Reynaerdinjo said:
Sleekit said:
MP games are, at least as far as FPSs go, way easier to develop.
you have no narrative to develop, no complicated levels to construct to portray that narrative, no NPCs or Mobs to create to place in it and no AI or narrative related coding.
all you do is make some player and weapons models, add the sound and basic physics, rules and scoring structure and stick em in what is usually quite a simplistic environment they run around in (despite how pretty it might look. never forget the construction tools and engine do a great deal of the work in that department) and the players generate all of the enjoyable gameplay by interacting directly with each other.
you really have to screw up the basic ruleset or mechanics badly to make one that isn't "fun" if you have a bunch of peebs in there with you.
as an added bonus a lot of the time players make extra maps & mods etc and extend the game themselves. partly because these basic multiplayer building blocks aren't actually all that hard to make which is why you'll see way, way, way more multiplayer maps & mods etc than you'll ever see fan made maps, conversions or expansions for a single player game.
that's why ultimately hobbyists made Counterstrike and Team Fortress Classic, impressive tho they were, and a dozen other multiplayer mods for Half Life rather a fan made equivalent of something like Opposing Force or Blue Shift.
seriously if any of you had ever mucked around with the likes of ID source code releases you'd be disgusted at the fact they try and sell multiplayer FPSs as full price software nowadays.
compared with single player games there's virtually nothing to them.
its like making a FPS with all the hard to make bits removed.
Very well written argument. Do you think that because MP is easier to develop, they are directly more profitable? Or are there other reasons (such as people only buying a few MP games) that actually make them less interesting financial opportunities?
well that's defiantly part of it.
they cost less time to make because you simply have less complicated work to do and "time is money" as a WoW Goblin would say.
the other part of the puzzle i think is that, as i said, they are inherently enjoyable unless you seriously screw up the mechanics IF you enjoy the "high octane" person on person competitive nature of the gameplay.
young adults (especially male young adults), the exact same demographic who buy the most video games, are inherently competitive in almost everything they do. it's one of those natural phases of human development and its about defining yourself as you move from child to adult. when you get older and have kinda achieved that you naturally grow out it, become less confrontational, more "laid back" and so on.
on top of this those same young adults have the most disposable income of any group. most do not have the overriding fiscal "responsibilities" so often muttered about by moaning parents and the like.
so you have 3 thing all lined up:
1. they are easy (and thus cheap) for the developers to make.
2. the age demographic who buys the most video games are naturally highly personally competitive because of the age they are at.
3. the same age demographic has high levels of disposable income.
that imo is what makes them highly profitable.
on the flip side and addressing the other question you raise about the fact the majority of people only usually play a specific few . . . well im not entirely sure but it could be partly down to the desire to be part of a peer group which is the other huge pressure on young adults.
everyone, at the ages discussed, wants to be "in" with their chosen crowd and so there is perhaps a limited amount of titles that are viable in the market because ultimately vast swathes players will migrate to the title (or titles) that is/are considered to be "it" at a given moment and if you aren't there you're excluded from the peer group and at the age ranges we are talking about NOT being excluded from your peer group is like one of the most important things in the entire universe. ever.
for publishers/developers what they want is to produce an game that is seen as "it"
that's when they hit the jackpot aka Halo. Modern Warfare etc
as vast swathes of people will "have to" buy it due to peer pressure.
they go to great lengths to try and ensure that their next game is seen as "the next big thing" in pursuit of that goal.
)