I downloaded Warhawk the other night, and though its not the shooter I'd hoped it'd be (more of an action game, i think), I had much fun. There's one, seemingly unmistakable, problem though. There is absolutely no message, party, or invite system to be found. To play with a friend, you have to open your friends list ( your PSN friends list is ported into Warhawk) and wait for one of your friends to join a room, or make one. You can then join the room if you'd like.

Here's a few of the problems that arise because of this: 1) Having more than 1 person on your friends list join the same room as the one you're in is about luck, as you cant message them to tell them to join, you can only hope they do. 2) If you do manage to get in the same room as people you know, the game will split teams up if they're uneven between rounds, meaning you get split from the people you want to play with ( a party system would easily fix that). 3) There's in-game clan support, though you'd have to have someone from the opposing clan on your PSN friends list to have them join, or they'd have to scroll down the mile long list of servers to find yours. While this is happening, if someone random joins your room, there's no way to kick them, so youd have to re-make and hope only the people you want to join, join. Not to mention, there,s no pre-game lobby. *EDIT* There is a way to make a room that you can only join if you have the password, but without a way of messaging people within the game of Warhawk itself, giving the people the password still requires you to use an instant messanger, or a phone.

I thought these were problems that all would agree are so, but when I posted a thread in a certain forum (not a forum run by Sony, or Incognito)on the subject, I was blasted. Here's some actual replies i got.

"Its called AIM, or join room, idiot."

"Why dont you just get your friends phone numbers and stop complaining"

"You can just make room with a certain server name, and have people scroll till they find your room."

I dont get it, not at all. A message/party/invite system is standard fare for any online game, yet people are defending the lack thereof. Has fanboyism really brought us to the point where we ignore the simplest of problems, so that our beloved companies dont look bad? This has left a very bad taste in my mouth.

"Gaming would be better off without the Wii, cause then companies would focus more on real gamers."

When a good friend of mine uttered these words, i could only laugh at how serious he was when he said it. He's a cool guy, for sure, but a die hard Sony fanboy. If he had the ability, and stones, to burn the entire comapany that is Nintendo to the ground, i'd bet both of my thumbs he would, and do so without so much as a second thought.

I teased him a little for having said an idiotic statement like the one that had just exited his lips, and said my goodbye for the day. It wasnt untill days later that his words really began to sink in. For the past few years, I have had a decent job, and have amassed a small library of incredible games. I remember, as a project dwelling kid, when this was not the case. For the greater share of my life, my love for gaming had been hampered by my lack of the green stuff. Never having more than a small handfull of games (mostly borrowed, or never returned to the video store), and not buying my first un-used system untill 3 years after the PS2 had dropped.

"Gaming would be better off without the wii....", I began to think of how i'd handle todays gaming situation if i was still that frustratingly money starved kid.

When the PS2 was released, i had no idea how i was gonna come upwith the 300$, when i couldn't even afford the few 50$ PSX games i still wanted. Even then, though, gaming was still accessible to the greater masses. You could buy a PS2, or an XBOX, and hook them up to your K-mart blue light special TV without any issue. It seems that this generation of consoles, though, is working to make games as technologically advanced as possible at the expense of the average gamer.Sony and Microsoft had to have realized this, otherwise they would not have released the substandard, stripped down versions of their respective systems (both of which ended being sales duds, as even the poorest of gamers realized how useless these versions were).

The biggest advertising points for these lovely new systems was the shiny, high def graphics. Fantastic..... if you happen to own the uber expensive TVs capable of directing the consoles glorious graphics into your smiling face. Most of the people on my friend lists do not, though i have a cheap one(800$) that gets the job done.

Maybe you still have a dial-up connection, as i had for so long. Sure, spend a few hours downloading a demo, but no Gears or Resistance for your multiplayer enjoyment. Even many DSL services are a bit too sluggish to handle online gaming well.

Graphics, processing power, multi-friggin-media? This is how Sony justifies the doubling of its console price over last gen's, with Microsoft claiming the same in addition to the microtransaction/ media money grab that is XBL for its high price point. Many of these pricey additions have nothing to do with gaming itself. I can imagine what it would be like to be denied gaming because these companies want their hardware to be the hub of your living room. Does Microsoft or Sony realize that people buy these console to game, and no amount of attention grabbing extras is gonna change that? There isnt a kid alive, living where i grew up, who could convince their parents to spend 600$ on a gaming console because it could fold protein, and hold all their favorite MP3s.

".. then companies would focus more on real gamers." When did we, as gamers, develop this ridiculous feeling of entitlement; this elitist mindset? Who was it that threw sand in our eyes, blinding us to how we used to view games, and fooling us into believing that being a "hardcore" gamer meant anything other than you weren't going to buy a game unless it was built to suit your specific needs? Are we really that afraid that gaming, as a whole, will forget about us when it starts courting someone else?

So many of us have the means to spend thousands on gaming, and raise our noses at anyone who doesn't.This is why Im thankful for the Wii, DS, and PSP. These syestems are bringing affordable gaming back to the masses, and making sure that fun games can be played by anyone who wants to play them, rather then only those who can afford to. Hopefully, in time, these "hardcore" gamers and console makers will realize that gaming needs to be open for everyone to enjoy. Am i saying that gaming should not progress? No. I just hope that console makers don't forget who made them what they are, and that was usually that underprivileged kid who had nothing to look forward to, other than buying that one game he had been saving for for so long.

After a few years of furious online shooter matches, Ive recently come to find out that Im an addict. I always knew I liked spending time pwning noobs, but never really could see just how screwed up I was until I was informed by the American Medical Association that i was about to be catagorized as an addict, with full on addict priveleges.I am? HOORAY! In time, I will be able to use a whole new crutch to limp down the back alleys of life with, and I gotta say, I cant wait!

If things go as planned, the American Psychiatric Assosiation will have posted video game addiction in its prestigious Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in its next printing in 2012. At that point Ill be up all night gaming my powerful yet agile thumbs off, and using my dashing middle finger to tell my boss that I was late for work the next day because of my serious medical condition. When he decides that my amazing gaming skills are interfering with my work, and that he's got to fire me, Ill take my my incredible kill/death ratio straight to my lawyer (whose win/loss ration is almost as impressive as mine). Ill spend a few months in gaming rehab, and my newly aquired lawsuit winnings on a killer Mater Chief replica helmet, and a resonably priced small sedan (little Civic action for yours truly). Hell, I might even spend the rest of my life on disability eating frozen pizza, and talking to my mother on the phone every few days!

Man, things are really looking up for the Tampwner. All those hours spent on Timesplitters: Future Perfect were just the beginning of a long, lucrative, journey through the realm of mental disorders. Now, if i could convince the courts that my Wii-mote gave me hand cancer, id be set for life.