When Xbox Live was created, it widened the accessibility of multiplayer game to audiences of people all over the world. You longer had to be 'hardcore' to pwn nubs that lived in another city, state, or country; thus, players had more people to compete and cooperate with. Of course, most of those people turned out to be assholes, but that is another post unto itself and one that has been written many times already. All in all, the multiplayer aspect of multiplayer gaming is arguably more rewarding than the single-player experience, because it always feels better to defeat actual human beings than a CPU controlled enemy.

Especially when that person is family. I have a brother in his teen years, and he eventually acquired his very own Xbox. He had come over to my apartment on many a weekend to play mine, and decided that he needed to upgrade from the old ps2 that I had given him with an Xbox of his own. Neither of my parents had a high-speed internet connection in their homes though, so I would still see him every weekend as he would drop by to play online.

We would pass the controller back and forth, watching each other getting shot in the head in Call of Duty 4, or get ripped in half by chainsaw bayonets in Gears of War. We observed each other’s successes and failures while developing strategies for one another, cracking jokes, and telling stories. It was also my time to catch up with how his life was unfolding, and gave me the ability to stay involved.

One day, my father got High-speed internet at his house. Not long after that, my brother brought and kept his Xbox over there. I purchased a subscription to live for 3 months for him. Night after night, we would arrange to be on Xbox Live at the same time so that we could play together. It was all good for a while, and I especially liked the fact that we could be on a team together in Call of Duty 4 that consisted only of myself, my brother, and other Xbox owning friends that we both had.

After a while though, I started to realize that the only time that my brother and I spent together was online. Less and less would he and I share any actual physical space. The time we spent in an actual room together was usually due to circumstances beyond our control, and very short lived. We would split apart as soon as possible so that we could go to our respective couches and “spend time together” that way. And that was fine with us.

Soon I noticed that something was missing, however. Gone were the moments of true bonding, as most of our conversations only pertained to the task(s) at hand, and while we still joked around, we were never really able to get personal as we always had other people in our conversations. It was ironic to me that the very thing that was meant to bring us together began to separate us.

Eventually my brother’s live subscription ran out, and with him being a 7th grader, wasn’t able to re-subscribe on his own. He began coming over again and we were able to pick up where we left off. We also do other activities like going to movies and concerts. I am sure in the future, his subscription will be renewed and we will get to team up again when Call of Duty 6 or some other hot multiplayer title hits the streets. But I will be sure to work in real one-on-one quality time with my bro, because I want to be more to him than just another NPC.