GameTruck: To Game Online or Not to Game Online? Here’s a hint: It’s not about the games

From the very beginning of GameTruck, one of the questions people frequently asked me was, “do you have (fill in the blank) online game?” For 10 years the simple answer was “no.” Today our answer is more complex. The real answer is often, “that depends” 

What is it with GameTruck and online gaming?

Let me tell you.

About a quarter of a century ago high-speed networks revolutionized gaming. Doom ushered in a world where engineers at Intel, CISCO, and every other high-tech company with internet access routinely took down the local area networks (LANs) by “gaming” too much. A decade after that games like Counter Strike, and Halo exploded on the scene. In the late 90’s private Counter Strike servers were numbered in the 10’s of thousands, and more people played First Person Shooters (FPS) than watched Seinfeld every night. By 2005 The Halo franchise changed gaming because players used game controllers (thumb sticks and dpads) to play FPS games than players who used a mouse and keyboard.

The power of internet gaming is obvious. You can play with people practically anywhere in the world. But GameTruck wasn’t built around the idea of playing games with or against strangers. It was built around playing the best games with your best friends, people you could actually see and know, and hang out with.

I built GameTruck as a vehicle for making friendships. Video games are the glue we use to bind people together emotionally. I have come to believe that friendships are made shoulder to shoulder through the shared strive of common interest. 

In that light, online gaming works exactly opposite to GameTruck’s mission. Why would you have a party to play against a bunch of strangers?

And yet, I understand why parents ask for online gaming.

They ask because, when children play at home, they usually play online

Parents want their children to be happy and to have a party around the games their children love best. Today, more and more of those games are online. And so are their friends.

As a Video Game Studio President and General manager, I had access to everything. At my studios we could play literally any kind of game we wanted (and often did). I loved researching video games most of the time. (Not all games are great, but even bad games can teach you a lot about game design.)

GameTruck was designed to be the experience we enjoyed the most at the development studio

All of this research led me to find, repeatedly, the experience developers enjoyed the most was playing together, in the same space. When we could see each other, and hear each other, in combination with playing together – that experience created an electric energy that is hard to describe.

There is something magic about playing together in the same space. What surprises me is how few kids have actually done it. Before the rise of cheap high-speed internet, developers would pour enormous resources into supporting LAN parties. Teams of people would work for hours (sometimes days) setting up. I made GameTruck a LAN party on wheels. All the setup was done and ready to go. All you had to do was show up.

In the Early Years

In the original configuration of the trailer, we started with Mario Kart Double Dash on the GameCube (because it supported a LAN mode!) and Xbox 360 because Halo was famous for its network mode. Same screen multiplayer games like Madden and Smash Bros gave players lot of choice for playing together. Time and time again, gamers would tell us how much fun they had playing together only with people in the trailer. I believe there are several reasons for this:

1. The Trailer experience is private. No one from the outside is barging in.
2. Matches happen much, much faster in person than online.
3. The energy of playing in person just can’t be beat

This is probably why after 16 years, GameTruck parties are still as popular as ever, and some owners remain committed to providing the “original” experience.

The Dawn of Fortnite and Roblox

About 5 years ago we saw a titanic shift in demand from kids and parents looking to have Fortnite or Roblox parties. In many markets, we did in fact roll out packages to support playing these kinds of games online. As popular as these options are – and if they are available to you awesome. There are some things you should know.

Mobile Internet is Still Inconsistent at Best

Despite all of the hype from the cellular companies about wireless data, no one has produce a reliable, affordable, broad band connection that is effective with multiple gaming systems in the same immediate vicinity of each other. Most of the marketing assumes that people are spread out. We have seen over the past 12 months what it is like when every single person in a household wants to use Zoom at the same time. Even true broadband networks can collapse under the strain of that kind of demand. And I’m talking about cable or fiberoptic networks, the highest bandwidth most robust connections available.

Connecting 4 or 8 consoles in the same trailer to the same wireless tower is a challenge. For years many hotspots would not support more than 3 consoles connected at once. Add to that bandwidth throttling, and you can see how online play can be easily impeded. 

