Online or Off?

Here's a quick brain teaser: what's the difference between playing with your friends online and playing with your friends right next to you? Try to answer that question without just restating the question and you might have trouble...or you might not, depending on how you play online.

Here's an easier question: in terms of the actual experience, what's the difference between playing against a person and playing against bots? You can actually talk to a person, and that's it. Bots may not be quite as smart as human players, but in the middle of the game, you're not going to be thinking about that.

So for online gaming to really be worthwhile, at least in my opinion, it's got to be something like Xbox Live that lets you talk to other players. People always say gaming isn't a social experience, but it can be if we make it one.