I played a bunch of multiplayer N64 games back in the 90s, Goldeneye mostly. Also Q3 was the thing to play in high school during lunch. Now I mostly play single player games but I do occasionally play multiplayer online games. Usually only games that involve co-op or general goofing off, namely GTA:SA or Garrys Mod, and only with friends or family. I find few things more repulsive than playing COD games online with a bunch of random, squeeky-voiced 12 year olds who curse more than George Carlin. That is why I haven't touched the series since COD3.

I'm not a huge multiplayer guy, but I always keep installed and play at least one multiplayer-only title. As a student, I have a ton of free time. When I'm not playing games from my Steam backlog (or my shelves!), I'm usually playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2 or more recently even Heroes of the Storm online with friends. I've tried to keep this to just one game and I really have to draw the line somewhere otherwise I'll have no time to play the singleplayer games I want to finish. For example, Hearthstone looks like great fun, but I'll lose so much time playing it that I'm not touching it.
I also like watching pro-gaming tournaments on CSGO and Dota 2, especially if I'm hanging out with friends that understand those games and as long as beers are involved 🤣 . I really hate the necessity to make everything competitive though, not every game has to be like that, but I guess everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon nowadays.

It's really nice to see so many young people, regardless of gender, playing games these days, even if it's just MOBA and multiplayer-only stuff.

I prefer multiplayer games. but only in coop mode.
Like Joint operations... you can play the map alone if you like, but you can it play as a team.

And it is funny to see what tactic your friend use ti win and then gets beaten by the pc npc.

Its good that you have endless tryes.

Or thinks like construction sim.
We build a house together.. one is bringing material with the truck and the other is operating the crane. the third is driving the bulldozer between.

KT7AGuy wrote:

I don't play games to be around people - I play them to get away from people.

Yes.

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

Strictly single-player, here. I don't exactly like to interact with people in real life. I don't want to do it in a game. That was the advantage that video games had for me when growing up. You can play them alone. You don’t need to be dependent on other people to enjoy it. To me the concept of multi-player misses the point regarding the appeal of video games.

YES.

You guys know exactly where I'm coming from.

maximus wrote:

Yes. […]
Show full quote

KT7AGuy wrote:

I don't play games to be around people - I play them to get away from people.

Yes.

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

Strictly single-player, here. I don't exactly like to interact with people in real life. I don't want to do it in a game. That was the advantage that video games had for me when growing up. You can play them alone. You don’t need to be dependent on other people to enjoy it. To me the concept of multi-player misses the point regarding the appeal of video games.

YES.

You guys know exactly where I'm coming from.

I've been reading the comments here with interest. I feel that my previous comments were a bit negative, so I want to clarify myself a bit.

One of the best and worst gaming experiences of my life was Ultima Online. Yep, I was one of those people. It was overall a really fun and addictive experience. I played it for a year and a half before throwing in the towel. The overall problem I had with it was this: there were very few people who were really role-playing evil characters. The evil characters in the game were being operated by people who were really evil and malicious in real life, and there were many of them. They weren't there to be a part of the story; they were there to cause as much damage and hurt as many feelings as possible. They took pleasure in the suffering and pain of other people, regardless of how "virtual" the experience might have been. Even worse, playing fairly was a sure way to be taken advantage-of. Worse still, the griefers, cheaters, and sonsofbitches were usually rewarded greatly for their shenanigans. It was a terrible moral for an Ultima story and a bit too close to real life, where sadly, the bad guys usually do win. Now, let me ask you seriously, why would I want to be a part of that mess and pay for the privilege? I was selected as a beta tester for the original EverQuest game, but barely participated because I was just too burned-out from UO. I never even considered playing WOW.

In fairness, I would also like to point out that I was a regular member of the Air Warrior community which did not have these problems. Perhaps it was because the community itself was so small, and maybe it was also because success in Air Warrior generally depended on real skill. Those skills would be rewarded with fame and recognition in the community, but nothing else. Further still, in Air Warrior you expected to be killed frequently; it was part of the whole dogfighting experience. Whatever the differences may be, I don't look back at my time in Air Warrior with anything other than fondness. I would probably still be flying in Air Warrior if GameStorm hadn't been killed off.

