Online vs Offline gaming...

[DudeistBelieve]

This is lately an issue I've been struggling with lately, maybe some of yo can help me out brah.

Basically I use to be a big offline single player guy. However somewhere... I'm not sure when, but I feel like it was around the time I kinda lost my real life social circle, that I stopped digging the alone time so much.

Now adays, when I play Fallout 4? I feel quite alone in my little wasteland. I also sit there and kinda think, i'm wasting my time on this single player game, when I could be massing Coins/XP/Money/Prestige in my online games like GTAV or Splatoon.

It's enough to the point that I actually have a quite large backlog of single player games I don't know when I'll get to. Perhaps I need to start being more selective with my purchases. Anyone have this problem and a solution to getting back into singleplayer games again?

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I kinda have the opposite problem.

There's nothing I love more after a day at work talking to people on a headset all day (work in a call centre) then to kick back and relax with a good single-player story. Nice bit of escapism.

I really have to be in the mood to play MP.

It's interesting how your social life can impact your gaming choices though, for sure.

 

[n0e]

Some games just feel as though they would be better if you could play with others. Bethesda does this rather well with the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games giving you that feeling.

Though, their Elder Scrolls MMO didn't do as well. Now, if they tried co-op games in a Fallout universe (like borderlands), I would be on that like a fat kid on a cupcake.

 

[Something Amyss]

There's nothing I love more after a day at work talking to people on a headset all day (work in a call centre) then to kick back and relax with a good single-player story. Nice bit of escapism.

I really have to be in the mood to play MP.

I might feel the same way, except a lot of my work involves spending time under someone's desk, fixing their computer for the 30,000th time and one of the few benefits is I can put on headphones and listen to music or an audiobook while I do it.

Except I still have no impulse to play online, except with friends. Hell, I used to play GTA V with Sane and others from right here just to try and branch out and...well, that died off quite a while ago. I find out a game's going to have an online focus, my first question is "will my friends be playing it?" Because it's immediately a huge disincentive.

I don't nave to be in the mood to play, so much as personally need to have people to play with. Because the internet has basically conditioned me to stay away from online, never mic up, and never interact.

 

[Worgen]

I have a similar issue with gta5. I have a hard time playing the single player game, not because I miss other people or anything, but for some reason the multiplayer feels more permanent. Like, everything I earn in the single player game is just there temporarily, but all my multiplayer stuff is forever.

I don't really understand it myself.

 

[Barbas]

Some games just feel as though they would be better if you could play with others. Bethesda does this rather well with the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games giving you that feeling.

Though, their Elder Scrolls MMO didn't do as well. Now, if they tried co-op games in a Fallout universe (like borderlands), I would be on that like a fat kid on a cupcake.

I fear it'd feel as watered-down as ESO is. They've progressively been taking more and more of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls out of the games they make in those series. I can hardly bring myself to venture into the Commonwealth a second or third time, because after just one run you've pretty much seen and done it all and it all unfolds the way you expect. By trying to force the radiant quest system on players, they've sadly managed to take a lot of the fun and creativity out of it.

"Here, let me mark the settlement on your map. Go find out what they need."
"Uhhh, no" *Opens console, completes quest*.
"Good job, general!"
"Whatever, dumbass, fork over the caps."

A well-written and well-designed but familiar quest is ironically almost infinitely more memorable and replayable for me. I still look forward to things like the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves' Guild missions from Oblivion over the tedious walking-pace escort missions and generic shopkeeper rescues from the more recent games. I don't know what they're trying to do over at Bethesda, but their games are feeling less homely, personalized and cluttered as I'd expect them to be given the supposedly fantastic nature of the worlds they're trying to portray.

OT: Offline all the way. It's a simple one for me after my experiences with internet loss on the west coast of Scotland. I'd rather be able to wander about the Ascadian Isles, swatting at derpy-eyed, tongue-flicking guar, then be staring at the wallpaper. :I

 

[happyninja42]

This is lately an issue I've been struggling with lately, maybe some of yo can help me out brah.

Basically I use to be a big offline single player guy. However somewhere... I'm not sure when, but I feel like it was around the time I kinda lost my real life social circle, that I stopped digging the alone time so much.

Now adays, when I play Fallout 4? I feel quite alone in my little wasteland. I also sit there and kinda think, i'm wasting my time on this single player game, when I could be massing Coins/XP/Money/Prestige in my online games like GTAV or Splatoon.

