Another 'simple enough' thread...

[NerfedFalcon]

...yeah, I happen to like those, don't I?

Anyway, the thing I'd like you guys to discuss here, simply enough, is multiplayer-based games where the multiplayer is dead, either from a the servers shutting down or just every single person migrating to another game. And the game that sparked this for me?

Battlefield: Bad Company 2. 20 bucks for a short campaign and a much longer disappointment low. And as far as I know, the online is still running - it's just that everyone else wants to play Battlefield 3 instead, except that the beta is probably down by now and in any case I don't own a console and really don't want Origin on my computer. I mean, I already have Steam...

So what about you guys? Any 'dead' or 'ghost town' multiplayer games you want to warn the rest of the Escapist community off?

 

[Thaluikhain]

I have nothing much to contribute, only to advise a more descriptive title. It'll keep those with notihng much to contribute out.

 

[Joccaren]

Bioshock 2 is dead. Was never good, the lag was horrible, and I think people got sick of that and left. That and other games came out for people to play.

There is also no reason not to get Origin if you have Steam. The fixed EULA is that similar to Steam's it isn't funny, except for the part where you 'can't be involved in any legal action against EA' or W/E, which I doubt would stand up in court anyway.

 

[Voulan]

I tried out GTA:IV the other day, to see what it was like.

I was the ONLY USER ONLINE. I'll never do that again.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I'd like to make a point here: truly good multiplayer games stick around for a long time, whether they have a decent single player or not. If a game's multiplayer dies out short of the ten year mark, it doesn't belong anywhere near a list of the best multiplayer games of all time. If it dies out short of the five year mark, it probably wasn't much good at all. The problem with games like this dying out so quickly is that the whole thing is quick, rushed assembly line work -- both single and multiplayer. This isn't singleplayer vs. multiplayer; it's good game design vs. design by committee.

Edit: Barring, of course, something externally shutting it down, like what happened when the old Xbox Live was taken down, or when companies (and EA is particularly fond of this) shut down the servers of one game to force people to start playing its sequel. I'm talking about an online community just naturally dying out, with nobody playing, even though there isn't a technical reason why they couldn't if enough people to populate a server were interested in playing a match.

 

[Xprimentyl]

The Chromehounds server was shut down a while ago, sucks because the entire singleplayer campaign was literally a series of training missions to prepare you for the multiplayer which was the REAL game. Luckily I bought it used for $20 back when the servers were still active with a dedicated community, so I at east got to play it long enough to realize: I don't like mech games and even in a game where a level of intelligence and patience is par for the course, douchebags will find a way to make their presence known.

 

[Felstaff]

I hope the Doom 3 multiplayer died a quick death. That was simply awful. I played it for about 20 minutes, and never went back. Not a decent amount of time to give it a fair critique, I know, but I wasn't enjoying myself, so I never went back. Anyone still play it?

About 10 years ago, it was impossible to find a decent Quake server, as the game was so ancient, only the hardest of hardcore hardcorists were still playing, and you would get roughly seventeen seconds of game time before you got your ass handed to you along with such resentful neologisms of "pwnd" and "n00b". I'm generally a proponent of rehabilitation over capital punishment, but there are several reasons in which I'd like to see it returned. "Walking slowly on a busy street" is another one of them.

 

[Batou667]

Kind of the opposite, I had a go on Halo 3 multiplayer recently and was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of people still playing that. It was't just a hard core of supar-1337 players either, but quite a lot of noobs too. God only knows why they haven't all migrated to Halo Reach, I can only guess that some kids only get a few games a year and don't have it yet... or perhaps some people actually prefer Halo 3?

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

There are still people playing MW4 mercs I was pleasantly surprised to still find three NBT serves still up and kicking even with them having their own mod.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

the sad fate of every single multiplayer game.. slowly dwindling population until eventually the lights go out permamently

Yeah...Like I said, though, BC2 still has the lights on, but I'm the only person there. I just hope some people still play Vietnam...