Come on people, where are you?

[ceesar]

So, just browsed on in to have a look at the PS2 online forums, to discover there's not been a post for over 10 days?

So where is everyone, playing PS2 online perhaps?

Anyway, I've just purchased my online adaptor....and although I've not had much online play yet, the ease of set up really impressed me.

My wife, unfortunately, doesn't like the look of bright green Belkin ethernet cable running from my router to the PS2 in the living room, so I'm *forced* to buy a wireless adaptor for the PS2. Oh well! :D

Bought the "Twisted Metal Online + Net Adaptor" bundle, plus Socom.

Planning a bit of a online sesh tonight...

[Cheez]

You can get grey or black ethernet cable you know...

[ceesar]

Yeah, I know.... :D

What I could do, I s'ppose, is *properly* run a ethernet cable through to a router in the living room (under floorboards etc).

But I quite like the wireless solution - nice and neat.

I'm guessing that I could probably plug the ethernet-to-wireless bridge into a hub...to give me more ports.

...perhaps...

Incidentally, I went for the netgear me101 (http://www.netgear.co.uk/html/prod_wireless_802_11_b.htm#me101)

(not quite sure how this relates to PS2 online gaming, but is interesting nonetheless! :p)

[Triprotic-Acid]

the PS2's online stuff seems to be an after thought, if i was ever to take a console online atm, it would be the Xbox, they have thought about it, and planned from the start, where Sony have just wanted to push and extra service onto an aging console.

imo of course :)

[ceesar]

I would disagree that the PS2 online plans are an afterthought.

I think that Sony always intended PS2 to be online capable, but they took a much different approach to it than MS did.

MS are really setting themselves up for the long term, with XBL, putting in a place a charging mechanism that will return continuous revenues into the futures .... whether those revenues actually out-weigh the costs of implement XBL is another question altogether! :p:

As I said, I believe that Sony always intended PS2 to be online enabled - but it was up to individual software companies to implement the online access in whatever fashion they wanted - to give them the freedom to do what they want.

However, I think where Sony made a big mistake was not including a HDD in the PS2. Getting people to buy peripherals (apart from controllers, etc) has historically been extremely difficult. So, game designers who are considering putting HDD functionality into their games, are put off by the fact that only a (small) percentage of their target audience will have access to the HDD accessory. (thinking about it, I suppose the same could be said for an ethernet connection).

Just some of my thoughts...

Steven.

[Triprotic-Acid]

Sony knew they wanted online capability, that's why they build the PS2 with the aibility to take the hard drive and ethernet adapter.

It seems that the developers have pushed for online capability, for example, THPS3 went out of it's way to be playable online, but Sony did not see fit to fully support it by releasing an official online adapter when THPS3 came out.

For the Xbox MS went out of their way to sign up developers to make titles work on Live, even if they had limited use (downloadable content/online high score tables). The only problem this is causing, is that developers seem to doing lazy tricks to make it look like you get extra content, when infact you are just nlocking material already in the game. (See RtCW for an example)

If you read the early PS2 magazines, they predicted Sony would have downloadable filmes/music/games when the console finaly went online, to make it more of an enviroment for users to play with, and not just a tool/requrement for some games that it is now.

Nintendo? well, while they are now considering having online abilites for the GameCube, it's already too late, I'd imagine they will have it sorted for their next console though.

I still stand by my thoughts that the Xbox is the better choice for online stuff, hopefully they will expand the benefits without being greedy about it.