In this day and age, the Internet is bringing everyone together in new ways. From the days of usenet, to AOL chatrooms and IRC, followed by BBSes (now forums) we are now in an age where social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are commonplace.

For most of the past fifteen years, PC gaming has had its place online in one way or another. At the turn of the century, that started to spread to consoles, starting with the Dreamcast and XBOX. Today, every current-gen console and handheld is online and part of its own distinct service; XBOX Live for the 360, Playstation Network for the PS3 and PSP, and Nintendo WFC for the Wii and DS. Nowadays, many console games ship with multiplayer modes that are strictly online, where in the past we would have split screen. As time wore on, the Internet has reshaped the way we play games with other people.

However, this does not mean that the days of local multiplayer are gone forever.

The best example of that came today. Those that are in the know might have known today was the day that meetups for Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies were held today at Gamestops across North America. Taking advantage of this, Gamedeals (the suburban Vancouver independent video game retailer you might have heard me talk about here) decided to have a DQ9 meetup of its own. This store is now twice the size that it was when I went there last, bigger than any EB Games or Gamestop that I’ve ever been in, and converted one of the back rooms into a lounge. A small group of people had gathered to play the game’s unique and somewhat revolutionary multiplayer mode. We all tagged up with each other to exchange maps and players, then split off into a couple of separate groups: A bunch of people tackling some of the more difficult treasure maps, and us lower level people grinding and working through the game’s story. The whole meetup, which was also attended by store owner Brian and the Happy Console Gamer, was a smashing success and reintroduced me what it was like to be surrounded by a bunch of other people, all playing the same game as you and having fun doing it.

It was a local multiplayer experience that you don’t see very often in this day and age, back in the days where kids like myself would be sitting out in the backyard with their Game Boys, or grabbing a bunch of friends and playing Goldeneye. (And if you haven’t heard, the Wii version will have split screen multiplayer, just like its predecessor, the way it’s MEANT to be played.) Back in the days, your specs or ping didn’t matter, only your skill. Your opponent was only across the room, not across the world, and trash talk was completely acceptable in some circumstances. (Though, not like the absolute bullshit trolling you see on XBL)

On the handheld side of things, though, I’ve been noticing a trend: A increasing number of games that are being released on the DS and PSP these days are going local multiplayer only. There are many games nowadays on both systems that probably would’ve worked nicely with an online multiplayer mode do not include these options; Everything is limited to whatever opponents you can find out there, though that’s not always easy. Then again, I’ve found that online multiplayer experiences on handheld games don’t tend to be of the same connection quality as you would see on a console. I tend to find more laggy people playing Mariokart DS than I do playing Mariokart Wii, and seeing how online races on the console counterpart can have triple the number of participants of its handheld descendant, that’s saying a lot. When you think of it that way, it was time to turn back the clock a bit. Even if the 3DS makes improvements in the online multiplayer area, handelds, and most video games in general, are still fit for the local multiplayer experience. It just brings a feeling that you can’t experience online.

And that was apparent in a back room at Gamedeals today, with people collaborating and talking strategy in order to take down a tough boss, or laughing when Zoma flattened half of an average-leveled party in no time whatsoever. Many people have talked about the collective experience, when people come together, for various things, and I think it was shown today in a new light how gamers can be reunited through the split screen.

A more interesting thing actually came out of that meetup today, and that was a group called the “Handheld Gaming Group” for Vancouver-area gamers. The plan is to meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and just play a game together for a few hours; All local multiplayer. Even today, where online multiplayer is prevalent, people are sticking to their roots, getting together and gaming together. Some people nowadays might ask “Why?” But I say “Why not?” It’s how I grew up.

Unfortunately, too many of those names are based off of well-known fads. These names are usually taken by people that have no sense of netiquette and in some cases only want to cause problems.  Of course, not all are like this and they don’t influence my list in any way, but after seeing so many names of the same, it starts to get really annoying.

This is a list that has been done by people before.  Some of mine might be similar to those lists with a difference: This is my list.  The following ten IGN fads are all things that I think need to be put to rest ASAP.

10. Names that start with numbers
This is one that I can probably safely say that we all, including myself, are guilty of.  Everyone knows the feeling; You’re signing up for a game or website and have thought about the absolute coolest name ever, so you fill everything in and what happens when you click the register button?

There was an error in your registration: That username is already taken.

Not wanting to think of another one, we put a number, sometimes a long one, in front of it just so we can have it.  Most big-name websites such as Yahoo! commonly used the same username suffixed with a number as a suggestion to an alternate nickname as well.  Nowadays, though, having a number in front of or behind your IGN shows unoriginality, and has been around for so long that we can only hope that it’s put to rest.

9. Names of celebrities
Sometimes coupled with #10, I can’t think of anything more unoriginal than seeing a character stroll buy with the name “BradPitt” or “Lindsay_Lohan”.  No celebrity is safe these days. I can almost guarantee you’d find a few “Bono”s and a whole game world full of “BarackObama”s.

