Multiplayer too difficult to enjoy. Anyone else ever had this?

[Yuuki]

I'm going to assume you're talking about competitive multiplayer games i.e. where players are put against other players. Note I'll be abbreviating "competitive multiplayer" to "CMP" if you don't mind
A good CMP game is EXPECTED to have a solid learning curve, depth, etc and while it should be simple enough to learn (a lot of them are) there should be plenty of aspects in the game which define player skill and set-apart the boys from the men.
If a CMP game NOT deep with a learning curve with hardly anything to define player skill, it's shelf-life is going to be very short. Some of the largest multiplayer communities in the world have evolved around games like Starcraft, Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike, Quake, etc - games where the typical newbie would lose around 50 times before they knew what the fuck was going on.

I agree the primary strengths/selling-points of CMP games can also be a "soft barrier" for new players...but that's how it works, it's inevitable. You need to have a competitive mindset - if you tend to give up very easily, then that's simply an indicator that CMP may not be for you and you would have more fun with co-op or singleplayer games.

Good luck

 

[Don't taze me bro]

Play with friends. I dabbled in Planetside 2. I was 'ok' at it, but I had a friend on Mumble, who was fairly experienced and we ran around together. He suggested some upgrades that quickly made my game experience easier.

It was fun, but I was already invested in too many other games to warrant playing more.

 

[JagermanXcell]

I occasionally have a time during the month where I have a multiplayer sesh (most recently I tried Battlefiled 3 for a while) but I tend to burn out of them very quickly, a lot of it tends to be because of either a community's common behavior or balancing issues. There is one game's single/multiplayer component that I can't put down though...

OT: The only multiplayer I've played long enough to reasonably complain about it is Dark Souls PvP.
The rage here stems not from genuine difficulty, but latency issues and hackers/twinkers.
Simply put, there's too much that can screw you over that is out of your control, which makes PvP frustrating.
Now, I consider myself to be damn good at PvE, and I've helped many a host get to the boss, but actually fighting other players is a mess.

...aaaaand you brought it up.

I've played Dark Souls' pvp (pve when I feel like realxing and jolly co-oping with friends) long enough to discover that there is a counter to almost everything, even hackers (i've killed several of those childish cowards already with a little bit of hornet ring and a ledge/bleed... the hate mail they send fills me with so much euphoria).

I will admit though, things like lag/backstab fishing/the infamous "lagstab" can sometimes kill the game for me. They're all legitimate concerns, concerns i'm glad From is taking into consideration for the sequel along with dedicated servers and balance to keep hackers/twinkers from killing the purpose of the game.

A part of me will miss the hackers though. They were so bad, no wonder they needed to hack, good thing Dark Souls' provides us numerous ways to kill even the un-killable.

 

[Amir Kondori]

I have definitely had this problem. I am not great at first person shooters. I am not terrible, and after some time in a new shooter's MP I can start to get a few kills, but I work a lot and have other things I do and I just don't have the time it takes to get good enough that I could enjoy most matches. So I just stay away from FPS MP. I do play L4D2, it being a coop games makes all the difference.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Generally I've been able to enjoy multiplayer even when losing, notably in Dark Souls, where there is honestly not too many ways to have decent, fair PvP. Which is fine too. But sometimes that's what I'd like, and all I get is ganking, high-level hosts and low-level pyro invaders. The boredom of ACV with region-lock though, that's some depressing shit right there.

 

[Headsprouter]

Yeah, I totally suck at PvP outside of Team Fortress. MOBAs in general are just a lost cause for me. Can't take a step near them. All the current, popular MOBAs have a style that I don't like, anyway, which gives me little desire to actually get good or at least average.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Yes, for pretty much every single online multiplayer game. Besides the high entry barriers many such games have too many randomized factors beyond a player's control for me to get comfortable with- lag spikes, trolls, AFK people, hackers and such. Ironically the only one I haven't had this problem with is Smash Bros. Brawl.

I think the most dramatic example of this for me would be Starcraft 2- I was very good at the original and Brood War, but with the inclusion of leagues things have gotten way too competitive for any but the zealously dedicated to find much enjoyment from it, and team games are usually affected by one or more of the factors I mentioned.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Compeditive? Definitely.
Co-op? Never, really.

I mean, I'm not terrible by any means, I'm just self conscious about my connection.
I've enough talent to be useful, but not really masterful.

I generally don't like people so I'd just rather not have to put up with them after me. Can't beat'em, join'em, or something like that.

 

[loc978]

For me it's less difficulty, more... seriousness, I guess. Same problem I tend to have with competitive sports. Playing to win can be fun for a little while, but once people start getting really serious with it, I find it incredibly boring. I play games to relax, not to work. Friendly competition on the small scale can be fun, but once you start developing teams, leagues, named strategies... That's just work. I demand pay for work.

 

[votemarvel]

Kind of.

The only game I tend to play online these days is Halo 4 when teaming up with friends. My enjoyment tends to start fading though when I'm dying inside of a minute after respawning because I've been put against players five times my level.

I don't see how I am meant to get better when I'm never alive long enough to try new things.

 

[Victim of Progress]

I do feel that in certain cases. Those cases being:
A. Fighting games, especially those which force you to pull off ridiculously long combos(Like MvC or Raging Blast).
B. PC multiplayer for really old or niche games, where the community may have existed for several years and they became so good that it's impossible to get in.

 

[WenisPagon]

Anything frame-by-frame or micro-intensive just has too high a skill ceiling for me unless there's a decent matchmaking system that pairs me with people who are equally inept.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

It'll happen from time to time. In Halo 4, for example, it'll frequently take level 20s and match them with level 110s.

 

[Andante]

I LOVE multiplayer, most of the time I skip single player all together just to get to the multiplayer.

I enjoy RTS, FPS, racing, mobas, and rpgs online, it's all about the competition.

Also, you don't need to be a walking encyclopedia to be good or enjoy multiplayer. For instance, I never played sins of the solar empire before, and it is supposedly a somewhat complex game, and it only took me a couple of games online to figure out the basics and be able to hold my own.

Most of the time in multiplayer you need to be able to absorb and understand information (intelligence), to try out new strategies and think outside the box (creativity), and be able to execute (reflexes for shooters, mobas).

The thing is, if you lack any of these skills, innate abilities, there will always be others out there without your deficits, that's what happens online, there will always be players better than you. For alot of players who play single player primarily, going multiplayer is a huge shock, because you are no longer the badass you thought you were when going against actual entities with a human IQ instead of AI that technically have less intelligence than earthworms.

That being said, to enjoy multiplayer, its all about mindset. If you enjoy competition, and take enjoyment in improving your skills over time, then even if you have terrible innate abilities, competitive multiplayer will be satisfying.

However if you are the type of individual that wants to "own" everything with little or noeffort for that instant gratification feeling... then competitive multiplayer is not for you... unless you are a genius with super fast reflexes... then yeah you can probably just jump in and start owning people.