To mitigate these risks, sometimes our owner operators rely on the host to provide internet by extending a super long cable from the trailer to the house. In a COVID world I hope it would be obvious why this is no longer ideal. While it can provide a consistent link, any time you are plugging into routers and home network equipment, there is an element of the uncontrolled. I’m reminded of the old Information Technology joke. “You know it’s the smoke that makes your computer run right? Because if you open the case and let the smoke it, it won’t work anymore.” No one wants to let the smoke out of your network equipment.

Aside from the obvious technical challenges of getting lots of broadband internet to a mobile trailer – there is a fundamental design difference between multiplayer “couch games” and internet games.

Console games are designed for groups. PC Games are designed for individuals.

What I mean by that is that a console is normally installed in a family room, a living room, a playroom connected to a large format TV. It is installed in front of a couch. It has multiple controllers attached. It screams come play with me, together. A personal computer or laptop in contrast is, well personal. It has one keyboard, one screen. And as I have joked, there’s one chair, never share. It is designed to be used by one person at a time. I will admit that the latest generation of consoles definitely blurs the line, but even those still support at least two controllers attached at the same time.

The GameTruck concept prioritizes connection with live humans you can hang out with, over people you have never met over the internet. Online games often do not share the screen in any meaningful way, which means that instead of a single console entertaining up to 8 people at once, that console can only engage one. This means sometimes more children are watching than playing. Not always a bad thing as spectator esports has exploded over the last half decade. This generation of players love to watch a great match of their favorite game.

Some Do, Some Don’t

While it would be nice and simple if all GameTruck franchisees offered online gaming, but I understand the reasons and rational for the difference. Allow me to explain how they break down.

The Connected Markets

In the connected markets three factors come into play. First, there is generally excellent cellular coverage for high-speed Ointernet. Second, the market price point supports the high expense in providing online games (specialized equipment like screen splitters, more consoles and TV’s, plus labor for downloads are needed resulting in higher operating costs.) Third, through experience and due diligence owners have a high degree of confidence that they can reliably deliver the expectation and experience that customers want. Online parties are great if they work. They are horrible if they don’t. No one wants to disappoint a child on their birthday. We have to know we can deliver the experience people expect if we are going to offer it.

The Original Experience Markets

For markets where cell coverage is inconsistent – and with no way to guarantee execution (you just cannot predict bandwidth restrictions and coverages in some markets), our owners have wisely focused on delivering the original GameTruck party experience. Outfitted with Nintendo Switches which allows players to form ad hoc private networks (See GameTruck @Home Article ) – players can have many of the great experiences competing together as if they were online.

So what is the answer? Focus on the shared experience

When I went back to analyze the data, I was surprised to find that markets that do not offer online gaming actually score a higher Net Promoter Score with a total of ~89, than markets that do offer online gaming. (Total score ~87). 

How is that possible?If you recall my story about Laser Tag, while people focus on the trailer and the games, that is not what they are actually buying. They are buying a celebration. A celebration is about feelings of respect, and value. Those feelings come from the people around you and the way you are treated, not from the software or the hardware you use. Shockingly, the data seems to indicate it is not so important what you play, it is far more important how you play, and who you are playing with.

Games Change but Play Is Eternal

When I look back over the decade and a half that we have been running GameTruck parties, I am often shocked at the rate of change in video games and how our little company not only survived but thrived through it all.

It is hard to believe but I started putting down the first ideas for GameTruck in 2005. I assembled a prototype in my garage using an Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube. I knew the Xbox 360 was coming thanks to my work in the video game industry. In fact, the graphics on some of the early prototypes for the Xbox 360 were so impressive – they crushed anything in the arcade. With the success of Halo as a local area network play game, I knew people would want to have that experience.

It’s Hard to Believe We Loved Those Old Consoles So Much

I happen to have this sort of “collection” of old gaming systems in my house. I have fond memories of playing “Zelda Ocarina of Time” with the kids when they were young. When I set up the garage prototype of GameTruck, we played, “Jack & Disaster” (Jack and Daxter on the PS2). 

