In a better place in my opinion. I just cant get into online modes on consoles. For some reason i only enjoy them on the PC.
I prefer my console gaming to give me juicy single player content.

Many more games in a certain genre would be on the PC, where they belong.

Does the Wii not have online multiplayer? I was under the impression that it did.

And while the idea sounds good in theory, disc-based expansions were never very feasible, given the cost in bringing it to market. What's more likely is that more content would be disc-locked, and you would have to buy a code to unlock it, or CD-keys would be used to limit reselling.

More indie games would have disc-based releases, but fewer overall indies would make it to market because of the upfront cost. It's likely most would simply develop for PC, dragging out the process of eventually bringing them to console. As far as gaming magazines...how many are actually left?

As far as AA games go, that strikes me as a little overly optimistic. The trends that are killing AA games started long before those kind of practices became commonplace.

Regarding game shops, I disagree. Game shops aren't being killed by online multiplayer, they're being killed by big-box stores stealing their business.

The Wii has online multiplayer, but I wouldn't call it (much) evolved from the online capabilities of the dreamcast. I don't know anyone personally who has played online on the Wii.

Disc locked content makes no sense at all. Expansions were flourishing before DLC took over. I bought 6 alone for EQ, which is an online game even. Many games had great expansions, AoE, Sims, Half-life, etc.

Gaming magazines are mostly gone because there is no more need for them. If demo discs, extra little games would still need to be distributed physically, they would still exist.

Game shops definitely feel the pinch from digital distribution. If they had expansions and indie games to sell as well that would help. Big box stores can steal their anual big releases, but they don't have the space for all the rest, which is taken away by digital distribution. Plus the pc game market is pretty much gone entirely from retail.

Anyway, I enjoy the ease of digital distribution as well. Love the ease of getting great indie games, and ps+ is definitely putting a dent in my retail buying habits, yes I'm part of the problem too. DLC not so much though, buying an expansion felt a lot more exciting then downloading a tidbit of dlc. Plus that demo disc with a great magazine, much better then waiting hours for 1 demo to download, then worry about HDD space.
As far as online multiplayer, yes it can be fun. It never reaches the heights of splitscreen or lan play for me though. I rather have more focus on games that can be shared in the same room.

I dont personally like online multiplayer, I prefer local mp with a few close friends of family, but a ton of people enjoy it and I think online helped grow the industry. Games like Halo or COD wouldnt be nearly as popular.

Honestly, in my eyes, games wouldn't be worth the $60 purchase. Online gives games such replay value.

Online capabilities really changed my purchasing decisions this generation. I mostly only buy games that have an online option whether its co-op or competitive. If no online option is available local co-op is something I look for in game. Even still very few games have interested me as single player games as I can get those later used or on sale for a better price than on initial release especially if that single player game can be beat once in less than a week.

Honestly I think there is a better answer to distribution that would only help single player games and the industry and am thoroughly surprised that triple A companies haven't done this as a few smaller companies have for games. EPISODIC RELEASE!

Gaming really wouldn't be worse off. Online's not that great.

This. If there's no human interaction outside the story mode, the  story mode at least has to try. Not always succeed, but try.

Also, there would probably be a lot more games with New Game +. The thing I'd miss most would be Netflix and Youtube on my TV.

Gaming would be worse off. Period.

Not only would we be without multiplayer in shooters (which can be darn fun), but we'd be without multiplayer in racers, and RTS games, and various other games. Multiplayer provides a lot of replayability to a game (not to say that single-player can't have good replay value, I've replayed many a single-player campaign in my years of gaming).

If you had a friend who lived hundreds or thousands of miles away, you wouldn't be able to play games with him/her very often.

MMOs would not exist. At all. No WOW, no Rift, no SWTOR, no Everquest Next, no EVE, no Dust 514. None. Think about that...an entire genre, one that has generated many billions of dollars for various developers (mainly Blizzard, mind you), would simply never have existed.

There wouldn't be MOBAs either.

Even single-player games would be worse off. Designers learn from each other; they see the successes that other devs have had in other fields, and apply them where possible to their own work. Dark Souls, for example, would be a lesser experience if it did not have the online features that it does.

Missing out on all of that would be terrible. Not because everyone likes every single thing I've mentioned above; I'm sure there are some people out there that don't care about ANY of the things I've listed. But gaming isn't about the specific desires of any particular niche group. Gaming is and should be a growing and diverse medium that has experiences for people of all different stripes. This brings more people into the industry, leading to larger install bases, which in turn allow developers to make more money and make bigger and better games.

Does the growth associated with online games lead to same growing pains? Of course. Because the industry has grown and is far less isolated from the rest of the world than it once was, we get put on the hot seat more often for tragic events that have little to no connection to our medium. And because we as gamers are less isolated from one another (since we play multiplayer games online together), we naturally encounter more of the ugliness present in human nature than we otherwise would if our multiplayer experiences were still confined to the couches in our living rooms. But these new challenges are a chance for us to grow as people and as an industry. We find new ways to promote good behavior online, and we learn how to better respect and interact with other people.

There is plenty of space in the industry for single-player games and games/game modes that can be played offline. Just because some offline/SP-heavy genres aren't as dominant as they used to be doesn't mean they are going to just disappear, and anyone who claims that gaming would be in some wonderful place if developers would only pander to their specific tastes needs to take a step back and take a look at how much richer the industry is because of the variety we see in games today.