Online Offline Play
Last night playing Split/Second, a racing game for Xbox 360, I was once again witness to why their online rank system was broken: Eight players ranked #1, #1, #1, #4, #95, #99, #99, #99. A win for me mentally would be to come in 5th, but it would still knock me a rank back if I wasn’t already last at #99.
I switched to Survival mode - a less popular mode where you pass trucks dropping explosive barrels and see how long you can last without crashing. I have no idea how many players it takes in the lobby to trigger event, so me and this other stranger started a private room so we could do more than chat about the weather in the virtual lobby.
I was fascinated by the difference in our approach to online play. It was my second time online ever in Split/Second, and I had just completed the single player to 100% wins in every category. Only after I exhausted solo-play did I dare venture online. This guy however had yet to get past the very first tier of events. With no cars unlocked - and little experience - he would be bound for failure online. Even if he had fast cars, he wouldn’t match my knowledge of the courses. No, I didn’t use my fast cars, but instead chose one of the slowest, so at least he’d had a fair shot at winning. He did so… twice… although I won the majority quite easily.
Sometimes I never get around to online play, while others go there first. It intimidates me. That’s where the real competition is, and I like to be good. Two vastly different approaches.
