I've been enjoying a lot of Battlefield on the 360 and it's probably the first online-only game I've gotten into since Alien Front Online. It got me thinking: as social interaction and online replayability becomes increasingly important (EA recently blamed Dead Space's and Mirror's Edge's commercial failings on lack of multiplayer), what has become of social deprivation, one of video game's most difficult sensations to produce?
Film directors like Kubrick and Tarkovsky used this sensation well. Within video games, it's difficult to replicate since the medium inherently is about physical interaction. But there is a history of games that have used social desperation (aka lonely games) to create atmospheres of terror, claustrophobia, and dread.
Games like:
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...7825645-00.gif
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...6542184-00.png
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screen...alChambers.jpg
http://imissthe90s.com/wp-content/up...09/03/myst.jpg
http://www.fpsteam.it/img2004/doom/doom1_01.jpg
http://games.multimedia.cx/wp-conten...man-towing.png

