It's finally here folks: THE ULTIMATE GAMING CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA. I've attempted to have a game day several times in the past where I do nothing but play. Generally I jeopardize it myself because I tell myself I have work to do. Other times something else comes up and I have to bow out part of the way through. But, with no one at home but me, I think it just might happen today. Yes, I have work to do, but I'm going to remind myself every time I think about it that it can wait. I think I deserve a day to myself. So my biggest decisions now is what game do I start with and can I break away from the Internet to play it.

At a recent Dallas Stars game, I found out from the lady sitting behind me that the overtime rules had drastically changed. Apparently, if the score is tied after three periods, the teams play a 5 minute period of 4-on-4 hockey with NO GOALIE. They play the whole period and if it is still tied after that 5 minutes, they play 3-on-3 with no goalie. If the score stays tied after that, then there is a 5 minute period with 2-on-2. As a last resort if the score is still tied after the 2-on-2, there is a 1-on-1 untimed period where the first person to score wins. Again all of these overtime periods are WITHOUT A GOALIE.

I can't say I know everything about hockey. I've yet to really understand forecheck and backcheck, but I do know the rules of the game (or so I thought). Something this drastic would have been publicized in the hockey world right?

Recently, amidst the crushing workload of teaching classes, I've been giving my Xbox a fair share of playtime. I only got it a few months ago when the new slimmed down versions came out and the older models got a nice big price cut. I tinkered with it a bit off and on playing some single player stuff, but eventually I fell victim to the call of Xbox Live and got a subscription. I've always been one for competition and love playing games against other people; however, I hate paying for that privilege. Unfortunately, without a PS3 and without any good matchmaking system on the Wii, that is near impossible when you don't live anywhere near your friends.

So, I took the plunge and entered into the realm of multiplayer for nearly any game I wanted. I took a shot at Transformers: War for Cybertron. While mildly amusing, shooting things just for the hell of it gets old pretty quickly. I'm not one of those folks always chasing the carrot on the stick. I don't really care that I get to "level up" my Transformer if I'm just racing back and forth between power cores to protect them or being killed repeatedly in a deathmatch. It's a diversion for very little reward. At least with the single player campaign I get a story that means something while blasting generic robot drones.

With that in mind I attempted co-op campaign mode. This could be a great way to play with the right people. Good luck with that though. Perhaps I am in the minority with a headset, but the group I was in just wasn't talking. How can you work together without communication? Not to mention that I was jumping into the middle of a story I had yet to see for myself. Doesn't make sense to start on chapter 5 with the book club and come back for chapters 1-4.

I dabbled in another game, a racer called Blur. It's like Mario Kart with real cars instead of cartoon characters. I love racing games, so this had a lot of potential I thought. Although the powerups are a little dull, the racing is fun. It's always better to race with others so I jumped into multiplayer races. Of course I never did very well since some people do nothing but play the game during every second of free time. I played one night were the same person won 9 out of 10 races. That gets old pretty quick, but what's worse are the whiners. In a game where the objective (other than winning the race) is to take out the competition, people were actually complaining about getting hit by weapons or being run off the road. Did they not know what game they were playing? Although the racing is fun, even when fighting for last place, the rewards are minimal. Again, people get points to gain levels which seem to serve no purpose other than bragging to people you don't know that you have played the game an insane number of times.

My most frustrating experience thus far has been playing the XBOX Live Arcade version of Madden (simply titled Madden Arcade). It's a 5 on 5 football game with powerups, a shortened field and anything goes mentality. I bought it for a couple bucks during Black Friday. To date, I am 0-16. Why can't I win a game? Although my skills are not spectacular, I believe the main issue here is the player on the other side. Rather than play the game, most everyone I've played tries to exploit the AI in the game. How many times have you ever seen Payton Manning call a deep pass only to run up the field 30 yards after all the defenders run downfield? How about Drew Brees pulling the entire defense over to one side and throwing across the field to a wide open Pierre Thomas. Imagine that happening over and over again. If that happens once, it's a breakdown on defense and it doesn't happen again. But to have it happen repeatedly is ridiculous, especially with no counter for it.

Why has multiplayer become a pissing match? Is this the video game equivalent of a guy buying a sports car to cover up inadequacies? There will always be those people that want to feel special by being the best and devoting loads of time into whatever they do. I get that, but when did that mean winning at all costs? For nothing more than a number beside their name, people try way too hard to raise that number. There has to be something to strive for when playing against other people. Otherwise what is the point of playing multiplayer, right? But why is that number so important that people rely on abusing the system (or even worse -- cheating). If you want that number so bad, then use skills instead of breaking the system. Am I supposed to bow down to these people because they won exploiting flaws rather than using their own skills? No, I should kick you square in the ass for being a wanker.

Over the past couple of weeks, publishers are deciding that the future of video games is not in a single player experience, but complete multiplayer. Bad idea. There are still plenty of people like myself that want a story. We want to play the game without dealing with asshats out to prove how "cool" they are because they can look up a cheat on GameFAQs.

Players and publishers laugh at games on the Wii that only have local multiplayer. Maybe these guys got it right. I would much rather have a good match with someone sitting on the couch next to me instead of listening to a some 13-year old across the country bragging about how awesome he is because he knows how to cheat.

Given the mindset of game players these days, there is really no solution to solve this massive problem. Society has transformed into one of entitlement. Game players think they are entitled to be the best by any means necessary, and with no one to police them, they do everything they can just to feel important. Those of us that believe multiplayer should be a balanced affair of friendly competition where the more skillful player wins need to speak up against the jerks who think winning is everything.