After GameStorm went out of business, I just totally lost interest in playing online. I would be interested in playing co-op games, but nobody else seems interested.

It doesn't just affect Quake 🙁

I've been thinking about this some more. I don't necessarily object to the concept of multiplayer. Bringing real people into the mix is an interesting idea, in theory. In reality, though, we start to get all kinds of pathological behaviors, and that's what really ruins the game. There's even a term for this: the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

My mate from high school days visited me last weekend and we had a game of the original C&C. Back in high school every now and then one of us would spend the weekend at the others, had a great game of C&C.
Thing was we were always just playing usually in RTS's the 1st hr was un official build an awesome base time truce. Doom's would start as co-op but ended in death match after 1 to many friendly fire instances.

I did play LAN games with a few other people but it was more an competition with them which wasn't my style, and like others have said. playing strangers over the internet doesn't really interest me.

PS Best split screen game is Micro Machines 2 IMHO! Used to play with my younger brother and laughed so much ramming each other off the table 😀

depends on the game, but generally I prefer a quality single player campaign too.

The main problem is not the multiplayer but the emphasis put on it in recent years

I enjoy the challenge of 1VS1 in AOE2. I typically enjoy it when I destroy "rushers" and go against the collective opinion that "rushing" is the only real way to play. When they realize I fight wars of perseverance they a) start cursing non stop / pausing the game (40%) , b) resign (40%) or c) embrace it as well (10%). It really makes it a lot of fun for me. 🤣

TBH most strategy games are pretty boring when played against a PC. Humans are so much more advanced.

I used to play Warzone 2100 with my father, and we'd always completely stalemate one another for a whole day of nonstop gameplay before either of us decides to call it quits...

Darkman wrote:

depends on the game, but generally I prefer a quality single player campaign too.

The main problem is not the multiplayer but the emphasis put on it in recent years

I kinda share this opinion a bit. It really does depend on the game, and also, to a certain extent, the community supporting the game. For example, I don't play on pub lobbies in PAYDAY 2 simply because I can't bring myself to trust a good chunk of the people who play it. Those people are usually kinda arrogant and may or may not be extremely ignorant. Of course, that's not to say that there aren't good people in that community; I've had the thought that there's always going to be people who are genuinely cool and nice in a given community, in addition to several types of "that one guy". Whenever I do play PAYDAY 2, it's usually with a good group of friends who know what they're doing. Heck, co-op games in general, I always thought, are good games to play with friends, online or local multiplayer.

That being said, I do enjoy good single player games as well (Dust: An Elysian Tail being the most recent single player game I've beaten). It just depends on when I can squeeze time into my day for a small session of whatever game I feel like playing. Also, I tend to absolutely avoid games that bill themselves as "massively multiplayer".

I still don't get this thing about using stupid images with unnecessarily foul language.

Lo Wang wrote:

I still don't get this thing about using stupid images with unnecessarily foul language.

Hey man, I don't make the memes... I just repost them for comic effect 😀

Lo Wang wrote:

I still don't get this thing about using stupid images with unnecessarily foul language.

>complains about foul language
>named after a parody of martial artists with added swearing including the phrase "holy pieces of shit"
>an offensive stereotype for an avatar

I loved Quake 1, especially QuakeWorld Team Fortress. I didn't play the normal death match as much. The single player was nice too.
Quake 2 was fun but I wasn't as into it as QWTF.
Quake 3 was fun but I wasn't as into it as QWTF.

I was OBSESSED with StarCraft when I was younger. I played it so much I memorized my cd key, but I mostly played multiplayer comp stomps or 3v3 / 4v4 Big Game Hunters (large money map)

I was OBSESSED with Diablo 2, the first few years of D2 was pretty crazy hacks wise, but it's not competitive in the traditional sense.

I played Warcraft 3 tons, but mostly 3v3 / 4v4.

I still love multiplayer, but I guess when it comes to competitive multiplayer I like to play team based games. I hate LoL / DOTA though, that gameplay style is just so boring IMO.

There's a lot to be said about having enjoyable experiences with other people, I mean that's kinda what this forum is for too, we all share similar interests with respect to older computers so naturally we usually get along. Just need to find people like that in the gaming world.

I'd say I pretty much ceased enjoying multiplayer modes when they were no longer being approached recreationally but professionally.

