Jimquisition: Only The Lonely

[mjc0961]

You can try to justify your horrible always online DRM all you want Maxis. I still won't buy the game though (and by the way, insulting those of us who already don't want to buy the game? not a brilliant tactic).

But yeah, I completely agree with with this episode. I LIKE my single player alone time. If I want to play with other people, there are games for that, and if I want to play alone, there are games for that too. But not if the out of touch publishers have their way. They don't even do it right; why must we play with other people but ONLY other people not in the same room? What the fuck happened to playing with other people in the same room? If Killzone 3 can make local co-op work, so can everyone else. You other guys are basically the opposite of Nintendo: they need to learn what online multiplayer is, and you need to learn what local multiplayer is again.
I'm also sick of having to miss content in older games because there's co-op only levels that you can't play unless you get somebody to play with you, but the game is old and nobody wants to play it anymore. At least put in a goddamn AI partner so we can still experience the content you twats.

Of more importance is that I may need to revisit my sexual orientation due to man Bayonetta still being rather sexy.

Not really. That's not simply "man Bayonetta", that's Willem Dafoe Bayonetta.

 

[Drummie666]

I honestly just have to say thanks for making this Jim.
I probably have what's called Schizoid Personality Disorder, which is commonly defined as a lack of interest in social relationships. Honestly, just being in the same room or in visual sight of other human beings can wear on me, I don't even had to be talking to them. I am commonly not able to be as alone as I would wish, as social contact is required for living. So, gaming is the best escape for me.
My favourite game of all time is Metroid Prime, a game about being alone in a hostile world and conquering the dangers it contains. As you can probably tell, this is a game that really speaks to me. My favourite genre is stealth, where being alone and not noticed by anyone is in fact, a good thing.
So, the games industry commonly forcing multiplayer into games under the excuse that loneliness is bad really gets to me. I like being alone, it's calming. It's even a form of release for me, when being around people all day can build up a lot of tension.
Again, thanks Jim.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Some of the best games out there are single player games. I play games with my friends so often that I like to boot up a game to play by myself now and again. Every single time I log into Xbox Live I'm assailed with invites for Halo, Mass Effect, or Borderlands, and sometimes I just want to be left alone to play Hitman or something. I like an offline experience. I can take it at my pace and enjoy my game the way I want to without the judgement or time-constraints of another individual.

An awkward example of this is Star Wars: The Old Republic. It's an MMO, so there are lots of people running around, especially now that it's free to play. However, you can solo the entire storyline of your class if you so choose, and I damn well do choose to at times. I have characters that I play with friends and then characters that are just for me. I don't even go looking for random groups to do certain quests. I enjoy playing by myself, but I also like the feeling that I am a part of a larger world, and the people are there in case I get a hair up my ass and decide to invite one of them to briefly join me for a quest that requires more participants.

I'm glad this came up, actually. Just the other day I was playing SW:TOR and I had a guy bugging the shit out of me for soloing and not playing with other people, who then spent the next half-hour explaining to me that I needed to get into the end game or I was just wasting my time, despite that fact that I was having fun as it is. I fucking hate it when people try to tell me how to have fun in a game; it's their way and I respect that to the extent that being pleasant requires, but that doesn't mean that it should be everyone's way. It's something that's irritating particularly in video games. You play Call of Duty, but you don't... play the multiplayer?! You're crazy! The multiplayer is the best part! Play it! Play with other people! You don't know what you're missing out on!!

I do, as it happens, know what I'm missing out on. I have my co-op games that I won't play without my friends and I have games that I enjoy simply to be by myself. It's nice to get away from it all. People read books for the same reason and you don't see other people running up to them and shouting "what are you doing?! Stop reading by yourself and come read with us!!"

I think this is pretty much the longest 'I agree, Jim' post I've ever made.

 

[scw55]

Social Sim City can be dangerous.

I used to play Multiplayer Minecraft and I used to get so very angry if anyone touched my stuff. I am really defensive of my projects. In fact I scrapped a project in Minecraft because a friend thought it'd be nice of him to help me without my knowledge. It made me see my project as not mine anymore.