I don’t see the point. What are you trying to imply?  That you’re Brad Pitt? (In some games is grounds for an impersonation ban right there) That you’re a fan of Soulja Boy? (No comment.)  That you want to be like the US’ newest president? (Though I don’t think I’d blame you. He’s pretty cool.) When I look at it this way, maybe they should’ve programmed another sort of unacceptable type of name into their games and/or websites much like #10′s:

There was an error with your registration: That name is already taken in the real world.

8. “Area Code Pride” names
In today’s age, it’s no doubt that you’re going to see some quite… geeky names, but this takes the cake.  Well… maybe it’s not so geeky because it’s not uncommon to use this three digit number as a way of saying where you’re from… if you’re a rapper. (I come from the six-oh-four, y’all!)  But why oh why does a crap…er…rapper thing have to be pushed over into video games?

For some reason, this seems to be something I see a lot from Hawaii-based gamers.  I most certainly need more than my hands and toes to count the number of names that I’ve seen the number “808″ in.

7. Names that should’ve never been mentioned outside of the user’s own dirty mind.
Chatting dirty in games is, unfortunately, something that’s inevitable no matter how much the developers try to alleviate the problem by banning the super-perverts or censoring just about every sexual term in the book, but whenever I have to see a name based on some dirty slang (sometimes prefixed or suffixed with 69) I wanna hurl.  Now, believe me, I have quite the dirty mind myself, but there are so many of these dumb names that I have to wonder if maybe the ESRB should start taking this sort of thing into account with games that have online capabilities.  I just know that if I had kids, I probably wouldn’t let them play any game online, even E-rated games, simply because I’ll know they’ll run into some sort of inappropriate name such as “69ImSoHorny69″ (This being a mild example of course) somewhere in the game.  Leave your dirty minds inside your head, you perverts.

6. The letter “X”
This could be another example of #10, but it’s annoying to see people decorate their names with funny combinations of X on either side.  Once again, it’s another display of unoriginality by turning a “UberGamer” name which was already taken into something like “xXxUberGamerxXx” as a way to get around it.  Pretty much everything I said about numbers applies here as well.

5. Names of popular Video Game characters
If I thought about this more, I might have ended up switching #5 and #9 up, but it doesn’t really matter to me.  I will admit that this one doesn’t really bother me as much as one that I have listed later on, if not because of the number of names this applies to, but the fact that I’m a gamer more than I am a… whatever is coming up after this.  The fact that I’m always seeing names like “Sephiroth9032877″ or “Sora3897234″ is a sign, though.  Square Enix needs to lock these names down so they can’t be used as freely anymore.

4. Pro-substance abuse names
This one isn’t so common but it’s really annoying about how some people can show just how much of a druggie they are just by saying something like “DopeMan420″.  If you have a name like that, you belong in a rehab centre where you’ll be slapped around by being so dependant on that stuff that you’ll never want to get within ten miles of it… or the character you created with that name… ever again.  That’s all I have to say about that.

3. Names that use “popular” Japanese words
Stringing Japanese words with English words has always pissed me off. It pisses me off more when I see people running around with names like “8KawaiiDesuNe8″ (Which means “Cute, is it?”) and might not even know what it means. (In most cases though I’m sure they know.)  Anything that uses the words “Kawaii”, “Baka”, “Desu”, “Tenshi”, etc… (“Cute”, “Dummy”, “Is”, and “Angel” respectively) needs to be de-Otaku’d because, if you really feel the need to do that, you’ve probably been watching too much subbed hentai.

2. Names prefixed with “i”
Apple, please copyright this.  I see way to many names out there like “iRock” or “iShoot” to know what to do with.  I’m about the only one that hasn’t given into the iMadness that started with Apple’s iMac in 2000, then went on to the iPod, the iPhone, and probably one day the iToilet.  There probably hasn’t been one word in the English dictionary now… maybe even some of the Japanese dictionary too (iDesu?) that hasn’t been prefixed with a lowercase “I” at one time of another. Please MAKE IT STOP.

1. Names based off of popular anime characters
I don’t want to offend anyone by this.  I will admit that the average user that abuses this type of name is better now, but five years or so ago when Dragonball Z and Inuyasha were popular, just about anyone with a name coming from those two animes could be summed up as someone who LYKS TO TYP IN ALL KAPS N BROKN INGLESH LIKE DEY N EVR FINISH’D ELMENTRY SKUL.  Of course, the “anime username = supreme idiocy” stereotype for me is no longer there, but in an Internet now filled with Narutards and otakus, the anime character names are reaching overwhelming proportions.  I’m at the point where I can say I think I’d love to go back to the days where everyone had “Cloud” or “Sephiroth” in their username.

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Sesshoumaru (had to put something in there so I wasn’t singling out Naruto) and many others come to mind.  Thankfully, there are anime characters whose names I never would want to see online that are fortunately not popular enough to be “usernameworshipped” which for me means I can keep my sanity. Don’t ask.

And now, for some user interaction. (If there even will be any.)  You’ve seen my ten wishes for usernames that don’t exist.  Do you have a certain type of username or IGN fad that you wish you’d like to see fall off the face of the Internet? Feel free to leave a comment below.