Jimquisition: Only The Lonely

Jimothy Sterling

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Apr 18, 2011
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Only The Lonely

The videogame industry wants you to believe that the offline experience is for miserable loners.

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mattttherman3

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Dec 16, 2008
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Well, judging by your intro alone, I had absolutely no idea you were going to talk about loneliness in gaming. Personally, even in multiplayer, I will play free for all because I do not like depending on other people a lot of times. Also, WOO atheism!
 

xPixelatedx

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Jan 19, 2011
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I would like to point out that some of the best games of all time, like Super Metroid, are single player experiences, and that game in particular rides on the feeling of loneliness for much of it's atmosphere. I think many current developers care so much about just making some extra $$ they don't even account for how multilayer might effect the atmosphere of their game. They just know it's a shiny new thing and it has to be crammed in there.

Quite possibly the most hilarious and ironic thing about all this is that most multilayer games have the shortest longevity. Servers get shut down, the next iteration of halo/CoD come out and the previous one is forgotten and swept under the rug. Oh sure, you can still play Halo 2 and the original CoD games, but... not really. It's not like 'Shadow of The Colossus', which will sit on a pedestal until the end of time. Sony might not even exist as a game company 40 years from now and this game will still be there. You won't need any Sony servers or other people to play it with to get the best and fullest experience it has to offer.

I swear, between turning everything multilayer and trying for an all digital future, the game industry is burning their candle at both ends. It's staggering how naive they must think we are. But part of me is kind of glad that in 20-30 years almost every game coming out now will be unplayable. It will force people to go back and play the classics lol
 

Orbot_Vectorman

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May 11, 2009
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Jim my friend, as awesome as you are, I can't help but think you will suffer the same fate as the late George Carlin. Any how, back on topic, yea I too enjoy playing single player games for the social deprivation.
 

Mosesj

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Good on, Jim! One problem I have with a multiplayer focus is with me. I buy games that are a couple of years old, or nobody would really want to play multiplayer on. If a game's focus was on multiplayer, than I would be losing on a experience because I bought the game late.
 

TheScottishFella

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It's why I'm really happy to hear, Dishonoured and Skyrim do well, because it shows people sometimes want to be alone.
 

PunkRex

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I think im the only person on this bloody site that enjoyed Bioshock 2's multiplayer. Don't get me wrong, I see the flaws and plot holes present in the single player (F*ck Sofia Lamb, how dare they try to insinuate she was at the same level as Andrew RyaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!) but I generally enjoyed the frantic-ness... if thats a word, of the multiplayer. Sure I suppose using the money for it on the single player may have lead to a better single player product but I don't necessarily hold that against the multiplayer experience.

OT: Man I miss Dungeon Keeper...
 

Radioactive Kitten

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Most of my games are single player because I do enjoy playing alone quite a bit. I have some games with co-op and such for when I want to play with friends, but for the most part I'd much rather let myself become the character and get immersed in the game's world, and the existence of even just one other player is enough to destroy any sort of immersion I might have had.
 

Entitled

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Well, I *am* an anti-social loser in full time, whose love of games growed from a dislike of humans, but otherwise I agree with everything that you just said.
 

Mr. Omega

ANTI-LIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE!
Jul 1, 2010
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Well said, Willem.

OT: I agree.

Slightly off topic: One other big problem I've been having with this whole "everything needs multiplayer" mentality? That they've also been cutting out couch co-op. I don't mind online multiplayer, but when my brother or cousins come over, I want to be able to play with them without each of us having our own copy of the game, console and TV.
 

Waaghpowa

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Apr 13, 2010
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Part of the problem is that it's viewed as unnatural to want to be alone. Humans are considered social creatures and when someone doesn't want to be social, there's clearly something wrong with them.

The reality is that some people, myself included, are introverts. They're more comfortable being alone with their own thoughts and in some cases need to be alone in order to think clearly.

This idea that seclusion is a bad thing is what's translating into games. All this social connectivity is ok for certain games and in small doses, but not for everything.

Honestly, I think devs are using this social crap as an excuse to put online drm into their games.
 

