Jimquisition: Only The Lonely

Saladfork

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Remus said:
WTF kind of fish is that? It's like a hammerhead shark, but with bad teeth and a dick for a nose.

On topic, multiplayer can be a giant f'ing immersion breaker if I'm playing a game for the story. Take Guild Wars 2 - I rarely ever dungeon crawl in that game because if I did, I might want to watch the little story bits while everyone else stands around and waits for me. I'd much rather just be saving this or that town from giants, skritt, or centaurs, getting my Hero on, without getting in the way of somebody else who wants to move shit along. I play single player games to get away from people, multiplayer when I want interaction. They're separate playstyles and should remain as such.

As an atheist, I thank Darwin for me. Although at this stage of human history, with medical and scientific advancements, evolution has kinda fallen to the wayside. Perhaps I should thank Tesela, or Jobs.
I think it's a goblin shark. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_shark]

OT: Sometimes I'm in the mood to play a game with other people and sometimes I'm not. I certainly don't need tacked on multiplayer, like some kind of cancerous growth hanging off of a singe-player game, and I especially don't want it infecting single player as well.

One of the any reasons I have little hope for dragon age 3 is because, due to EA's multiplayer policy, I strongly suspect I'm going to have some 12-year-old calling me a fag for paying attention to the dialogue or something.
 

Mikodite

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RandV80 said:
Yeah just imagine sitting down to read an eagerly awaited new book like the finale of the Wheel of Time or the next A Song of Fire and Ice installment (hopefully before my hair turns grey) and having tweets and facebook comments popping up beside the text.

In other words these publishers can go screw themselves, let multiplayer be multiplayer and single player be single player. I'm not going to go to a movie theater alone, but I'm also not going to read a book in a group.
Why? Because its weird for a lot of people to see someone that wants to be alone.

Guys, most of you are hardcore gamers (else, wtf are you doing on this site?). Many of you are probably introverts.

I bet most of you can't fathom how there are many people out there who take their smartphones to the bathroom. Or worse, take them to bed. Seriously, people text their friends on the toilet, a place many of us associate with alone time (because who takes a crap with a second person watching?).

Further more, I've heard of people speculating that nightclubs aren't fun at all. Except that many people actually like them... because there is people... everywhere!

Some of you point out that Dishononered and Skyrim printed money this year. Many party games have printed out even more money this year as well.

Some of you are going to say that 'no one thinks its weird to read by yourself.' Well, aside from book clubs where you are reading in a group... but its more likely that most people don't actually sit and read. I can remember it being considered weird to actually sit and read a book that wasn't assigned reading by many of the student body, much to the chagrin of the teachers trying to get us to read.

Even in the single player one isn't truely alone. There are web forums and lets plays where one can make a single player experience less single while not truely multiplayer. I think someone on the Retsuprae troup pointed out that some of them were recording themselves play to feel less lonely be having the though that someone else would be watching their session later.

I remember the feeling of playing in arcades and having someone hovering over my shoulder watching me play. Some of you are probably perturb at the though of someone hovering over your shoulder as you played, even if it wasn't some porno flash game, but at the time, I figured that I was in a public place and to allow some leeway accordingly, that people will watch how awesome (or lame) I was. I did get some rude 'eff offs' from people in arcades when I did the same thing, and again, public place with people everywhere, this always baffled me, but there are people reading this who would think that was rude of me you watch you play if it was you.

I don't doubt that the likes of EA and that are milking this to stuff DRM into their games, but the idea that they are generating the belief that singleplayer is for socially maladjusted losers (or any activity that is done in solitude) isn't new. In fact, well look up the TV Trope "Loners are Freaks" to get a better idea of what we have always thought of people who want to be alone.

The reality is there are a lot of lonely people out there, and to them, they can't understand why anyone would want solitude. Then there are the people who want to be connected to other 24/7. Leaving us as a minority.
 

Your Gaffer

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I only play ONE MP game with any consitency, L4D2. Otherwise I am a big time single player gamer. Also I have heard devs on a couple games that were supposed to be MP centered that said more people played SP then ever played MP, so I think the numbers back us up.
The publishers retain more control over connected games though which is part of the reason I think they push them so much.
 