I play Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. I enjoy the solitary and the fact I can focus on a project for me.
However I do share what I do on a internet community forum because as much as I like my work to be far away from grubby little mits of other human beings, I also enjoy showing off, with screenshots or videos. Perhaps an idea for solo-games is being able to 'document' your character's progress in the game with ease. Bioware... sort of did this with Dragon Age but it was kinda pointless since everyone's story was "the same". With The Elderscrolls you have scope of making an easy-to-access optional online "water-cooler"/scrapbook thing.

 

[lastjustice]

Some games just are meant be a solo experience. I mean just the idea of playing Sim city and having someone else randomly coming into my game world and start making stuff and wasting money that I have to undo just sounds like something that would piss me off. Xcom is a game that would be hindered with other people playing messing up your carefully planned tactics.Infamous would be annoying if it were mutliplayer and people would vetto the route of the game you were playing or whine because they've seen the cutscenes before and don't care to wait for you to experience for yourself for the first time. Would you enjoy the arkham games with Batman if some guy kept getting spot and alerting guard everytime you were about to sneak up on a thug. Basically people coming in and kicking over your virtual block towers because they can is lame, regardless if it's thru being bad or mean.

You can't allow a game with lasting consequences to progess or the game world be multiplayer or you basically are setting yourself up for grieving. Some games the camera angles just can't keep up with two or more people very well and you're basically playing as a group of individuals not a team then. They have to water down the gameplay experience so teaming up has a point. Basically video game heroes have Ninja physics...the more of them there are the less powerful they become. Sometimes it's fun being the .."Last Justice" standing against whatever threat alone, but having all toys to do so.

Ultimately there's games that shine and prosper for having multiplayer. Borderlands 1 and 2 are perfect examples for that. (which I think Yahtzee's problem with them is the fact he doesnt play those games with friends.)Super mario wii and Smash bros are great games for a team of people to play together. There's plenty of games that are definitely better for having multiplayer in them. In the end I think developers need to flexible to whatever is the best choice for the type of game you're tying to make.

 

[Jodan]

i feel it important to say that i compleatley agree with everything youve said, and have been waiting for someone to say it like that.

 

[hazydawn]

"Fucking Fear 3!" and Chungus_St_McChungus made this episode relly enjoyable for me.
It's the first time I'm commenting to any of your vids, just wanted to let you know that I think your very funny(though you probably won't read this)!

By the way I started playing video games without being socially deprived and now I am ;__;
I am a lonely person using video games for escapism, and even though I'm lonely multiplayer games don't actually manage to make me feel less lonely. And why is that? Because in multiplayer games you may work together with other persons and communicate to a certain degree but in the end you just do so in order to archieve an objective e.g raid a dungeon, win the map etc. In most cases that's as deep as the relationship with other people get in games. Maybe not if you join a clan or guild and play often with the same people though I doubt whether they can be defined as "friends".

 

[geizr]

My hypothesis: the sort of push for multi-player that Jim is describing is to set the stage for the eventual sell of "community" or "connectivity" services that integrate with games to gamers, either as a subscription service or a la carte service. Basically, just about anything a company does is a calculated maneuver to increase sales or revenue.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Stay the line, Jim. It's not often I want to thank god for anything, but I'll do it every time for you.

Frankly, I don't like playing online a lot. I don't often play the kinds of games where I want to just jump into a random game with 20 other people. I enjoy those kinds of games for a shorter period of time than I do single player games. But, I do have plenty of games that I play with friends. But, I don't always play these games. Sometimes I don't want to coop something, but want to feel the crushing depth or majesty of doing it all on my own. The most annoying thing, personally, is finding out that content has to be unlocked in multiplayer, or that half the content on the disc/download is for a mode I want very little of. It really makes me feel like I'm paying for wasted space. The idea of an online pass would be fine, if I could buy just the single player game at a price less the cost of the pass, but nope, it's still $60 for it, all the time. And that's just not as good.

 

[Kekkonen1]

I'm an extremely extrovert and social person with loads of friends, but I NEVER EVER play multiplayer-games. I hate playing online and I hate having to interact with others while playing my games. So for me this newfounded idea that singleplayer-games are for lonely asocial suckers and everything has to be multiplayer is not only not to my taste, but rather insulting I think. And I am very sad that two of my favourite games to play alone (Diablo and Sim City) has chosen to abandon me in favour of the always-online argument which I will not condone.

