Sounds like Destiny would be right up your alley. You can play "by yourself" in a shared world with some other players scattered about, or you can recruit friends into a fireteam (a group of up to 3 players) to play through the story, or 6-player teams for large battles ("Strikes" and Raids). You're not required to play with friends. All of the story content is playable alone, although I've found it's more fun with a buddy or two along. Strikes and Raids require a group of players, but if you don't have people in your group it will match you with people of a similar level. And you don't HAVE to do those parts of the game, you can progress pretty well just doing the story levels, along with some Patrols (free-form open-world play with mission pickups) to get extra XP for leveling up if needed.

That said, they really encourage multiplayer play, with bounties that can give you tons of XP and bonuses but require you to play through the multiplayer-only sections of the game. Which is actually quite fun, and the play sessions last maybe 15-30 minutes, and you don't have to interact with the others except for fighting enemies together. In fact, I couldn't see a way to interact with anybody I was grouped with who wasn't already my Xbox Friend... as far as I could tell, you just use emotes (there are 4) to communicate basic things: Point, Wave, Dance, and Sit Down.

All in all, I'm not an avid gamer of any stripe, but especially not of multiplayer... and I feel like Destiny accommodates my gameplay style as well as it does someone who plays all the time.

FYI Destiny has a pretty decent single-player component. While you play, you find yourself in the same "world" as several other players too... and sometimes spontaneously cooperate to take down a big baddie. Or you can ignore them completely and no worries that it will negatively affect your game. All the story elements are scripted and the important ones are in "instances" that are private experiences for you to enjoy.

There's no text chat to distract you or pull you out of the experience ... even in the "social" area of the Tower. You can do voice chat, but only with people in your "fireteam" (as far as I've experienced, I haven't participated in raids and such). I have a friend who I've been playing with, and we do voice chat and run the story elements as a two-person team, with a third being automatically matched with us when we do the more difficult levels. The third person doesn't chat with us -- ever -- which makes me think that chatting is only enabled among your actual Xbox Live friends. (Caveat: I've yet to join a "Clan", so I'm unsure if there's a lot of chat connected to that structure.)

In other words... there's very little opportunity to have your game-playing serenity interrupted by an asshole, either in chat or in the world.

I think it strikes a nice balance between single-player and MMO. The only time I feel frustrated is when I play in the Gauntlet, which is pure multiplayer PVP action, and it becomes abundantly clear that I don't have leet skillz. Even so... no one can hurl insults at me about it. Unless they're one of my Xbox Friends. In which case I get to control whether or not I want to hang out with that person again. :)

One last observation: I've played the story-line levels by myself, and I've played them with my buddy and voice chat... and I find myself much preferring the buddy experience, even though I originally THOUGHT I would prefer to play solo. So don't discount the pleasure of hanging out with actual friends and playing games together. :)

I agree with you on most of your points. But I have to take exception to this one:

You obviously never used one of these devices to actually browse the web. If you had, you wouldn't have been able to type that because you'd be laughing too hard at your own joke.

A list of features is all well and good, but if they're not implemented well, they're worse than useless. "Look my Palm phone has a web browser." "Do you use it?" "Not really, it can't read most websites and those it can are all formatted weird and I can't zoom or view images or video. So I mostly just use it for phone calls." "You should try this iPhone." "WOW THIS IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE. This is what I've been wishing for!" -- Actual conversations every day when the original iPhone was released.

Apple isn't the first to offer features and technologies. But when they do, they get it right. (Mostly *cough* maps *cough).

I'm seeing a lot of comparisons between Apple Watch and smartphones, PCs, and even other "smart watches". I think that's missing the point of what Apple's creating here.

With the iPod, they singlehandedly redefined the way we interact with music (and later video). With the iPhone, they surprised and delighted people with a device that does exactly what you want it to, and more -- it was like a dream come true for me. With the iPad, they opened up an entirely new market for, as some called it at the launch, "just a big iPhone with no phone". With each of these devices, people tried to understand it (and dismiss it) by comparing it to existing technology and usage models... which led some to dismiss the iPhone because it had no physical keyboard, for example. Some pointed to the Nokia big-touchscreen phone to say "see, they tried it and it doesn't work". Until they actually used the iPhone and realized that, no, this is nothing like anything they used before.

My most anticipated apps for Apple Watch are the ones that allow communication without words. The ability to draw shapes to someone, and they can see you drawing... or tap, and it taps your friend... record your heartbeat and they can feel it... THAT's the killer app that has been missing from other "smart watches".

The apps that will do best are the ones that capitalize on the unique capabilities of a watch device, not ones that try to shoehorn existing models into a tiny screen. Glances, gestures, simple swipes and taps, voice (sometimes)... and context awareness to remove the first layer of interaction ("what do you want to do") and jump directly to the end result. For example, if I'm walking along the street and I glance at my watch, it shows me the time/date (of course) but also a simple map of the area and maybe landmarks/businesses around me. If I've never been there before, it checks my schedule to see why I'm there, or maybe goes into "tourist mode". If it's mealtime, hey, there's some restaurants nearby with food I like. If my heartrate is up, it automatically assumes that exercise is occurring and pops up a shortcut to related apps/data. If I'm moving at greater than 15 MPH, it assumes I'm in a car and switches modes to minimize distraction by default -- easily overridden by, say, a quick shake of the wrist to "wake up" the watch. SIRI, of course, but focused on verbal and graphic interaction, voicing an answer or giving directions (via taps even) instead of providing a page of links you have to interact with.

A device that closely monitors you, your movement, heart-rate, sound input, light sources, knows time of day and your location and your schedule and keeps track of who you talk to the most, what apps you use the most, when you use them... something that's always there at a glance when you need it but knows when to shut up... this is a much more personal device, more closely tied to every moment. IF IT'S DONE RIGHT, with careful and intelligent design, this is a game changer.

When they released the iPod, iPhone, iPad, each time, Apple changed the industry, our assumptions about what's possible, and the way we live. (Even the most skeptical have to admit this -- who here doesn't have a smartphone?) I have no doubt that we're witnessing this happening again.