So many people worried that GameTruck would not last because the games would change so often. I have to admit, it was a concern I had as well. But when I look back at those old games – and this is hard to do – do you still have a CRT television with an S-Video cable input? Remember those old RGB connectors? You had to plug in a bundle of them to get… gasp, 480i in rich color. 480 vertical rows of pixels interleaved. 

The jump to “HD” with 720P was amazing… until you look at it today.

The Games We Launched With

When we started the first GameTruck business, we used: 

• Halo
• Mario Kart Double Dash
• Smash Bros Melee
• Madden
• FIFA
• Call of Duty

And that was pretty much it. The world was obsessed with Grand Theft Auto at the time and parents were paranoid we would bring that game out. Of course, we never did because GTA was a single player game and we only wanted to bring out games that kids could play together.

Looking back on those old games it is hard to believe that we started before the launch of the Wii, before the Guitar Hero, Rock Band Craze, and before anyone used the words “esports”.

Not too long ago I fired up a copy of a video game I had worked on. ATV Offroad Fury. That game was fun to play, however by todays graphics standards it is hard to look at. It is also hard to recall how groundbreaking that game was at the time. Or how excited everyone was to see Zelda in 3D, or even Mario in his first all 3D adventure. Looking back it seems like it is hard to see what all the fuss was about – and yet those games hold a special place in my heart and the hearts of millions of children that grew up with them.

The Evergreens

A few of those games have evolved through to today, and remain as popular as they were when they were first introduced. While some entire genres of games have faded away (remember racing games? You hardly see those any more), a few games have become industries in their own right.

If you were to walk into a GameTruck Party today, I think it is interesting how some games have become nearly timeless in their appeal. These are games that kids just love to play together. While some games did in fact change our business (Fortnite cough cough), most games were fads that lasted for a while then faded away. (Remember Tony Hawk? How huge was that game?)

Even in 2021 you are still likely to see when you step into a GameTruck Party :

• Smash Bros Ultimate
• Minecraft (the new kid on the block)
• NBA2K (has muscled its way onto the sports scene) sometimes displacing Madden or FIFA, sometimes right alongside of it.
• Dance-Dance Revolution

And depending upon the game of the child, you could see:

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
• Luigi’s Mansion
• Call of Duty
• Fortnite

What we have learned

Over the years, what we have seen is that what really makes a party experience work, is a combination of key elements. The first is that we have the multiplayer games kids tend to be very interested in playing. Most kids in the 8-12 year old range are poly-gamers. They play the most popular games on a range of gaming systems. They can easily switch between building in Minecraft, battling it out in Smash Bros, or teaming up for a competitive game of Madden or NBA2K.

The Lure of playing together in person, and have a wide selection of the most popular games, updated and ready to go gives the players choice. The game itself is not nearly as important as the game a group is interested today is interested, up to date, and ready to play. This ready-to-play phenomenon is what I like to call Zero Friction Gaming.

Zero Friction Gaming

I believe that one of the reasons GameTruck has persisted all of these years is that our amazing staff take care of all the annoying details required for a dozen or more people to play together. Pre-COVID parties were much bugger, but in the beginning 8 – 10 kids was not uncommon. And that number – more than any one console can support – is the threshold problem. If you split even 8 players into groups of 2, this requires four systems, four screens, 8 controllers, sometimes we need to have multiple copies of the most popular games.

Most families just do not have the time, energy and resources to gather all of this equipment, let alone hook it up. (When is the last time you sync’d up a controller? – now imagine doing that for half a dozen of them in just a few minutes). The magic of GameTruck is that we show up ready to play. The players can step inside and share.

I guess what I’m getting at is that when there is no barrier to play – it is the friends that can make the magic happen. This is why we work so hard to keep the equipment update to date, updated, and well maintained. Availability is the number one factor in removing friction to game. The fast kids can play, the more fun they have, the less stressful it is for parents, and the more memories are made.

