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.