It's enough to the point that I actually have a quite large backlog of single player games I don't know when I'll get to. Perhaps I need to start being more selective with my purchases. Anyone have this problem and a solution to getting back into singleplayer games again?

Yes, I think all of us have had this problem, or it's polar opposite, at some point in our gaming lives. I personally don't see it as anything weird, it's just a natural cycle, like a pendulum. We sometimes enjoy and desire the social nature of online/social games. And then, after oversaturation of that type of game, we decide to separate from it, and enjoy something more narrative and story driven in single player. I've had this flip at least half a dozen times over the decades. I'm currently in a "single player" mode, and have forgone any of the multiple multiplayer games I could be playing. Though I'm starting to swing back the other direction, or at least I've noticed an increase in my thought process towards online games. So in another 6 months or so, I'll probably dust off one of my online games, and start playing it again.

Since you specifically mentioned your loss of a RL social circle, as the driving factor in your going back to online games, and then asked for a solution. I'd say try and establish a new RL social circle? I mean, if your main reason to play multiplayers is to have social interaction, and not, you know, because you want to play those games so much, then I'd say the social element is what you really need, and should work to make some new friends. Then you might not have the urge to play online games for the social element. *shrugs*

 

[Mister K]

I don't know, I enjoy both types of games. Most of the time I want other people out of my adventure, but sometimes I just want to go online and have a good 2 out of 3 match in a fighting game, or a fun session of DOTA2. It depends on a mood.

 

[CaitSeith]

Easy solution: search for the best single-player games out there (or at least the ones you like the most). It seems Fallout 4 isn't cutting it out for you. You could try also rogue-likes. I don't know about you, but I pretty much lose the track of time between starting the game and getting killed in every session.

 

[n0e]

Some games just feel as though they would be better if you could play with others. Bethesda does this rather well with the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games giving you that feeling.

Though, their Elder Scrolls MMO didn't do as well. Now, if they tried co-op games in a Fallout universe (like borderlands), I would be on that like a fat kid on a cupcake.

I fear it'd feel as watered-down as ESO is. They've progressively been taking more and more of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls out of the games they make in those series. I can hardly bring myself to venture into the Commonwealth a second or third time, because after just one run you've pretty much seen and done it all and it all unfolds the way you expect. By trying to force the radiant quest system on players, they've sadly managed to take a lot of the fun and creativity out of it.

"Here, let me mark the settlement on your map. Go find out what they need."
"Uhhh, no" *Opens console, completes quest*.
"Good job, general!"
"Whatever, dumbass, fork over the caps."

A well-written and well-designed but familiar quest is ironically almost infinitely more memorable and replayable for me. I still look forward to things like the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves' Guild missions from Oblivion over the tedious walking-pace escort missions and generic shopkeeper rescues from the more recent games. I don't know what they're trying to do over at Bethesda, but their games are feeling less homely, personalized and cluttered as I'd expect them to be given the supposedly fantastic nature of the worlds they're trying to portray.

OT: Offline all the way. It's a simple one for me after my experiences with internet loss on the west coast of Scotland. I'd rather be able to wander about the Ascadian Isles, swatting at derpy-eyed, tongue-flicking guar, then be staring at the wallpaper. :I

I feel that the reason for that is that their belief is "why bother, the pc modders will change it all anyway!". So they just make a crappy console version (seriously, screw consoles and what they've done to good games) and just release a workshop down the road for the modding folks to make the game as it should have been. Then they don't have to spend money on it.

 

[COMaestro]

I have a similar issue with gta5. I have a hard time playing the single player game, not because I miss other people or anything, but for some reason the multiplayer feels more permanent. Like, everything I earn in the single player game is just there temporarily, but all my multiplayer stuff is forever.

I don't really understand it myself.

That's totally backwards from how I feel. Anything in single player is mine, it will always be there. Multiplayer though? Once those servers go down, I'm out all my time, work, and effort. Happens with pretty much all MP games in time. I will never again buy a MP only title, it's just not worth it.

 

[Something Amyss]

We sometimes enjoy and desire the social nature of online/social games. And then, after oversaturation of that type of game, we decide to separate from it, and enjoy something more narrative and story driven in single player.

