What's happened is that the Internet has become a massive social phenomenon. It has extended to every aspect of it. Multiplayer gaming has exploded in popularity through refinement and it has tons of fans. Publishers have discovered, like other industries have too, that leveraging the social aspects taps into a mega huge audience that wasn't there with more cerebral, relatively lonely single player experiences.

That's my take anyway. The single player games simply are not as appealing to the majority and the majority is the majority. 😉 Previously, say 15 years ago, computing was a hell of a lot different and the people doing it were too.

hats

I still play singleplayer games from time to time, but generally I'm much more into multiplayer gaming. 🤣

In this sad world of shameless, rampant piracy, the safest move for companies, specially small ones, is to push cheap, mediocre multiplayer titles and charge people for accessing their game servers.

word, swaaye, word 😀

I guess I'm more the anti-social type, prefer single player games most of the time.

I do like to get together with friends and relatives from time to time and catch up so I guess I'm not that anti-social 😜 just more so when gaming is all...

Most multiplayer games becomes tiring with ease, and most of them are copycats.

I play all 3 basically:
Multiplayer
Multiplayer in a LAN offline with friends (can be versus or COOP)
Singleplayer

I also like playing mods and I sometimes I create my own mods.

Some examples include:
I modded the BF2142 SP to include some wacky and fun extra weapons, de-limiting the standard kits
I created a private mappack for Total Annihilation (of downloaded 3rd party maps), increasing the number of multiplayer maps from 50-ish to way WAY more then 1000! This increased the TA directory from around 40MB(?) to around 13 GIGS 😁

They will probably not even have a single player mode of play before very long. They only sell those games to get people to play online. They don't want people playing alone.

I don't play multiplayer because I refuse to play with cheaters who use hacks to automatically locate and target you, spawn point campers, or 14 year old kids whose only language is swearing.

Trouble is that after mp, sp can seem very lonely.

But mp seems to easily turn into a piece of social network software with a thin veneer of lacklustre gaming.

What I dislike [but fully understand] is too much consumer research in game refinement. I think designers should do things we think are great, not just canvas opinions [and use other research techniques eg analysing customer behaviour] and implement what the majority say they want.

sliderider wrote:

I don't play multiplayer because I refuse to play with cheaters who use hacks to automatically locate and target you, spawn point campers, or 14 year old kids whose only language is swearing.

But knifing hackers is FUNNNnnnNNnn!! 😁

They get so mad, I can't stop laughing! And I see them trying to desperately kill me for the rest of the round. If they start loosening up a bit, I'll say something to make em mad again. Gotta luv it, making cheaters so mad, they aren't enjoying the game even with hacks 😜
Then after the round is over, I leave the game as I had my fix hehe.

But still, hacking sucks. I tend to stay away from them or leave server.

Tetrium wrote:

But knifing hackers is FUNNNnnnNNnn!! :D […]
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sliderider wrote:

I don't play multiplayer because I refuse to play with cheaters who use hacks to automatically locate and target you, spawn point campers, or 14 year old kids whose only language is swearing.

But knifing hackers is FUNNNnnnNNnn!! 😁

They get so mad, I can't stop laughing! And I see them trying to desperately kill me for the rest of the round. If they start loosening up a bit, I'll say something to make em mad again. Gotta luv it, making cheaters so mad, they aren't enjoying the game even with hacks 😜
Then after the round is over, I leave the game as I had my fix hehe.

But still, hacking sucks. I tend to stay away from them or leave server.

The ones I'm talking about are the guys who use hacks to auto target. You can see them up on top of buildings with sniper rifles and they don't even turn to aim. Their gun automatically locks on the nearest person and all they have to do is pull the trigger. You can tell they use hacks because when they target someone they jerk instantly into firing position instead of turning smoothly like they would if they were actually bothering to look for someone to kill. They can get dozens of kills in just a few seconds. It's impossible to do anything about these guys because they usually cover most of the playfield from where they stand and even if there is an obstacle between you and them they can still lock onto you and stay locked until you emerge from cover then you're dead.

Yep, multiplayer gaming is so much better when you're playing with your close and best friends (or at least someone you've grown familiar with, over the net). There's nothing like fragging them and getting fragged by them, and later go out for a drink or to eat together. 😁

I prefer games which can make my pc or my friend's pc as a server (for playing within the country).

And I can also sense the future of pc gaming : I think the corporate publishers will start pushing out "starter kits" for games, and then you have to join their servers to download game contents directly (not unlike Steam and others common nowadays). And I can also imagine, given the future speed of network connections, I think there won't be anything to download anymore - the speed will be so fast that all the contents are streamed live real-tme. In that way, these publishers won't have to worry about downloads being spread. (Until hackers start to develop the live streaming content "grabber" and then distribute these as offline files.)

sliderider wrote:

The ones I'm talking about are the guys who use hacks to auto target. You can see them up on top of buildings with sniper rifles and they don't even turn to aim. Their gun automatically locks on the nearest person and all they have to do is pull the trigger. You can tell they use hacks because when they target someone they jerk instantly into firing position instead of turning smoothly like they would if they were actually bothering to look for someone to kill. They can get dozens of kills in just a few seconds. It's impossible to do anything about these guys because they usually cover most of the playfield from where they stand and even if there is an obstacle between you and them they can still lock onto you and stay locked until you emerge from cover then you're dead.

