Bleszinski: Japanese Devs Need To Stop Ignoring Multiplayer

[hermes]

It is fairly accepted that most Japanese designers don't "get" multiplayer, and a tackled on mode is worst than no mode at all. So, NO.

I would rather prefer their games to focus on what they do best instead of trying to "appeal to the west"

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

Hey bleszinki, how about you make a series that isn't shit, THEN rag try ragging on other developers?

Are you kidding? All his games are good. They have MULTIPLAYER!

Oh snap, you got me there. yeah, I guess CliffyB is the undisputed king of videogames, the japanese had better get on the whole multiplayer and burly men thing before Captain Cliff deems it totally irrelevant and decides that motion controls and a dog are the NEW wave of the future

 

[McMarbles]

What is it about Fatal Frame's gameplay that screams "This NEEDS multiplayer"?

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

"Why don't I have a multiplayer Fatal Frame yet?" asks Cliff Bleszinski.

Ok, this guy needs to go away, far away. Like, right fucking now. Dude is seriously damaging my calm.

 

[1337mokro]

Tacked-on multiplayer like on Mass Effect 3? NO!

WTF, ME3's multiplayer was astoundingly good and has some of the best depth in a multiplayer mode of any kind ever. What are you smoking?

It was Horde mode. It was Nothing But Horde Mode. I know you're of the GoW generation but please. ME3 was nothing but a rip off copy paste of Horde Mode. If that's you're standards of deep, well integrated Multiplayer, don't ever play Team Fortress 2. You're mind won't handle the shattering of your reality.

Not for nothin', but Team Fortress 2 ain't all that complex either. CTFBriefcase and Point Capture aren't exactly rocking the foundations of the games industry, you know?

As for 'well integrated'...well, yeah, TF2 kinda has to be well integrated by definition since multiplayer is all there is.

There's nothing wrong with Horde modes in and of themselves.

<- Not played ME3 yet. Just thought you should probably not be so aggressive.

Oh, and as another addendum: Gears of War came out one year before Team Fortress 2. "GoW Generation" indeed?

True you have some good points.

I could have been nicer, but sadly I have been hearing this CONSTANTLY. "OMG ME3 MP is SOOOO AWESOME!!!"

It was a quick very basic, very grindy, obvious cash grab with real money bonuses available throughout the game. The fact it tied back into your War Assets gave players that extra incentive to play or spend money on it because War Assests = Better chance of survival.

Let's not drag up the ME3 ending debate. Let's just say that War Assests were made to seem FAR more important than they were in the end. Thus enticing players to play or even spend money on the MP.

The difference is then again that TF2 is a 2007 game. ME3 is a 2012 game. 5 years of game development and all they could come up with was Horde mode? Kind of disappointing, especially since they didn't even invent that mode like for example TF2 did with Payload (or at least popularize it).

The comparison isn't a great one of course. ME3 sold because of the singleplayer story and characters (at least that is why I play ME) and TF2 sold because it was a quirky class based multiplayer game.

In the end the priorities lie somewhere else, but that is exactly the point I tried to make.

Would ME3 have changed in any way if you had removed the multiplayer? No. It would have been the same game, with the same mechanics and same plot, narrative, structure, gameplay, etc.

TF2 would be nothing without it's multiplayer, there technically is a singleplayer with the bot mode, but no one would actually want to play that because the game gets better with more human variables thrown into the game.

Lastly yes. GoW generation. The fact TF2 came out after that doesn't actually diminish that so much as reinforce the GoW generation comment. The shooter that basically defined most cover based shooter games after it.

There hasn't really been another TF2 besides maybe Tribes Ascend, with specific classes having specific roles and the games emphasizing learning the classes and using teamwork to achieve what you won't on you're own. When someone looks at the shooting in Mass Effect what do you compare it to?

Gears of War style cover based shooting.

So yeah Gears of War Generation. The generation that Cliffy B here helped to form. Which eventually also blew up in his face when the other games devolved into being nothing more than the exact same chest high wall simulators.

Now he is advocating his expertise to the Japanese game market on how to improve games, which has as answer, CRAM MP in there some way. Doesn't matter how much lube or brute force you use cram that MP into your game and success will follow.

To be honest here. Besides their latest Unreal engine which still doesn't have a game announced for it, Epic Games hasn't been relevant or innovative in a LONG while. Especially after their failed venture with Bulletstorm, which had multiplayer and still managed to fail because of it's poor pacing and directly opposing story and gameplay, the gameplay which emphasized style kills, but also forced you to regenerate health behind chest high walls....

See where the GoW comes in?

 

[Mikeyfell]

It might be because Japanese developers still have some integrity.

I think the guy responsible for the worst game of last year should keep his mouth shut.

 

[LilithSlave]

Single player is just fine, thank you. Not every game has to be multiplayer, and furthermore, certainly not every game has to have online multiplayer.

It is fascinating how similar and yet how different the Japanese and South Korean market can be, though. Japan being probably even more known for single player and non-online gaming than the West. But South Korea almost entirely not having an offline gaming scene.

But that doesn't mean every game needs to be multiplayer. Good single player experiences are as good as anything. And given my experience with MMORPGs, multiplayer often restricts gameplay. I'm always being told that why an online game I'm playing doesn't have this aspect of gameplay that I enjoy in other games, is because it is an online game.

So no thank you, there are just some things we can't seem to do well yet in online games. Furthermore many kinds of good games are just not meant to have multiplayer of any variety.