I honestly don't get this. I mean, aside from being antisocial, I have a tendency to be playing online and story -drive games at once. Obviously, not at the same time (though I will on occasion crack open a mobile game while my friends are getting their act together online), but like, I don't really tend to play one game at a time. And if I was shot enough on time for that to be an issue, I probably wouldn't be playing enough to get burned out. Like this one friend of mine whose gaming experience these days is pretty much 3 hours of GTA, once a week.

 

[Worgen]

I have a similar issue with gta5. I have a hard time playing the single player game, not because I miss other people or anything, but for some reason the multiplayer feels more permanent. Like, everything I earn in the single player game is just there temporarily, but all my multiplayer stuff is forever.

I don't really understand it myself.

That's totally backwards from how I feel. Anything in single player is mine, it will always be there. Multiplayer though? Once those servers go down, I'm out all my time, work, and effort. Happens with pretty much all MP games in time. I will never again buy a MP only title, it's just not worth it.

Thats why its so weird for me, you would be hard pressed to get me to buy a multi only game since I view them as having a limited life. But for some reason I view the progress I make in a multiplayer game as more valuable than a single player one.

 

[happyninja42]

We sometimes enjoy and desire the social nature of online/social games. And then, after oversaturation of that type of game, we decide to separate from it, and enjoy something more narrative and story driven in single player.

I honestly don't get this. I mean, aside from being antisocial, I have a tendency to be playing online and story -drive games at once. Obviously, not at the same time (though I will on occasion crack open a mobile game while my friends are getting their act together online), but like, I don't really tend to play one game at a time. And if I was shot enough on time for that to be an issue, I probably wouldn't be playing enough to get burned out. Like this one friend of mine whose gaming experience these days is pretty much 3 hours of GTA, once a week.

Eh, for me, and a lot of people I know who do MMO's, it's not uncommon to devote a lot of time to it, especially if it is your primary form of socializing. I'm sure you've seen comments from other posters about how MMO's can end up feeling like a second job, and you feel obligated to log in on a regular basis. Because you've established a social network in game, and have people who depend on you to progress in game. So you show up, and maybe stay on longer than you should. This happened to me a lot more when I was younger, though I do tend to streamline my gaming to this day. For me personally, it's more a mood. MMO's, are basically a grind. I don't expect a story from online games, as they usually don't have one, or it's not very good. So when I feel the need for something with more narrative teeth, I tend to go to single player for that. Online games are there to fill my need to play with a team, and enjoy accomplishing some challenge together. But that desire can wain, and I'll find myself wanting something really sneaky and stealthy, so I'll drop to single player and play something like Dishonored, or Styx Master of Shadows. But then I'll have a mood to do a heist, and I'll load up Payday 2. The fluctuation doesn't tend to shift on a daily basis, it's usually a few weeks where I will be in one mood or another. So, for a few weeks I'll dive into Payday 2, and enjoy some heisty goodness. And then drop out and go play XCOM: Enemy Unknown, or Planetbase, or something. *shrugs* It's variable.

Though I do share your thoughts on multiplayer to some degree, in that if my online friends aren't available to play with me, I don't tend to play the game. Lately, most of my friends haven't been online, or online at different times, or whatever, so I basically avoid playing the multiplayer games we have in common, because fuck doing a pug match.

 

[Lufia Erim]

This is lately an issue I've been struggling with lately, maybe some of yo can help me out brah.

Basically I use to be a big offline single player guy. However somewhere... I'm not sure when, but I feel like it was around the time I kinda lost my real life social circle, that I stopped digging the alone time so much.

Now adays, when I play Fallout 4? I feel quite alone in my little wasteland. I also sit there and kinda think, i'm wasting my time on this single player game, when I could be massing Coins/XP/Money/Prestige in my online games like GTAV or Splatoon.

It's enough to the point that I actually have a quite large backlog of single player games I don't know when I'll get to. Perhaps I need to start being more selective with my purchases. Anyone have this problem and a solution to getting back into singleplayer games again?

The exact same thing happened to me. Had you asked me 5 years ago if i prefer online or offline i would have scoffed and said offline. Now not so much. The only single player games i enjoy now are Jrpgs. If it's not a Jrpg i rather play and online competitive or co-op game. Funnily enough, i prefer competitive because i dislike having to carry people, or feeling like people a weighing me down.

That being said you just need to find which genre of games you enjoy playing alone and focus on those if it's a single player experience. For me they are Jrpgs.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

This is lately an issue I've been struggling with lately, maybe some of yo can help me out brah.

Basically I use to be a big offline single player guy. However somewhere... I'm not sure when, but I feel like it was around the time I kinda lost my real life social circle, that I stopped digging the alone time so much.

