While I am becoming convinced that console gaming has come of age and that PC gaming is on it's way out, I see one major problem.  On the PC, through playing PlanetSide, I met a good group of people to game with.  We'd use TeamSpeak and coordinate our attacks and such, but also just shoot the shit, and have fun.  I played PlanetSide as long as I did, primarily because it was hanging out with my friends.  The addiction wasn't in the game, but rather in the waiting to find out how drunk ArmorDeth was on a random Thursday night. 

As I've been moving to playing console games, I realize that there's a couple problems.  First of all, there's no good way to meet players on the console that I'm aware of.  I mean yeah I log onto a random server and I can see who was playing on there when I log off, but in the midst  of a game, it's rather hard to keep track of who would be good to play with going forward. 

If you've got an established network of people who are playing a certain game, it's easy enough to hook up with them in most games.  But if you want to actually meet some new good gamers to play with, it's not so easy.  I join random servers only to hear some stoned/drunk jackass mumbling and making weird noises to try to annoy other people.  For whatever reason, I find that there's a lot more of that on console games than PC. 

The other problem is that each console has it's own isolated network.  So if my friends play on XBOX, then I have to play on XBOX.  I own a PS3, so unless other people I know get a PS3, then there's little I can do in terms of networking.  Btw, I'm "sterno_inferno" on PS3's network, if you're out there and want to add me to your list. 

Anyhow, I look back over my game playing history and, broadly speaking, a game has rarely held my attention for more than a couple weeks unless there was some social element to it.  If I found a good server and people to play with, I would keep coming back time and time again.  It's been a long time since PlanetSide was any good, and I've yet to find anybody on the consoles to play with routinely.