If Titanfall is the Future of Gaming, I Won't Be Playing Much

This week Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment released Titanfall.

Rarely do I get as excited about a new game as I was for this one. After playing the BETA and seeing first hand how amazing this game was I couldn't wait for it to arrive.

This morning I popped the disc in and began to play the campaign.

For those of you who are not gamers, the campaign is the storyline you play through. You are given a character and you play through the story until you win the game.

These are living movies that I can escape into. When done right, I get sucked in and can't wait to play more.

But, as I began my campaign and completed the training module,  I noticed that I was being put in a lobby. Huh?

The cornerstone of today's gaming is multiplayer.

This is when you and a bunch of friends or strangers gather in a lobby and then play against each other. A lobby is where you wait until there are enough people to start a game.

Why was I being put in a lobby I wondered?

That is when I realized that Titanfall has changed the rules for gaming. The entire game is multiplayer and can only be played with other live humans playing at the exact same time online.

As me and my fellow players dropped into the hotzone and began battling for control of the gas supplies, I was thinking about how big of a change this was as I ran around waiting for my Titan to be ready.

The story would unfold, but only as I played with other people. Now, not only did I have to complete the missions, but those playing along with me did as well. The more I think about it, the more genius I believe it is.

Why is this a problem for me? Because I rarely want to play multiplayer games. Listening to the players scream at each other is not my kind of escape.

When a game is really good, it sucks me in and I forget everything going on around me. Just like when the theater lights go down, I don't care about anything else for the next couple of hours while what is happening on the screen in front of me takes over.

This isn't meant to be a "get off my lawn" type of post. The hope was that it would give fair warnings to others before they drop $60 on the game so that you would know what you are in for.

I know I'll play it some more to see if any of the campaign evolves back to single player. A mesh of the two styles would be very cool and that is what I'm hoping happens, but I have a gut feeling it won't.

The visuals and game play are top notch. Being able to run along the sides of buildings, rodeo a Titan and explore the world until get sniped by a twelve year old is a lot of fun.

I just hope that not all gaming companies go this route. I'll never be a hardcore gamer, but I do love video games.