Specific games become less important than having access to lots of popular options that are ready to go. We have definitely seen this in our GameTruck @Home program. Every player gets a console. Every console has every game. Anyone can play anything at any time. Now that is Zero Friction Gaming.

Conclusion

Despite the many ups and downs and twists and turns of the video game industry, playing your favorite games with your best friends is as strong as ever. Maybe today we need to be a little more selective in who comes over, but the desire to play and make new memories has not abated. I am humbled that this crazy idea that started in my garage 15 years ago, is loved by kids, trusted by parents, and has delivered fun since 2006.

If I think about it, what makes GameTruck special? We make the best of gaming available to the most important people in your lives.

And that has not changed.

For fifteen years, we have helped parents celebrate their children’s birthday parties. One question that pops up, not infrequently what is the best age for child to throw a party?

The correct answer to that should be, “at the age you believe your child will have fun…” having said that, we do put a lower limit on the ages with many markets wanting the children to be at least 6 years old. If I look at the historical sales data, I see that that average age for a GameTruck party falls at 10 years old, a range it has held for years. The vast majority of our customers fall between 8,and 11 years old. 

But if you want to know the perfect age for a GameTruck party, I will have to say that it is 10 years old. Now I know there are parents reading this might panic. Please don’t panic! You don’t have to wait until 10 to have a GameTruck party! We successfully entertain thousands upon thousands of children every year from as young as 6 and beyond.  You can check our 87% Net Promoter Score as proof our owns throw great parties for all ages.

However, if you are curious about the best age, the sweet spot, then read on.  I don’t think it is actually the child’s age that makes a difference as much as their grade. GameTruck parties really become popular in the third through sixth grade. And if there’s a sweet spot, it is that last year of elementary school.  For vast majority of kids in the US, this happens in the fifth grade when they are 10 years old.

Why the fifth grade?

Here in Arizona, most of our public schools operate in three waves. We have Elementary school which runs K-5th. Middle school runs 6^th– 8^th. Most of our high schools are four-year schools covering the 9^th through 12^th grades. The most variability happens at the elementary and middle school boundary, where some schools run K-6 with a two-year middle school, and others operate as I described.

The reason the last grades in elementary school are so enamored with GameTruck is partly cultural, and partly developmental.

Cultural Effects

When kids are in elementary school, parents want to expose their kids to as many sports (and activities) as possible. We did this with our kids.  They played soccer, they played tee-ball, and basketball, and even flag football. At a young age, – I mean like in Kindergarten – simply getting them to participate was a chore. Most of the time this an exercise in corralling rambunctious little balls of energy.

For many parents, team sports have become the de facto way to socialize and exercise their children. Elementary schools is when kids are more or less thrown in together, and friendships are made through a combination of trial and error and through spending time together.

As the kids grow and advance through the grades, however, there is typically a sport that captures the imagination for a majority of the community.  In South Tempe it was Little league. Everyone played little league whether they wanted to or not. Why little league? It is one of the only sports organized around schools.  Therefore, kids play with and against their friends.  Many other sports invite children from a much wider pool and you might compete with people you will never see again outside of that one game.

I know we had the feeling that if our kids did not play Little League, they would be left out. In different cities and different parts of the country other organizations have this kind of pull.  I know in Long Island they have a tremendous youth soccer league. North Scottsdale is dominated by flag football. The combination of community involvement, organization, participation, and municipal support with access to good facilities all play a role in elevating one sport to a focal point. 

These sports activities become a kind of “binding agent”, when coupled with school really create the social fabric for most of our children’s lives.  There is one curious thing about both school, and sports.  The kids are not in control.  Adults are.  So the most powerful force in a young child’s life in terms of forming friendships is managed by adults.  I believe that is significant and plays a party in why GameTruck parties have a special meaning for fifth graders.

Developmental Effects

It is not only school and sports (or other activities) that shape a child’s social life.  Children go through a process of socialization that starts with the parents and expands toward finding and identifying with a friend group.  I noticed that as my children gained an increase in mobility, they expressed more of their individual personalities. When they were infants confined to a bouncy chair, they strongly identified with my wife. In fact, they might cry sometimes when they could not see her. Infant-parent attachment is well researched and supports the idea that as children grow, they expand their identity with the primary caregiver, to include the family.  When they go to school, this next level of mobility leads to an expansion of identity that includes other children their age.  By the third and forth group, children are actively seeking out friends and connections, but the patterns are subtly different at 7 and 8.

