to watch shows and movies ‘as a group’, but everyone at their own place. I don’t know if I’m a luddite in that regard, but nothing beats watching a show as a group in a living room, or a sports game, or going to the movies with people who love movies (and leave all those constant talkers outside).
Talking about movies, one used to have to go to the theater. Maybe find parking. Have some dinner first. Stay in line to get your food at the mall’s food court. Then buy the physical tickets at the cinema counter. Maybe another line. And yet another line to enter, if the seats weren’t numbered and you couldn’t pick yours. I don’t know, that friction, instead of making the experience worse… made it better.
Maybe because it was not only a group experience, but the friction itself was kind of a filter. Only those really engaged went to enjoy the experience. Or maybe people were more polite back then. Or mobile phones weren’t as annoying (I don’t remember any rogue call sounds when I watched Gladiator back then).
Anyway, I digress. I’m going to stay with the concepts of friction, and a group experience. There are so many things that are so easy nowadays, that maybe we take them for granted. I’m not talking about going back to cassette tapes (although we could – the natural hiss would be worth it!) but let’s think instead that, to have true joy in our lives, there has to be two important ingredients:
– We need some friction, some struggle. But not too much, and
– Everything is better when shared with others (who enjoy the experience as much as we do)
I don’t have further examples right now, but I’ll keep an eye whenever I see my experiences feeling impersonal, or too easy. Convenience is good, but it can kill our experiences.
I’m sure I will elaborate further on this, in the future.
Much Love and Bliss,
Jesús.
The Body Language Guy