Arcane Azmadi

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Bang-on, Jim. Sometimes I want to play with people, to enjoy the sense of teamwork and have the opportunity to show off. Sometimes I want to play on my own, because it's impossible to feel good about myself when I'm having to share a game with a bunch of other people who are simply better at it than me. Or because the game itself is all about YOU. Making SimCity have enforced multiplayer (I'm not sure about the details, but that's the impression I'm getting)? What kind of goddamn "god game" forces you to be just one in a pantheon? Where's the feeling of total control, shaping the world to YOUR will?
 

Lady Larunai

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Im not really a multiplayer person, i dont like how all the achievements are starting to be online multiplayer centric, Im not saying all games need it... but there is a hell of a lack of good co-op games, yes theres BL2, L4D and a few others but theres a lack of good multiplayer rpg's, im not saying skyrim needed it but i probably would have sunk a longer amount of time if my gf could sit and killed some dragons as well, I dont mind playing games alone but i do mind that the only co-op games are for the most part shit or non existent
 

wolfyrik

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gonephishing said:
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.
Thank God for Jim and praise Willem DeFoe. Needless to Jim will keep all his fans who don't have imaginary friends. You my friend should get a sense of humour.

Religion exists to be ripped on, it must do or why would the writers have stories about talking snakes, men made from clay, women made from ribs, and paedophiles who carry stone tablets with rules on them?

As for the multiplayer, it's the best excuse to rip people off with bad DRM, DLC and pay-for content like customisation that should be in the game for free. Like it used to be. Games like Diablo 3 set the bastards-are-go markers, idiot fan-bois allowed Blizzzard and others to get away with it, defending them to this day like the halfwits that they are, and so other publishers are following suit. What will people allow them to get away with next?

Wait, didn't Jim already point this out too in a previous Jimquisition?
 

likalaruku

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Loved the intro dialogue, cracks me up XD.

So.....Am I the only one who solos through MMOs an an excuse to play a free game for some alone time rather than as a desire to socialize only to end up unable to find people I can cooperate with? Am I the only one who puts party requests on block & hides the chat box?

Some of my friends like games. We have different tastes in games. When we attempt playing together, we do not enjoy it. If I want to hang out with people, I will either go outside with plans for the day, or I will go to a forum or Facebook.

I'm sure Angry Joe would disagree with this video. I remember he always used to reduce a game's rating for not having co-op. Swear to god he would crawl into a ball & cry if he had to play a video game by himself. Don't know if he feels the same way; since everything is multiplayer now, he never brings it up.
 

Myndnix

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The day gaming goes full multiplayer is the day I stop playing games.
Screw multiplayer. Other people suck. I don't spend money on a game so I can play it with other people. It's something I bought for me.
While I do play multiplayer in what some would view as a 'limited' fashion, only playing with my close friends and never touching any kind of gametype in which you'd play against or with total strangers, I have never bought a game based on it's multiplayer. Multiplayer isn't even a factor!

Thank 'god' for you, Jim.
 

fleischwolke

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This installment really hit the nail on the head for me. My day is filled with scheming hominids, and pc games are a chance to get away from it all. Single player all the way!
 

mike1921

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erttheking said:
Moth_Monk said:
mike1921 said:
I really can't wrap my head around the idea that you honestly think that calling 90% of the world's population idiots for not thinking the exact same way as you is a good idea and something that shouldn't be frowned on.

The moral? Calm down. Seriously.
It's a popular opinion so it can't be beyond moronic? "Exact same way as"? They think there's a god who both is so sensitive to jokes like that and worth worshiping? The idea that the powerful should be protected from everything, even jokes, is not just moronic its revolting.
 

Milanezi

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My favorite episode ever. Probably one of the few times I agreed 100% with Jim, I think single player is very important, I really enjoy the storytelling and you seldom get a good one out of multiplayer experience, even when it's co-op you end up meeting someone, sooner or later, who will just skip the cutscenes, leaving anyone in the party who wanted to go through the game's "lore" quite pissed...
 

minimacker

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braincore02 said:
Good watch. Are they making SimCity have some mandatory online crap? I'm looking forward to the new one but I would prefer to play solo myself.
It looks like the best Sim City so far. Where every citizen has some needs, instead of being a statistic. Then they dump this extreme DRM on us. Boom! It's sad, really. It's not the developers' fault, yet they're the ones getting punished.
 

Metalrocks

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yeah. its amazing why people think a game without MP is bad. i like to play SP only. just being my self. but most of the games today dont let you.
 

