Jimquisition: Only The Lonely

riftermcriftington

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Dec 11, 2010
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Journey was a brilliant example of how to create engaging multiplayer in a uniquely singular experience. When I beat it I had no idea that I had Journeyed with eight different people. I suspect the immersion was better achieved because it limits your interaction to one button to signify location or desire for help. If the industry is going to insist on tacking on multiplayer or even designing single player experiences with a multiplayer focus, they need to look at titles like Journey and go back to formula to find a way to make the people you're in the game with actually matter, a goal more often accomplished through limitting or refining the experience rather than leaving us awash with options and tactics we have no need or desire for *ahem* team speak *ahem*
 
Mar 9, 2012
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This recently idiocy with forced mulitiplayer, especially in EA games, can be blamed on President of EA Labels and Empty Suit Extraordinaire, Frank Gibeau, who suffers suffers from some arrogant delusion (and if you think I am making baseless accusations, try looking up some of the stuff that the man has said about games and marketing) that online components is what the costumer want, so it is going to be brutally shoehorned in into any EA game, even if it obviously does not fit in the game in question.
 

Carnagath

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Isn't the whole point of escapism to immerse yourself in a well-crafted tale, regardless of medium (Book, Film, Videogame)? What does multiplayer have to do with it...
 

Erttheking

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mike1921 said:
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.
It's a massive sweeping generalization, and since there is no evidence proving them wrong, NO it can't be beyond moronic. And you weren't joking in that post, you were being downright insulting.
 

Sel Sama

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Dec 14, 2012
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I like single player games, i also like Multiplayer games when they are done right.

The are some games, like you Jim, that i enjoy, because they are single player games.

I don`t have to deal with some random person who may or may not know what the ____ they are doing. Quite often i found that the people that don`t know what they are doing or should be doing, are the people that don`t know they suck at the game they are playing. When you have to depend on some random A hole to survive, or defeat the challenge, it would be nice if they where competent at the role or task they are suppose to be doing.

There some single player games that suck because the AI that controls your `helpers` suck, in those single player games i wish my friends could take over for the AI, but those games are few and far between, OK there are more of them out there then there should be, but i don`t find my self liking a lot of them enough to play them at all.
 

RobfromtheGulag

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May 18, 2010
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xPixelatedx said:
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
Tangent: It is disquieting with the DRM servers, software compatibility and non-reverse-compatibility that a lot of games will be impossible to play (legally), be they multi-player or single-player. As kids we promised we'd be playing our favorite games into our old age, but it may be harder than expected to do that.

On Topic: The emphasis on multi-player seems like one of numerous gimmicks being employed to make money rather than a lasting enjoyable experience. DLC is a mixed bag, it seems to me multi-player is nearly its own genre now.

Good point on the best games mention. Even classic games aside, look at this year. What were the top games? Walking Dead, Dishonored, Spec Ops, Mass Effect, (Journey). The multi-player games turn a profit, but I can't think of too many memorable ones.
 

Kuredan

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Dec 4, 2012
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So what if found was interesting is that loneliness or more accurate, the desire to be alone is a key characteristic of an introvert. Introverts playing video games? Unheard of! Multiplayer games seem a bit... extroverted don't they? What with the socializing and requiring other people and all.. So it seems to me what was once an introverts hobby has broadened to include something that appeals to an extroverted market. Normally this is a good thing and should have led to more games across a wider market with more crossovers and more communication. The problem was that these extroverted games sold better, perhaps because there are more extroverts than introverts, I sure don't know. So these game companies that were founded by and for introverts but have been profiting from extroverts are faced with a dilemma and one that is pretty easily solved by more money.

Moreover it seems to me that the apologist argument of "We have to tolerate mediocre, mass appealing games because they enable game companies to make the arts games we do like" argument doesn't hold water anymore. More and more companies are coming out to say their aim is to get the most money possible, oops I mean they want to make all games multiplayer. So where are those artsy games the shlock has bought? Oh right, they're being sent to kickstarter because big game companies don't want to take a chance on them anymore. Sigh.
 

Animyr

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Jan 11, 2011
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Glad to see that I'm not the only one who remembers how disappointing fear 3 was.

Not that I was opposed to the co-op when they announced it, but then the built and structured the whole damn game around it and made single-player a tack-on. Why?? (Rhetorical question)
 
Sep 20, 2010
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Love my friends as I do, sometimes it's just healthy to relax by yourself. If we did everything with our friends what the hell would you talk about? =/
"Hey! you know that quest in Skyrim I was struggling with?"
"umm...yeah. I was there remember?"
"oh. i forgot."
 