Now adays, when I play Fallout 4? I feel quite alone in my little wasteland. I also sit there and kinda think, i'm wasting my time on this single player game, when I could be massing Coins/XP/Money/Prestige in my online games like GTAV or Splatoon.

It's enough to the point that I actually have a quite large backlog of single player games I don't know when I'll get to. Perhaps I need to start being more selective with my purchases. Anyone have this problem and a solution to getting back into singleplayer games again?

I was right there with you until you mentioned that. I love multiplayer games but I hate when I feel like I'm only playing for the XP.
For me I love competing against other people, or even just playing Dark Souls and knowing that real, other people are playing the game and dying right alongside me. I think too many games rely on XP unlocks and "prestige" to keep people playing

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

This is lately an issue I've been struggling with lately, maybe some of yo can help me out brah.

Basically I use to be a big offline single player guy. However somewhere... I'm not sure when, but I feel like it was around the time I kinda lost my real life social circle, that I stopped digging the alone time so much.

Now adays, when I play Fallout 4? I feel quite alone in my little wasteland. I also sit there and kinda think, i'm wasting my time on this single player game, when I could be massing Coins/XP/Money/Prestige in my online games like GTAV or Splatoon.

It's enough to the point that I actually have a quite large backlog of single player games I don't know when I'll get to. Perhaps I need to start being more selective with my purchases. Anyone have this problem and a solution to getting back into singleplayer games again?

I have a similar thing. The smaller my RL social circle, the more I like single player, the opposite is true when I have a larger RL social circle.

I'd suggest trying an open ended game in solo play, like Minecraft, or Elite: Dangerous, something that's a slow build and you have to work your way up from nothing. Also listen to podcasts, or audio books when you do it, because it's basically just busy fiddling while you unwind.Euro Truck Simulator 2 is also good for this sort of thing.

Also rogue-likes are a good thing to try, as the experience is different every time.

 

[Barbas]

I feel that the reason for that is that their belief is "why bother, the pc modders will change it all anyway!". So they just make a crappy console version (seriously, screw consoles and what they've done to good games) and just release a workshop down the road for the modding folks to make the game as it should have been. Then they don't have to spend money on it.

I'm tempted to say that was their thinking as well, but then I can't imagine what else they were spending the time and money they saved on - whatever it was doesn't show up in the final product, far as I can see.

 

[neoontime]

This is lately an issue I've been struggling with lately, maybe some of yo can help me out brah.

Basically I use to be a big offline single player guy. However somewhere... I'm not sure when, but I feel like it was around the time I kinda lost my real life social circle, that I stopped digging the alone time so much.

Now adays, when I play Fallout 4? I feel quite alone in my little wasteland. I also sit there and kinda think, i'm wasting my time on this single player game, when I could be massing Coins/XP/Money/Prestige in my online games like GTAV or Splatoon.

It's enough to the point that I actually have a quite large backlog of single player games I don't know when I'll get to. Perhaps I need to start being more selective with my purchases. Anyone have this problem and a solution to getting back into singleplayer games again?

I really feel the opposite cause any online game is too obvious that there isn't an end game. When I use to sink 5 hours playing league, COD, or Battlefront, it seemed too obvious that there wasn't really any real progression and that time didn't represent any real worth in the game other than ways to keep playing. This was true with league since seasons and all. Kind of why I like progression bars. I like that social interaction but that's why I think couch coop is best since games like borderlands and tales of vesperia (really long and boring but still a worth experience) were my best experiences in gaming. Of course I haven't really played any games that really relied on that much real online teamwork with strangers so maybe I'm missing out.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I have a dislike of people in general so I will probably always like single-player/offline games a lot more than multiplayer. It's at such a severe degree that I've legitimately had more fun in bot matches than I have playing those same games with other humans, be they in the same room or not. Other factors that may have some impact on my choice; I don't want to pay a fee just to play online. When I buy a game, I expect that to be a one-time entry fee. I live in an area where a shitty internet provider has a geographical monopoly therefore, I essentially have an internet connection that Australians would laugh at. There was a time when I lived in a better area and there was a time when I paid for Xbox Live but even then, I really didn't have too much fun playing online. I think my XBL lasted for a year and a half, if that. Finally, and a bit more personally, I'm in a living situation where I'm never alone anyway. There's always someone around and any escape I can get is welcomed.