The current generation of consoles are great, aren't they? We've reached a real high-point, in which people can do more and more with their platform of choice. Web-browsing, streaming media, even coupling console and handheld together to extend the gaming experience; they all offer more ways to enjoyably pass our time.

Of course, by far the most popular 'modern' application of console gaming has to be multiplayer, by which I mean broadband gaming; it's amazing, when you think about it. Players unite across the globe, complete strangers, all playing together, all enjoying the online experience as conjured up by developers. Much has been written about multiplayer games and what they mean for social interaction; but what of the darker side? For sure, games like World of Warcraft have famously acted as matchmakers – real world marriages resulting from virtual encounters. But how many online experiences have gone the other way, resulting in negative attitudes and emotions?

First of all, let me define my scope. World of Warcraft is a PC game, and one that bears little relation to the multiplayer games available on Xbox 360 or PS3. In this article I'm going to have to limit the discussion to console games, since PC gaming is truly a whole other can o' worms. So, the multiplayer console experience. Where better to go than a real giant in console terms, Halo?

Halo 3 has what is often regarded as the best in online multiplayer. Title screen to match can take seconds to negotiate. Matches are rarely beset by technical issues, meaning players can focus on the game, not the platform. But how multi-player is such multiplayer? Am I alone in feeling that, rather than bringing people together, such multiplayer pursuits are in fact intrinsically lonely affairs?

Most Halo sessions are not social. You might be connecting to thousands of players across the globe, but what proportion of those are players sitting, alone, in a room? Might I dare suggest, most? “But you can reach out to other countries, meet people; make friends!” I hear you cry. If you can make friends whilst shooting them in the face, hearing their expletives through your speakers, you’re a better person than I. Friends are not made in Halo, merely adversaries.

Next, what about the mental state of Halo players? Put that soap box away – I’m not suggesting that such games cause people to go out and shoot someone in real life. But any gamer who plays online and swears they are unaffected is deluded. It’s a natural response, when focussing on something fast paced and challenging, for adrenaline to kick in. We are not, by nature, dualist – our minds are not separate to our bodies. That adrenaline coursing through you has a direct, measurable effect on your mental state. When you are winning, you’re great, on top of the world. Start losing, and guess what – you’ll get equally affected: anger and frustration at the very least. And since we’re not able to switch off our feelings like we switch off our consoles, these feelings stick around. Hands up who has been short with a partner, or even taken it out on a poor inanimate object?

Yet it hasn’t always been thus. Remember Goldeneye? Remember Super Mario Kart? Remember every single multiplayer game before consoles came with an Ethernet port? These titles forced sociability onto players. They also forced restraint – at least, in my experience they did. If you smacked seven bells out of your chair in a room with your friends, you’d get laughed out of that room, at the very least. There’s a basic party atmosphere when you get four people around a TV that precludes the level of frustration often found with online multiplayer.

For these reasons I’ve always vaguely disliked online multiplayer. I don’t buy into entertainment to be put in a foul mood, yet too often that’s the result. There are, of course, exceptions – playing online with people you already know, for instance, is nothing like as enraging as playing against a sea of angry strangers. All too often, though, it’s too impersonal, too unforgiving, and – crucially – not as much fun as sitting around with friends. Am I wrong? Am I alone in this thought? Or perhaps I’m playing entirely the wrong kinds of console games. Whatever your opinion, let me know in the comments, and maybe we can explore this further…