Just wondering, because it seems gaming has now gone either for epic, lengthy solo missions or online multiplayer.

Most of my favourite gaming memories have been with people in the room.

I've genuinely spent years of my life playing multiplayer; at school, we played hours and hours of Barbarian, SWOS and IK+ - a guy in my class even went as far as hooking up 5 PCs in his lounge so we could all play Red Alert & Duke Nukem for a solid weekend. At 6th form we did the same thing with PS1s to play WipEout 2097 multiplayer and also over-indulged on Twisted Metal World Tour. At uni, we lost months of our lives playing Goldeneye & ISS Pro predominantly, but also ploughed through loads of Micro Machines, Overboard & Bomberman. These days, when I get the chance I meet up with a few old school mates and still enjoy some 4 player FIFA, and the Wii gets dusted down sporadically for 4 player Mario Kart and Wii Sports Resort.

Most of my favourite memories of gaming are because of the time spent laughing at a friends' misfortunes or the banter whilst playing. There is something irreplaceable to me about being in the same room as the people you're playing with / against. Solo gaming is great, and whilst online multiplayer can be adrenalin fueled it strikes me as being devoid of any actual 'fun' in my experience.

Looking back now on the Wii back catalogue (Goldeneye, NSMBros, Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart, Mario Party etc) and the general idea behind the Wii U it seems to me that Nintendo still think multiplayer should be all about playing in the same room too, but do younger people in 2013 still want that?

It's rare as rocking horse shit that I can convince my mates to pick up a controller nowadays and many games are too complicated to just pick up and learn in 5 minutes anyhow, so I see it as probably being something that'll likely never happen again until I have kids.

Do you 20 something DiSsers play against your mates in the flesh these days? Do you see it as a thing of its time and now a part of retro gaming's history? Is it likely to come back when a title decent enough reminds people how fun it can be?

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SUB-THREAD: Favourite in-the-room multiplayer experiences...?