Legion

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Oct 2, 2008
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I get the point you are making (and agree), but loneliness is really the state of being alone and not wanting to be. It's not the same thing as being alone because you'd prefer it that way.
 

Jimothy Sterling

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Moth_Monk said:

Jim, I loved the intro and outro to this week's episode. It reminded me that you should do a dramatic reading of this piece of art from way back whenever.
Aaww man, I forgot all about this. Dang I miss that lady.
 

A Curious Fellow

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ex275w said:
A Curious Fellow said:
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.
This argument is exhausted and ought to be retired. You can outspend the gdp of a small island nation with the average AAA game development budget. I'd rather have an alternate avenue of enjoyment in a game I just bought for sixty dollars than have only one playtype with one extra coat of polish. And shame on you for calling Mass Effect 3's campaign "bad". It was fifty hours of tightly composed and emotionally investing excellence, and they fixed the ending.
 

The Lugz

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as an ex wow player, i can completely sympathize with the single-player audience
having to wait for other people so you can play your game is tiresome, and eventually becomes annoying enough to ruin the experience entirely

oh, oh and let's not forget multiplier achievements.
haha... what evil genius concocted this massacre of time?
every time you play your game 'omg, let's do that 3 hour achievement'.... no?

there is peer pressure, you want to try dual wielding shotguns and wearing a hockey mask, when it only lets you do 100 dps and has 3 Armour?

well you're a bad gamer. fact. people tell you so. omg l2p!!!

couldn't be because i want an actual challenge beyond the designed game-play that we know works that I've been forced to do 90 trillion times and so therefore isn't a real challenge could it? no. i'm just bad.

people suck, they have massive ego problems and cannot controls themselves and frankly i believe i am above them
( it's not ironic, it's just sad. )
and they do not deserve my attention at all until they learn to be civil and respectful of other's time
which will never happen, because there's an inevitable flood of new players all the time and honestly
i really don't want to educate people for the rest of my life, or have constant arguments about anything
that isn't completely obvious at first glance

single player is the last bastion of pure game play, and once it dissolves so will my interest in gaming as a whole
fortunately i have bathesda's catalogue of games on steam
saints row
and the ultimate nirvana of personal glory that is minecraft's block laying perfection

i honestly believe i could play those forever if multiplayer-centric company's take over and attempt to force me to play most ( or all ) of a game's content online in multi-player they can kiss my cash goodbye
i'm lookin at you diablo.
 

Strazdas

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May 28, 2011
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Thanks but no thanks i dont want some stupid persons crime and poluttion spilling into my city just because he does not know how to play it. Singleplayer games are the best, i WANT to be alone playing games. when i want to be with people i start up a MMO, and i paly MMO ONLY for the social aspect, when i want to play for gaming i do gaming, alone.
And yep id rather be a lone loser than play some games with other people. This is a very stupid idea imo and i completely agree with JIM (as is usual).

I do have to say that as an OPTION to play games like GTA4 with other palyers is not bad. but we already have that, its called multiplayer mode.
 

ExileNZ

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Jimothy Sterling said:
Only The Lonely

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

Watch Video
I don't usually have much or anything to say about JQ, but Holy Fuck, this!

Fucking. THIS.

I'm surrounded by people in my daily life, be it friends, colleagues or family. Oddly enough, I don't want them tagging along with me when I'm wandering around Rapture. I can even sum up the whole thing in one nice (and real life) analogy:

Way back when, I was playing Clive Barker's Undying for the first time. After a good few hours of wandering around a haunted estate and lonely catacombs, I finally got up to Lizbeth, the vampiric socialite. As the dialogue finished and she unleashed an ungodly howl at me, my mum came in and said "Oh, is this a scarrrry bit?".

Totally fucking ruined the experience.

I've had similar experiences with the wife and I now separate my games into "immersive" and "non-immersive".

When she's around, I'll play simpler, more superficial stuff. 2D platformers. JRPGs. Run-and-gun FPSes.

I've had Bioshock on my shelf for years now and I've yet to find the time to play it. Specifically, the time to play it AWAY FROM FUCKING PEOPLE. Because, like Jim says, I don't want some prick running around and completely ruining my immersion. I get enough of that in my living room.

Horror isn't horror when you're with other people. It's schlock. That's a totally different form of entertainment.

Fuck people.