I’ve never been much for online gaming. I’ve not wandered the countryside of Britannia nor visited the realms of Azeroth. Even when Star Wars — one of my all time favorites — went multiplayer online, I couldn’t bring myself to join the dark side. As I get more and more engrossed in mobile gaming, however, I’ve come to appreciate the concept of multiplayer causal gaming. Developers have managed to find a way to let me play against other humans and still fulfill my desire to be a solitary game player.
In fact, I’m finding myself spending more time engaged in multiplayer battles within a few games rather than the many pages of high quality apps that fill my iPad. As a result, when the fine folks at iPhone Life asked if I would consider sharing my views in a semi-regular column on the state of gaming, I decided the perfect topic for my first installment would be “online games for people who hate online games.”