Will single player go the way of the Arcade?

[Dylan Hentchel]

No. Arcades died out because consoles gave people the ability to have the same experience without leaving their homes. There's no way multiplayer could somehow...negate...single player modes in the same way.

Arcades died out because it made gaming at home plausable, single player will suffer a similar fate because the internet makes gaming with others plausable, now the only difference between the two is money, you see it became cheaper to play at home with consuls, but it is cheaper for the game developers to make multiplayer games without the burden of complex AIs.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

No. Arcades died out because consoles gave people the ability to have the same experience without leaving their homes. There's no way multiplayer could somehow...negate...single player modes in the same way.

Arcades died out because it made gaming at home plausable, single player will suffer a similar fate because the internet makes gaming with others plausable, now the only difference between the two is money, you see it became cheaper to play at home with consuls, but it is cheaper for the game developers to make multiplayer games without the burden of complex AIs.

I don't know that multiplayer games are easier to make then single player games. You have to make sure the game is balanced and fair,(maps, weapons, any additional gameplay elements such as perks and special abilities) bugs and glitches are a bigger issue since exploiting them effects not just the cheater (as in single player games) but the other players as well.

My point is that each type of game comes with it's own unique problems. Neither is easier(or cheaper) to design. And gaming with others is nothing new, even arcades offered that.

 

[Dylan Hentchel]

No. No multiplayer game will ever be able to come close to giving the experience single player does.

I've yet to see a multiplayer game give the same experience as, say, shadow of the colossus.

Ever play GunZ? I doubt it, but the game itself (only multiplayer I'll note) had you pulling off matrix like moves to kill your opponents, when you get into a spree of say five really cool kills, that is more satisfying than platforming all the colossi in that game(well at least to me).

Bah, I say, bah! I didn't have to deal with lag, griefers and TK's in single player! And I bet those super kills were quite rare, weren't they? And I don't think visual moves are going to revolutionise experience.

Sorry, this is quite ranty isn't it. Suffice to say that I think multiplayer has too many issues to ever be really as good as single player. It can be fun, yes, but I think it will never be able to give quite the same in-depth emotional experiences.

Ok Lag in GunZ was handled like many computer shooters of the time, while you lag you can't be hit and can't do anything and have an icon over your head, so it wasn't really bad (not many laggers while I was playing)

Greifing and TK's didn't exist, because it was all FFA deathmatch and people were put on random servers so teaming wasn't likely either

I found myself patting myself on the back for some awesome more usually every other life, but that includes when you and an opponent do some kickass moves and he wins, still satisfying. I say that the only differences between humans and AIs as far as Emotional experiences go are: Noobs (fixed by simple ranking), People talking (fixed by not supporting mics), and cheap strategies (not in a well made game, or patched once discovered)

 

[Sigma Van Lockheart]

Yea I love to play with other people the way they instantly accuse me of hacking and the way their mic is way to high pitch that it hurts my ears to listen to them the best ones are the other players who go something like spy when your team already has 4 spies and 5 snipers they are just the best. Yes I am being sarcastic (due note if you do anyone of these I hate you). No single player will survive because some people just hate other people ( like me) the only time I have ever really enjoyed playing with others was on WCA RPDM it a gmod game mode its role play without NLR or RDM rule in place and guns are dirt cheap I miss that game mode and I hope it returns. Yea single player will always survive.

 

[Zenn3k]

I sure hope not.

Every, and I mean EVERY game I've ever attempted to play online has been full of:
1: Cheaters
2: Griefers
3: Non-team players
4: Screaming 5 year olds.

Its really gotten to the point where I avoid online multiplayer, its not fun to deal with these people.

If single player games go extinct, I may just stop gaming all together...and I've been playing for 23+ years now.

 

[Dylan Hentchel]

I sure hope not.

Every, and I mean EVERY game I've ever attempted to play online has been full of:
1: Cheaters
2: Griefers
3: Non-team players
4: Screaming 5 year olds.

Its really gotten to the point where I avoid online multiplayer, its not fun to deal with these people.

If single player games go extinct, I may just stop gaming all together...and I've been playing for 23+ years now.

1: Don't play half baked games.
2: Simple to switch games, but yeah they suck.
3: Don't play team when you get fed up with this.
4: Mute. . . And they aren't 5.

So I take it that you have never player WC3 online or SC:Brood war?

1: Gone, blizzard fixed map hacks
2: Can ruin one game, but there aren't many
3: The people the still play take the games seriously
4: No mic support, the worst they can do is go all caps

 

[Zenn3k]

I sure hope not.