Those are the hackers I was talking about. If you have BF2142 I could look up a few br files of me knifing an aimbotter. Done it more then 10 times at the very least.
Problem is, I got hundreds of br files and I stopped indexing them when my offline database rig got full (about 1 1/2 years ago).

Their soft spot is when it's VERY busy and crawling with enemies. Their bot also needs time to adjust when you either pod right next to them or run towards them while they are busy with another target.
You get ONE chance before their knifebot gets you. One is often enough for me 😉

They get mad because they believe their bot makes them invincible. Getting killed they aren't TOO used to, but getting knifed means they SUCK SO BAD, even an aimbot doesn't save them 😜

And about the cover thing: This means they can't kill you. But I can still toss nades or distract him till a teammate gets him.
Theres lots of ways to get them, but chances you succeed (or even get a chance) are slim. Doesn't mean it's impossible though.

I was very heavily into BF2142 (same nickname Mau1wurf1977). The whole concept with the titan mode and mix of conquest and close quarter fighting was simply fantastic.

I moved onto Bad Company 2 when I played the demo version. There is this buzz of excitement in the air (and in forums) when a new multi-player game comes out. Usually full of bugs which is all part of that experience.

I have no issues paying again and again for new maps and other content. The amount of hours ,weeks, sometimes even years of fun you get out of these games in unreal. A single player game just doesn't cut it any more, especially if you pay full price. If it's 10 bucks during a Steam sale, that's ok 🤣

sliderider wrote:

The ones I'm talking about are the guys who use hacks to auto target. You can see them up on top of buildings with sniper rifles and they don't even turn to aim. Their gun automatically locks on the nearest person and all they have to do is pull the trigger. You can tell they use hacks because when they target someone they jerk instantly into firing position instead of turning smoothly like they would if they were actually bothering to look for someone to kill. They can get dozens of kills in just a few seconds. It's impossible to do anything about these guys because they usually cover most of the playfield from where they stand and even if there is an obstacle between you and them they can still lock onto you and stay locked until you emerge from cover then you're dead.

I've seen a few minigun aimbotters on TF2 recently. Fortunately, having admin priviledges prevails. 😁

I have nothing against the idea of multiplayer games - modem and internet matches against my friends playing Doom, Duke3D, Quake 2, Carmageddon etc have always been awesome. It wasn't the same thing as games that were meant to be experienced inside one player's head, but it was a fun social activity.

The problem is that the internet, more than ever, is an anti-social medium far more than it is social. It's the "massively" part of "massively multiplayer" that kills the whole fucking thing for me. It isn't any more social than the lives of people who communicate with their 4,507 facebook friends solely through status updates.

And when you combine that with the other major problem of most modern games (they look the same, sound the same, play the same, and looking at screenshots of top titles you can't even guess that they weren't all made by the exact same people)... ugh, KILL IT WITH FIRE.

It's going to take more than just fire to kill such a bad trend.

I'm not a social person, online or off. I haven't stayed in touch with any of my friends from college. I've never used any social networking sites. To me other people ruin games. The experience is dependent on who you play with. I prefer the structured experience of single player campaigns and a thought provoking story.

I'm also careful with my money. Considering I don't have a lot of it, subscription gaming is a waste. For $40 - $70 I want to enjoy my purchase without requiring other expenses. Electricity I need for a lot of other things. However an internet connection is a luxury. (same argument against online activation)

I want to enjoy my games 20 yeas later. Multi-player or online games have a limited lifespan due to requiring a server and continued support. (online activation again)

The biggest problem is that gamers reward companies for making minimal effort. Deathmatch shows that gamers like senseless violence so there's no need for a story to explain why the opponent wants you dead and you need to kill them first. CTF demonstrates "go fetch" objectives are good enough so no need to program anything more complex, intriguing, or story based. Co-op or Team play provides example where people are willing to put up with an 8 year old complaining to their mother about chocolate milk throughout the match so an AI that runs into walls can't be that bad.

The same thinking ruined Starcraft 2. Blizzard merged with / submitted to Activision. They made it 3 games (3 purchases). They designed it as an online experience so there was a lack of attention given to the story. No one checked if the non-linear missions could disrupt the intended order of the cut scenes. Some classic units became available way too late in the game. There aren't enough funds to purchase all the upgrades, research options are mutually exclusive, and sometimes not worth getting. It felt nothing like the original. All because they thought more about marketing than they did about making a sequel.

Yep, the majority of multiplayer games out there are of FPS genre. And the aim is to kill anything that moves, that is not wearing the same colour as you do.

I don't know why they screwed up with the Starcraft 2 release. Region specific and online only installation, and available in episodes..sigh... Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft are the only games I didn't buy from Blizzard.