WildFire15

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EA really needs to re-evaluate this 'everything must have multi player' policy, though the fact they're proud of it shows they didn't think in-depth about it in the first place. After all, Skyrim isn't popular because of it's always on co-operative play, it's popular because there's always something to do, always somewhere new to explore.
I sometimes think this 'must have multi player' thought is really an excuse to skimp on content for the single player, thinking the multi player will fill in the re-playability gap, much like some MMOs focus on PvP as an excuse to not give any meaningful endgame content or content in general.
Some games don't need to rely on content as there's room for the user to experiment. Minecraft as well as management games like Theme Park/Hospital, Dungeon Keeper and Sim City have plenty of re-playability as there's always a new way of approaching the game itself or an idea to expand on something you did previously. I spent hours on Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts building vehicles (even making a working catapult and ballista) and over 5 years on City of Heroes making new characters (with 64 characters when the game was shut down and plenty of concepts I would have loved to have made, but seeing as NCsoft want to push the grindy, PvP forced borefest I have to just go and twiddle my thumbs and give my money to Cryptic instead)
 

mdqp

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Oct 21, 2011
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Well, now I want a Willem Dafoe action figure even more than before...

On topic, I would say that I agree with you, but then it's also true that I have played only 2 multiplayer games in my whole life and I basically never played the multiplayer section of a game that has also single player, so I guess my agreement is kind of obvious considering that. Multiplayer just isn't the thing for me, and I basically enjoy much more the freedom I have when playing single player games.

Jim, will Willem Dafoe junior ever start his own series? I believe he could give us some great things!
 

joeman098

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Jun 18, 2007
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The intro had me almost in tears laughing. I cant believe how butthurt these "true believers" get over a sexy fatman on the Internets telling them that their saviors is fake.

But yea i deff agree sometimes i just want to be left alone and play a game its relaxing i have my multiplayer games for when i want to bother with others.

"nahh Fuck em" -Miniature action fantasy willem dafoe.
 

Imp_Emissary

Mages Rule, and Dragons Fly!
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Well of course Jesus is under you Jim. :D How else is he going to carry you on the beach?

Also, while I whould like to see co-op in TES/Fallout, I would only want it as something that would be comepletely optional, and be just something for me and someone on my friends list to enjoy.

That said, for the most part there are a lot of really great single-player games that don't need any multiplayer elements.
 

Falseprophet

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This is a great companion piece to Yahtzee's XP column on society becoming the Manic Pixie Dream Girl demanding you socially engage with others at every waking moment. There was a time through much of my 20s I was regularly socializing with dozens of people on a weekly basis, but now I really value my alone time to catch up on my reading, play some single-player games, or spend time with my girlfriend without anybody else. Most of humanity's greatest works of art and philosophy were achieved by people working alone. But I suspect the typical corporate climber who's had to network and schmooze his whole life might not understand that.

Orbot_Vectorman said:
Jim my friend, as awesome as you are, I can't help but think you will suffer the same fate as the late George Carlin.
Enjoying a successful and celebrated career into your 70s despite a lifetime of cardiac problems and substance abuse, and posthumously enshrined as a grandmaster of your craft by your peers? That we could all suffer such a fate!

P.S. Willem Dafoe = best film portrayal of Jesus ever.
 

lazarus1209

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It seems to me that publishers don't push multiplayer because they want everyone to socialize all the time, they do it because it is so much easier to monetize multiplayer than it is to monetize a purely single player game. Single player expansions are more costly, because frankly, they demand more. You expect new levels, stories, etc...

With multiplayer though, you can get away with selling low effort add-ons like a new multiplayer map, a new gun, skins, and hats. These modes are better suited to the dreaded microtransaction than a purely single player game. Why else would Tomb Raider suddenly get a multiplayer feature? Why push God of War into that realm? The answer is simple. Money.
 
Jan 27, 2011
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Personally, I cannot IMAGINE playing XCOM enemy unknown with another player helping my in the campaign. It would destroy the insanely absorbing immersion.

Yeah, playing with friends can be and usually IS a total blast (nods at Borderlands 2, which he has been playing with 2 of his friends and has been having tons of fun in).

But there are lots of games that I want to play alone so that I can tune out of reality and escape for a while into another world...And I can't do that when I have a friend on skype going "Oh LOL, check this out, man!" or "man, that NPC is a douche!"

So yeah, we need to continue to have solo only games as well as multiplayer. You need both to exist.
 

Bolt-206

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I think I mainly enjoy playing single player experiences less for the feeling of 'loneliness', and more so I can just mess around with some of the mechanics the game's presented; it's not as easy doing experimental things when there's someone else watching and capable of screwing up said experiment... unless, you know, the dude's a PART of it.
 

Domogo

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I think the real point of this video was to make me stop and start about fifty times simply to see the hidden image behind the quote, so good on you jim you succeeded you might as well have put ha made you look at the bottom too.