Every, and I mean EVERY game I've ever attempted to play online has been full of:
1: Cheaters
2: Griefers
3: Non-team players
4: Screaming 5 year olds.

Its really gotten to the point where I avoid online multiplayer, its not fun to deal with these people.

If single player games go extinct, I may just stop gaming all together...and I've been playing for 23+ years now.

1: Don't play half baked games.
2: Simple to switch games, but yeah they suck.
3: Don't play team when you get fed up with this.
4: Mute. . . And they aren't 5.

So I take it that you have never player WC3 online or SC:Brood war?

1: Gone, blizzard fixed map hacks
2: Can ruin one game, but there aren't many
3: The people the still play take the games seriously
4: No mic support, the worst they can do is go all caps

Never much enjoyed StarCraft...or as I've always liked to call it, SpamCraft, or APM-Craft. i find little "strategy" in those games, its all about who can do what faster. I'm no diamond/platinum level player, I never will be, but I never felt there was much strategy in SC. Every single game more or less plays out the exact same way. But anyway. As for WC3...played it a little when it was released, got bored after like 2 weeks and never touched it again.

BTW - You can still cheat, hacks are only "fixed" until someone figures out how to break it again.

Lets take NHL 11, which you may have never played. Roughly 90% of the online community are A: Jerks and B: Cheaters. There is a way to "juice" (steroid reference) your online player so that he is basically unstoppable...EVERYONE does it, it completely ruins the game...never been TRUELY fixed. And variants of this "juicing" have existed in NHL 09, and NHL 10 as well.

The most award winning sports series of the last 3 years is actually nearly unplayable online.

 

[Dylan Hentchel]

Never much enjoyed StarCraft...or as I've always liked to call it, SpamCraft, or APM-Craft. i find little "strategy" in those games, its all about who can do what faster. I'm no diamond/platinum level player, I never will be, but I never felt there was much strategy in SC. Every single game more or less plays out the exact same way. But anyway. As for WC3...played it a little when it was released, got bored after like 2 weeks and never touched it again.

BTW - You can still cheat, hacks are only "fixed" until someone figures out how to break it again.

Lets take NHL 11, which you may have never played. Roughly 90% of the online community are A: Jerks and B: Cheaters. There is a way to "juice" (steroid reference) your online player so that he is basically unstoppable...EVERYONE does it, it completely ruins the game...never been TRUELY fixed. And variants of this "juicing" have existed in NHL 09, and NHL 10 as well.

The most award winning sports series of the last 3 years is actually nearly unplayable online.

If you don't think SC is strategy then I would love to hear what you consider strategy
And if you think it is always the same thing than I would suggest watching some of the pro games (after familiarizing yourself with the game of course) so much of it is about intel (the legitimate kind not like a stat or processor) knowing what your opponent is doing while keeping them from knowing what your doing, and people get creative about that.
As for WC3 how people get board baffles me, other than the endless league and tournament play, the massive collections of custom games though if its sports games your into, than I guess I get it.

The last time I heard of a hack working on one of blizzard's games was. . .7 years ago it think

I played one NHL game on a modern consul so I don't think I'm in speaking terms with the actual game play (never played online). Jerks exist, the real question is how can they express themselves, can they follow you between games, etc. As for cheaters, that is the makers responsibility and they need to make patches to the game to compensate for the errors and misbalances of the game, a company like EAsports is not a very honest company and their just pulling in cash from the project. From your words I would consider NHL11 a half-baked game, a game that was started and never really finished.

Also hate to go there but you know the Jerk Jock thing.

So this is a problem right immature people on multiplayer games, but here is the thing, the reason that they seem to feel no shame is because nobody is teaching them online manners, but as a new generation roles in our generation will be teaching internet manners, and maybe regulations of servers will become stricter. In any case the community will become more civilized with time, thus negating one of the biggest drawbacks of multiplayer

 

[Dylan Hentchel]

I think the number of people in this thread saying that they want it to stay shows that it will at least survive in some form.

Games will probably just split into full multiplayer or full singleplayer without trying to shove in a short campaign or generic online deathmatch multiplayer..

The question is are singleplayer going to turn out like arcade games, so yes they will survive in some form for a really freakin' long time. just like the how arcades have. And a split will likely occur as you described it but without very much of the singleplayer.

 

[Artina89]

It seems unlikely and I really hope that single player doesn't get phased out. I don't like playing online all that much to be quite honest with you. I still like to play it old school where I invite my friends round and we all play the multiplayer story of Lost planet or something. We have fun, listen to music, eat pizza and take the opportunity to catch up. Old school co-op has a certain something for me that online multiplayer lacks.

