Gogogic CEO Says Single-Player is a "Gimmick"

[PunkRex]

"The single player mechanic is a gimmick - games are meant to be played with others and it doesn't matter if it's in-person or online,"

Yarhar, erher, yarhum.
*sharpens pitchfork*

"Playing a game is a multiplayer activity and can easily be seen as such when you watch young toddlers play by themselves. They invent someone to play with, someone that they talk to and interact with."

Facsinating,
*lights torch*

He then went on to restate his belief that single-player experiences are becoming largely irrelevant to anyone outside a very niche audience.

Haha, wow, how tall did you say this guy was again?
*raises gallow framing*

 

[Bostur]

He does have a point, solitaire games are gimmicky. But when friends or opponents are available to play games, we don't need no stinking computer or software anyway. But I guess that message would put him out of a job.

I think what he meant to say was that games are meant to be played with others and made of wood, or at the very least cardboard.

 

[Scorpid]

What's that noise? Oh dear it sound like Yahtzee sharpening his knives. Best watch out buddy!

 

[gardian06]

does this guy need to re-learn, or just learn what sociological, and psychological constructs with respect to the human condition.

Humans by nature are adversarial creatures, and in so saying thrive emotionally on the realization of being better then another at something, and in many regards there is a high majority of people who only care about such in small context (immediate friends/family), and then there is a smaller group who has actually grown beyond such aspirations, and doesn't care if they are better then another, but only that they are better then who they were before beginning the experience (these are the people who have no inclination for leaderboards, or multiplayer whatsoever). though there is a somewhat good amount of people who adopt this adversarial nature to such a degree that they don't care about a situation unless they have the chance to prove that they are better then another, but first many of them realize that they must learn what such skills are needed so that they can be better then another.

this coincides with the fact that yes many games are/were created to be single player because they intend to tell a story (however mediocre it may be) many "casual" games have no intention of telling a story. Some do, and I applaud them for it, but the majority it is just tacked on. the concept of game goes hand, and hand with having an opponent, but it has never been proposed that the opponent had to be a person just that it had to be an opponent. the entire context of game theory only ever proposes opponent, and never says that it must be human. how bout this I have a game that is single player, and has no want or need for a multilayer aspect, and gives full realization of accomplishment upon completion. A PUZZLE, a fucking cardboard puzzle. it's a game, shows self improvement, and has an opponent yourself.

EDIT: now if you'll excuse me I have to go and calm down with a nice game of Solitaire.

 

[Reaper195]

Reads post. Chuckles*

Now if only I could replace 'Reapers' and the following sentance with 'Single player'. I was reminded of this video so damn fast...

 

[elvor0]

WHAT. THE. HELL. WAS. THAT?!

OT: And who's this? I've never even heard of his company before now, let alone him, they've not even got a frikkin Wikipedia page! Get back to Facebook with your crummy soulless shovelware you hack.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Going through this in my head I can't think of anything that can be classed as playing by yourself that didn't start off as a social activity. Pong is a digital representation of Tennis which is a two to four player activity.

So I can totally see where he's coming from, but single player is not a gimmick, it's a legitimate way of gaming.

I still don't understand why he would start saying this stuff though, because it's only going to piss people off.

 

[Kmadden2004]

Dear god, I think I would break every bone in my foot before I grew tired of kicking this guy in the nuts.

How long does a feature need to be around before it's no longer considered a "gimmick"? Twenty minutes, or twenty years?

In the words of Lucille Bluth; "Let's make sure we never give him any real power."

 

[TheMadJack]

Wanted to spew my own venom at this guy's illiterate statements but I guess I'm too late. All relevant crap has been said.

Thank you fellow Escapist readers.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

Welp, he's delusional. Or just plain stupid, hard to tell sometimes.

Better go off and tell the folks at Bethesda and BioWare[footnote]Yes, I'm aware ME3 has multiplayer, but hush you.[/footnote] that their games are only gimmicky fads.

*cough* TOR *cough* Dragon Age Facebook game *cough* Mass Effect social games integration for war readiness *cough* Elder Scrolls Online *cough*

 

[Innegativeion]

It's almost as if he only makes social games and therefor has every motivation to egregiously lie to people about the nature of interactive media.

Yeah gaming with friends is great.

So is reading a great book, or like, playing a great single player campaign. Discuss it with your friends later.

You have attempted to veil your self-promotion as a tactful argument and failed miserably.

*snip*

*pst* his annotation

 

[Waaghpowa]

Aside from the obvious "who?", there's a degree of bias considering he's a social game developer.

 

[DrOswald]

Books are such a gimmick. The first stories were told in groups, but back when books were invented it was impossible to create a book that could tell its story to a group. Now that we have books on tape, written books will be irrelevant for anyone outside a very niche audience.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Gamers Say Gogogic CEO is an "Idiot"

The CEO of social gaming company Gogogic dropped 50 IQ points when he said that all games are meant to be played with others.

Reykjavik-based Gogogic specializes in casual and social gaming, so it does have a certain bias about how people play games, but even so these comments by CEO Jonan Antonsson are pretty dumbass. In a recent interview, he effectively dismissed single-player gaming, saying that while there's a "strong audience for hard and unrelenting games" like Demon's Souls, games are meant first and foremost to be played with others.

"The single player mechanic is a gimmick - games are meant to be played with others and it doesn't matter if it's in-person or online," Antonsson said. "The first games were designed as multiplayer experiences, but when computer and console games became a thing there was a need to construct an antagonist and/or a protagonist for commercial purposes. You couldn't depend on people coming together to have a synchronous experience over a game. That would have simply stifled sales. And since there was no reasonable way to connect people in other ways - the arcade was the only serious attempt - it became an industry need to project the game as the other player."

"Playing a game is a multiplayer activity and can easily be seen as such when you watch young toddlers play by themselves," he added. "They invent someone to play with, someone that they talk to and interact with."

Naturally, he is being insulting stupid - historically, especially as children, people have avoided each other due to fear of bullying - and videogames have changed the definition of "play." You don't read multiplayer books, after all, and listening to music or watching television isn't an inherently social activity either. Antonsson made himself look like the George Bush of the gaming industry somewhat by stating that "score board = multiplayer" but he then went on state something even stupider.

"Now we can connect people in and around a game through real time PvP and PvE mechanics and the need for pure single player games had gone down. We have multiple plots and stories and build the meta-experience for the entire audience. The premise for making games has changed - reverted back to building multiplayer experiences that are true to the game form," he said. That was not thestupid part, what he siad next is. "This doesn't mean that we have run out of room when it comes to great single-player titles or games that make you sweat and curse every couple of minutes. It means that those titles have to be very appealing and cater well to the hardcore audience."

Jonan was last seen being pulled into a basement by Skyrim, Deus Ex, Bioshock and Ocarina of Time, all of them wielding baseball bats. We hope that when he comes back, he has gained some perspective.

Source: Common Sense

 

[Harker067]

I'm amused the only wikipedia page I found was one sentence long and in icelandic.

 

[mad825]

Lol, I wonder what his employees think of him now.

 

[uncanny474]

Who gave this guy an interview? Why should we CARE what he thinks? I hope his business goes under and his golden parachute is torn to shreds, so he ends up eating out of a gutter for the rest of his life.