I saw it when I coached Farm Baseball (7 & 8).  We also noticed a sharp divide when we worked with younger kids in our Bravous Esports programs. There is a noticeable difference between 7&8 and 9&10.  While there are many gifted gamers in the younger age brackets – socially, they are in a different space.  Most children in the 3^rd grade are just learning how to read which makes it hard for them to act independently. Yet they have a strong desire to, “do what the big kids are doing”. Their sights are focused on the older kids, but the older kids seem to be aware of those around them and the younger kids are like furniture, present, but not terribly relevant for social connection.  This could have to do with their capacity for grasping and processing more abstract concepts.

Let me give you a concrete example.  In Little League Farm (ages 7 & 8), we did not keep score and there were no winners or losers.  However, I could get the kids fired up by telling them when they were hitting, “We are down by one run!  Let’s get some hits.”  When the inning was over, the kids would ask, “How did we do?” I would tell them, “We are up by one run, you better get out there on defense and hold them.”  I could do this inning after inning, game after game.

By 9 years old, players were eligible for the “Minors”, where they kept score, teams could win or lose, and the kids pitched to each other.  (In farm they used a pitching machine).  Suddenly the kids had a very good sense of who was good, and how was not.  Everyone knew the score, one multiple levels.  

While the younger kids strove to act like the older kids, the “older kids”, were starting to discern and select their friends based upon criteria that was important to them, not the adults.  

GameTruck Party a Hand-Picked Team

One of the reasons GameTruck Parties are so ideal for kids in the  fifth grade, is that their birthday party is their chance to “pick their own team.” While we do everything we can to make sure everyone at a celebration plays (see No Lone Wolves ), the birthday child gets to pick the games they want to play and who they want to play with. For most of their lives, their teammates have been picked by adults. Kids have very little control over their environments and social groups – however with a GameTruck party, they get a chance to start to exercise social choice in a new way. 

Unlike other birthday party concepts that emphasis putting as many people as possible into the same space as possible to create as much energy as possible (doesn’t that just sound like a terrible idea in 2021?), those kinds of environments make the birthday child just another passenger in their own life. The adults are driving, and what happens, happens.

With a GameTruck party however, the coach identifies the birthday child and singles them out to play on the first screen.  They are then told they can play whatever they want with whoever they want. For many children, this is an enormous leap in self-determination. Kids understand that they can play what they want by themselves, but to choose the game that their closest friends get to play? At ten years old most children understand how truly special that is.

I personally believe this is one of the reasons so many children have told their parents, “this is the greatest party I have ever had.” Not simply because the games are great, not simply because the environment is cool. Children recognize the level of maturity and responsibility that is being entrusted to them by the adult Game Coaches. They get to choose what to play and who to play with, and that is a big deal. 

Everyone can have fun, but the experience is different for everyone.

When you entertain 10 million people, you see a lot of things. I am still convinced that video games offer something for literally everyone if done right.  I have come to believe that 10-year-olds attach a special significance to a GameTruck party. At the intersection of school, extracurricular activities, and their own personal development as individuals – they see a GameTruck party as a unique blend of entertainment and choice, of competition and camaraderie. Of all the ages that enjoy GameTruck, I do believe that 10-year-olds are in a unique position to get absolutely the most from the experience.

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Reference

1. Benoit, D. (2004). Infant-parent attachment: Definition, types, antecedents, measurement and outcome. Paediatrics & Child Health, 9(8), 541–545.
2. Social and Emotional Development: Ages 8-10. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2021, from https://www.kidcentraltn.com/development/8-10-years/social-and-emotional-development-ages-8-10.html

Jr, C. R., Ripken, B., & Lowe, S. (2006). Coaching Youth Baseball the Ripken Way (First edition). Human Kinetics.