 

[Dylan Hentchel]

Single-player experiences with always be the standard, I believe.

That was said about Raiden style games, and now you only see them in no budget flash games that you can play at any public library

 

[Zenn3k]

If you don't think SC is strategy then I would love to hear what you consider strategy
And if you think it is always the same thing than I would suggest watching some of the pro games (after familiarizing yourself with the game of course) so much of it is about intel (the legitimate kind not like a stat or processor) knowing what your opponent is doing while keeping them from knowing what your doing, and people get creative about that.
As for WC3 how people get board baffles me, other than the endless league and tournament play, the massive collections of custom games though if its sports games your into, than I guess I get it.

The last time I heard of a hack working on one of blizzard's games was. . .7 years ago it think

I played one NHL game on a modern consul so I don't think I'm in speaking terms with the actual game play (never played online). Jerks exist, the real question is how can they express themselves, can they follow you between games, etc. As for cheaters, that is the makers responsibility and they need to make patches to the game to compensate for the errors and misbalances of the game, a company like EAsports is not a very honest company and their just pulling in cash from the project. From your words I would consider NHL11 a half-baked game, a game that was started and never really finished.

Also hate to go there but you know the Jerk Jock thing.

So this is a problem right immature people on multiplayer games, but here is the thing, the reason that they seem to feel no shame is because nobody is teaching them online manners, but as a new generation roles in our generation will be teaching internet manners, and maybe regulations of servers will become stricter. In any case the community will become more civilized with time, thus negating one of the biggest drawbacks of multiplayer

Civilization 5 is a strategy game. Honestly, I feel for a game to be a true strategy game, it needs to be turn based. "Real-time" removes the strategy element from all but the best players. Take two Bronze level players in SC2...let them play 5 games in a row against each other...you won't find a single moment of strategy in any of those games. You'll see different kinds of rushes and turtling...but no REAL strategy. A strategy game needs to actually have strategy across all levels of play, not just the best of the best.

I'm subbed to Husky on YT, I've watched a LOT of his videos (he's entertaining). However, I can't even recall the last time I saw something new. All those top games play out the same way, with strict build orders and timing. Thats less about strategy and more about memorization. Play Protoss, build sentries and stalkers...win. Even that isn't strategy so much as reflexes. Drop shields to cut the enemy forces in half...seen it hundreds of times, its (arguably) TOO effective. Hell, most top level games don't use over 50% of the units available! Just spam tier 1 units all game. Its boring.

WC3 in the early days was "hero rushing"...thats all it was. I didn't care for it.

I'm not into sports games in general, just Hockey, big Hockey nut, but that was just an example of a title from a top publisher thats won TONS of awards. I play lots of games, there are cheaters in ALL OF THEM.

As far as hacking in a Blizzard game, you're kidding right? SC2 had map hacks, still does. Diablo 2 has TONS of hacks (but I guess that falls within the 7 year frame). WoW has botting. Also, its hard to have hacked games in the last 7 years when you've released 1 title in that time frame, lol. Blizzard isn't immune to it however, claiming otherwise is ridiculous.

 

[Dylan Hentchel]

It seems unlikely and I really hope that single player doesn't get phased out. I don't like playing online all that much to be quite honest with you. I still like to play it old school where I invite my friends round and we all play the multiplayer story of Lost planet or something. We have fun, listen to music, eat pizza and take the opportunity to catch up. Old school co-op has a certain something for me that online multiplayer lacks.

Singleplayer won't get phased out, it will remain as a backdrop to multiplayer and you will probably have cheap singleplayer modes for most games and there will still be enough to play local co-op, I feel you on the rounding up friends thing man, but lets be truthful it isn't the easiest thing to do.

 

[Gill Kaiser]

No, because multiplayer sucks for storytelling.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

No. I think they'll stay pretty separated as developers continue to realize that a multiplayer component isn't the best option for some games.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Good god, I hope not! I hate multiplayer, esp. online multiplayer.

 

[King Toasty]

Doubtful. Multiplayer will become more and more central, but single player will always be the core of games.

Not the core of ALL games, mind you. CoD has much better multiplayer than single. But on the whole, single-player is where it's at.

 

[chaos order]

oh hell no as long as bioware exists single player will always remain.i mean look at mass effect and dragon age

 

[Guilherme Zoldan]

I would not argue that single player is superior to multiplayer, its just a different experience. Not everyone wants to play with other people all the time and there are some games that just dont acomodate multiplayer that well, RPGs mostly.
The reason arcades kinda died off is because theyre just pointless, nobody wants to go to arcades when they can play at home. But the same doesnt apply to multplayer and single player.