The Funslinger

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Sep 12, 2010
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In the first year or so I had my Xbox 360, I felt this.

I'd have all my friends being all 'come on CoD. Come on Halo!'

No, I want to play some Red Dead Redemption and just chill for a while!
 

wrightguy0

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Dec 8, 2010
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I think there's a time and a place for Co-Op play and online MP, and there are times when playing solo is nice.

I know that i couldn't play Borderlands alone, it just wouldn't be as fun without me and my friends making asses of ourselves in an all consuming miasma of violence and snark

And i will play dishonored alone forever, because it's awesome and intimate and just feels like it was meant to be that way (the lack of MP proves this fact)

Now when GTA comes out, when i need a break from the story, i will gather my friends together for some good old fashioned dogfights in fighter jets, Why? Because that's awesome.
 

Crazie_Guy

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Mar 8, 2009
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The point here is that multiplayer shouldn't be at the expense of good single player, so I'm a bit dubious about applying this to RPGs. They don't really have problems with keeping single player intact while adding multiplayer. Take for example the Diablo series, which obviously consists of Diablo 1 and 2 and nothing else. D2 in particular is a perfectly complete RPG experience when played single player and loses absolutely nothing for having multiplayer, but because it DOES have multiplayer, it has also become one of the most entertaining staples of LAN gaming for me and my friends. Why exactly can this not be done for RPGs like skyrim? Dungeon Siege 2, Sacred 2, Titan Quest and such are great but getting old, and this trend of making single-player only games that COULD have multi at NO expense to single is getting very annoying. Yes, axe the multiplayer if the game is supposed to be focused on single-player and anything else would take away from it, but RPG 1p modes are usually impervious to the effects of having multiplayer capability elsewhere on the disc, so why not?
 

Sergey Sund

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May 20, 2012
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People who think "loneliness in games" is a bad thing don't get that games are a retreat, an area to relax.
For them, there needs to be constant action, games are entertainment-dynomite, exploding in your face every minute that you play.
Adrenalin-fueled FPS sessions and tense MMORPG raids are a valid way to experience a game.
I guess, after such events, the "everything needs a co-op mode"-people just leave their computer to be alone and relax in the real world while reading a book.
Well, sorry that my lifestyle is not the exact same as theirs.
I like the loneliness in games. It gives me time to immerse myself into a well-constructed virtual environment, enjoying it in ways that I couldn't if I had the constant worry that some Steam-pal simply joined my quiet world.
I want to be alone sometimes in games! The sensory-deprevation tank was an apt analogy for something that I have found: Loneliness is stress-free and safe. You can't fuck up with no-one around, or at least it doesn't matter that much.
Certain parts of your brain can shut off and relax when you're alone, giving you the capacity to deal with your gaming experience more deeply.
I can handle it when someone tells me to stop talking to the NPCs and to stop gawking at the nice environment in an MMORPG because that is not the main point of an MMORPG. However, games like Skyrim have environment, NPCs, basically their atmosphere as the main attraction. The immersion is the entire point!
That just doesn't happen when you're dragged around by one of your friends, who wants to speedrun every quest and who gets annoyed when you stop to smell the roses.
 

Anchupom

In it for the Pub Club cookies
Apr 15, 2009
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As a solitary gamer, I agree. A lot of my games are geared to single-player enjoyment... Things like the Assassin's Creed and Devil May Cry series', God of War, Pokemon, Prototype, etc. Yes, Assassin's Creed has multiplayer, but I scarcely play it and when I do I don't ever interact with anyone on it.

Except maybe to hum the jaws theme as I stalk someone.
 

KrystelCandy

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Aug 18, 2012
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I'm just an introvert.

I hate being around people all the time, I get enough of that out at work or going out with friends, when I'm home playing games, I'm more than happy to do it alone. I have multiplayer games... when I want multiplayer I play THOSE, like TF2, or league of legends. Not Dead Space or whatever.
 

Scyla

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Jul 26, 2010
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I would love to have Dragon Age 3 and Mass Effect 4 to have a co-op mode to play it together with a friend. Especially after I played The old Republic with a buddy.

That experience was awesome but hindered by the game design of a MMORPG. The scenes were not nearly as epic as in a single player games. You can defeat the best of the best only so many times before it gets dull and you realize that you play a grindfest and not an immersive experience.

But the mechanics for group play in a traditionally single player game worked really well. That shows that you can do it.

Regarding Sim City. Jim you have to understand the inclusion of social networking is the last resort for EA do inject relevance into Sim City before that brand goes down the drain. Please don't destroy their illusion that what they do is still relevant and useful :p .