 

[Starik20X6]

Well said. I'm absolutely going to quote you whenever someone gets up in my grill for not being hooked up to an IV of Facebook.

 

[gonephishing]

yeah... I'm not watching this show anymore. I don't hate anybody for having their own beliefs, because I don't "hate" anybody. I don't think that spending time watching a person who is willing to blatantly demonstrate such an grandiloquently offensive and sacrilegious attitude is a good use of my time. I'm afraid Jim has lost a viewer.

 

[Bvenged]

Funny, serious and right on the ball, to fucking funny. Good ol' Jimquisition.

Yeah you're right, if TES or Fallout went coop/multiplayer, I'd flip a table. I'm highly sceptical about Sim City's multiplayer right now.

 

[ex275w]

There is absolutely no problem with having more options in a game. I've enjoyed, greatly, playing multiplayer in Minecraft and Mass Effect 3, for example. I wouldn't play Minecraft if I was FORCED to be alone, and the multiplayer in Mass Effect is incredibly deep and rewarding, nevermind wildly well-supported by the Bioware and EA.

I don't understand why you would talk down at a game developer for wanting to make a more rounded experience for the player.

The problem is that most of the time these extra options take extra resources. Mass Effect 3, while it has a good multiplayer (from what I've heard), is still played for the most part for the single player. Maybe the campaign wouldn't have been so bad, maybe the ending wouldn't have been horrible, maybe they could've put more Role playing elements.
Sure it's nice to have options, but those options shouldn't take away from the core experience, in fact having more options may limit the depth (and thus more options) of the game. In an opposite example, I think CoD should be online only and shouldn't have single-player.

The best games are those that offer a great single player that can be adapted easily into an online mode, like Tetris.

 

[ex275w]

the word you're looking for Jim is "solitude" and Jebus himself went in for it multiple times...sometimes weeks at a time.

surprised you didn't pick up on that ;P

wikipedia states "A distinction has been made between solitude and loneliness. In this sense, these two words refer, respectively, to the joy and the pain of being alone"

I didn't know the English language had a word like that. Maybe cause in Spanish we only just use the word "soledad" to refer to being left alone.

Being solitude is a great thing, I think plenty of people need to have some hours a day for themselves. Being forced to socialize all the time is one of the great ills of our society. Some people can't unglue themselves form their phones or Facebook.

 

[blackrave]

That's me
I tried playing with other people, really tried
Still best experience is with either people who I can throw paper balls at (in case they are being pricks)
OR
with me and myself
SO this online BS developers/publishers are trying to shoehorn in every game just makes me angry
Example
X-Com:Enemy Unknown
How much of you played its multiplayer?
I personally didn't even watched at the MP button.
Edit: Well ok, I noticed it once, after it my mind blocked it out of my sight.

 

[TheSapphireKnight]

Not all games should have or need multiplayer, that said I also don't subscribe to the belief that certain series could and should NEVER have multiplayer features even if it could be great.

I love playing skyrim by myself, but I could definitely see having a small scale co-op option in the series. Not open to anyone, not an MMO, but being able to explore a world of that scale and detail with a friend or two sounds like a blast.

I find the basic rule is that if the "add multiplayer" comes from executive decisions and not from the team wanting to add a great experience that it will immediately be on the wrong footing.

 

[Invadergray]

When will the next Movie Defense Force be?

 

[Moth_Monk]

Hey, folks, lay off the "hahaha devout people are so stupid" characterizations. Mocking someone for their faith is decidedly uncool - as would it be if they mocked you for your lack of it.

The thing is devout people do stupid things in the name of faith; where as nobody does something stupid in the name of lack of faith. Anyway, devotees believe things that have zero evidence. How ridiculous is that?

 

[Moth_Monk]

yeah... I'm not watching this show anymore. I don't hate anybody for having their own beliefs, because I don't "hate" anybody. I don't think that spending time watching a person who is willing to blatantly demonstrate such an grandiloquently offensive and sacrilegious attitude is a good use of my time. I'm afraid Jim has lost a viewer.

And also, if you keep watching this heathen's videos, God will send you to hell. Amirite?

/sarcasm