Set up a Wangbang session for like-skilled Shadow Warrior fans and I'll be first in line, but I have no use for garbage like Quake 3 past the engine.

I'm a fan of multiplayer games, but most MPs nowadays are pretty much CoD-wannabes. I have spend some good ~1500 hours on CS 1.5/1.6, ~500 hours on Modern Warfare and +2000 hours Modern Warfare 2 and I don't regret since they have great fun factor that makes you keeping for more and more (even though I could've blasted half or more titles from my backlog with all this 😵 ).

I've been also playing some Doom on Zandronum. One mod that got my attention was Complex Doom. It's a "replacer" mod - changing enemies, weapons, some mechanics and behaviours and making the coop experience much more rewarding (and taking the difficulty some levels up!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pl7ndqWsAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVAh1pHgmSo

Oh, all the new CoDs (anything after MW2) is terribad. Spent 60 bucks on MW3 and "played" 20~ hours. Couldn't stand the game's engine/mechanics.

FPS coops are my favourite, too bad there aren't many of them.

I have read previously about a co-op Half-Life mod called Natural Selection that looks quite good. Wikipedia says it was the first with a "commander" mode, but I'm pretty sure that both Tribes and Allegiance had that long before this game.

Obscure country history lesson:

Multiplayer gaming is still a fairly new thing in Poland. Remember that in the 90's, when most of you guys were already blasting away on Quake servers, Poland was barely out of the snares of communism. Only the richest had internet connection. Children were only beginning to be taught English at schools rather than Russian as their second language. As a result, even those able to play on multiplayer servers didn't know how to communicate, so uhh... they didn't, and it's not that they could expect any reasonable pings with the connections they had anyway. And remember there weren't enough of those people to form local communities. Consequently, the multiplayer scene in Poland virtually didn't exist until the 2000's. In fact, I would say that we have fully caught up with the rest of the world only over the last, say, 10 years.

What about LAN? Well, back in the day if one person on the block owned a computer, they were somebody. Even when that started to change people mostly bought desktop computers. Nobody wanted to splash out on a laptop. Hardly anyone had one. And since carrying over a desktop PC to your friend's house required quite the contortion, people didn't really do that either.

Multiplayer gaming in Poland, for years, has been virtually limited to split-screen and co-op only. And not all games support that. AND it's not like games were easy to get either. You couldn't just go to your local game shop or whatever. That stuff just wasn't there. For years the only way you could get a game is either if a gaming magazine put it on their bonus CD (and they mostly put on old, cheap games, for obvious reasons) or... from a friend... who got it from a friend... whose dad bought it on the black market. Feel free to judge. You weren't there.

The point of this is that, for me, a Polish guy, multiplayer gaming is still something I haven't had too much of. There are things that are bad about it, but it still didn't wear me out.

I love MineCraft. I've had my buildings griefed countless times. But then, I found there is always a protocol to follow to help you. Someone destroyed your stuff? Report it to the admin and the griefer will get banned and your building will get fixed. Someone offended you badly in chat? An admin was probably already there to kick the guy out and/or mute them.

A problem arises when we get to games in which aggressive behavior is actually the point. I mean games like Call of Duty or Battlefield and such. You're supposed to run around killing people. We are inherently a violent species so those games gain huge popularity. I too, on occasion, like to frag some guys. But then there are people who love the violent rush of competition so much that they play nothing else but shooters. All day, every day. You get on a server with such a person, you're gonna have a bad time. Gameplay just isn't fun when you're killed every few seconds by the same person repetitively.

For me, multiplayer gaming isn't about winning. It's about sharing the experience. For example, when I play Re-Volt with my friends over LAN or split-screen I always do my best but I actually want them to win, because if I can't win all the time, that's when things get interesting. That's when real, healthy competition ensues. Sure, I could play the game all day, every day, effectively making myself an unbeatable Re-Volt god, but then where's the fun if there's nobody to throw you a fair challenge?

What I'm trying to say is that although I haven't had as much experience with multiplayer gaming as some of you guys, it seems to me that the games themselves aren't to blame. It's the people. Specifically the people who seriously need to get a life. Should we abandon something that allows all to play together and share their fun just because of those people? I say not.