If you aren’t familiar with video games and their release dates, I’ll let you in on a little secret.  Most Triple-A titles are released in the Fall, ranging from September to early December, and almost always on a Tuesday.  Whether you are a PC, mobile, or console gamer, there is always a game for you to buy during this period.  This is the time when you see gamers with empty pockets because they have to decide what few games they want to buy with the limited resources they have.  Even if you are well-off there are close to 2o titles I can think of off the top of my head that are being released in this window of time, so it’s pretty safe to say that even the gaming Rockefellers wont fork over the 1,200 dollars for all those titles.  Not to mention there isn’t enough time to play all of them when at least 10 of those 20 claim to last over 100 hours.

Safe to say that it’s not easy to play all the Fall titles as soon as they come out, which is why, due to the abundance of pre-order initiatives, gamers tend to pre-order their Fall gaming purchases during the Summer months.  I also preordered certain games over the summer including: Destiny, Alien: Isolation, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and Far Cry 4.  I opted out of two of these preorders. Why?  Because I was so occupied with the first game that came out that I didn’t feel the need for another experience.  I am, of course, speaking about Bungie and Activision’s new franchise Destiny and how I learned to play multiplayer games for the first time.

I know, you’re probably thinking… you need to LEARN how to play a multiplayer game?!?!  WELL, maybe not in the way we traditionally use the word.

There I was….September 10th at 1:15 AM…receipt in hand…ready get my Limited Edition copy of Destiny.  Oh the joy of those first in game moments.  Fast forward to the last week of September and I was finally at a level where I could attempt the Raid, the Vault of Glass.  The Vault of Glass is a special mission in the game that rewards players with potentially game changing gear and weapons…All based on the magical randomness of RNG (check out my previous article on Top 5 Gaming Pet Peeves) Now to play the Raid you need five… yes FIVE…. friends to play with and about 2-4 hours of free time on any given Tuesday night, most likely (the progress of most of the game’s activities resets every Tuesday 4 am EST).  Also you have to be a certain level or you cannot play the mission.

Now,  I was at the level required, but I had no friends to play it with.  Bungie made the content solely accessible to groups or fire-teams, as they are called, that had invited each other to play.  There is no match-making for Raid activities, they are launched with the players you have invited to your fire-team.  This was Bungie’s greatest achievement, in my opinion.  By disabling the ability to have the servers connect you with five other people you eliminate the frustration you go through when you get some 12 year old with a high-pitched voice giving you orders over game chat until your ears bleed.  It adds, however, the frustrating experience of finding a group that is willing to let you play with them.  This is where I learned to play multiplayer.

Bungie had a companion application out for IOS and Android to track your characters’ progressions and also read the official Bungie forums where people would post glitches, praises, or general issues they were having with the game.  It was Bungie’s hope that players would find a raid group there.  There was this overwhelming pressure that I put on myself to find a group, so that I could complete the activity, but like I had said earlier, I had no friends to play with.  I found so many players looking for a group and I put my playstation ID on a lot of their forums.  After several hours, I finally got a response!  I was invited to a game where the other five players were already at the boss battle….I was elated.  I said to myself, “It’s 8 pm and we are already at the boss…this is going to be cake!”  Four hours later we were still trying to beat him.  FOUR HOURS!!  We gave up when one of the players had to go because he said, “I’ve got to go, it’s 4 am here in Scotland”.  There is nothing better than hearing a Scottish accent telling you to get some rest.   Here I was thinking I could skip the whole raid and just reap the benefits.

Later in the week I continued my search for a raid crew when I happened upon another request by a player named JonnytheJet.  He was looking for a sixth and so I posted my level and stats and he responded to me.  His group had to start the raid from the beginning, since he had responded to me after the weekly reset, and I told them about the fact that I knew what the boss battle was like.  I immediately became an asset to the team and after 4 hours that Tuesday night and 4 hours on Wednesday we finally beat the raid.  I had broken my multiplayer cherry and from then on we would do the raid together every week, every Tuesday night.  We have also beaten the new raid that was released a few weeks ago and people are always asking to join us since we have the weapons that only the raid can reward.  We are a team, and for the first time in my life I honestly feel like I’m part of something that is bigger than myself; the larger organism that is the gaming community.  This is why people play video games.  Sure you can play a great single-player story once in a while, but there is no feeling like the one after a team victory; a victory won together is a victory won forever.

Safe to say…after I got that rush of endorphins from beating that first raid I have barely looked at other games since.