Single Player gamers, do you think the industry is moving away from you?

[GeorgW]

I'm primarily a single player gamer and I have no worries. First up Arkham City is coming out soon, which will provide me with 50+ hours of single player perfection. I'm a fanboy, I admit it. Then we have Deus Ex, Rage, Zelda, AC:R, Bioshock Infinite, Uncharted 3, Dark Souls, Skyrim...
Yeah, this is not a problem for the industry, I don't get how people think that.

 

[Epona]

Not at all. Batman: Arkham City, Rage, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect...the list goes on. It's just that we have a lot of multiplayer games as well. People who don't like multiplayer ***** because, since those games don't appeal specifically to them, they think "OH THE INDUSTRY'S SHIT! THIS GAME SUCKS!"

Yeah, thanks for telling us what we think.

 

[DustyDrB]

They are moving away from single-player a little, but single-player will never go away. Why? Because developers and publishers aren't going to ignore a market as large as the one who crave a single-player only experience. Look at how it is today: two out of three multiplayer modes are a completely ignorable afterthought. So yeah, it's making it into more games, but it's not nearly as dominant as these Chicken Littles are making it out to be.

 

[Epona]

They are moving away from single-player a little, but single-player will never go away. Why? Because developers and publishers aren't going to ignore a market as large as the one who crave a single-player only experience. Look at how it is today: two out of three multiplayer modes are a completely ignorable afterthought. So yeah, it's making it into more games, but it's not nearly as dominant as these Chicken Littles are making it out to be.

There must be alot of these threads that I have not seen because everyone acts like "not this topic again". Guess I should have hunted one of those down to post in it, sorry folks.

Anyway, having to play a single player game online is not my idea of single player. When the internet is down and I can't come here to converse with all you nice people is when I want to play a single player game but the way things are going, internet will be required to even play single player.

 

[DracoSuave]

It seems companies are now beginning to abandon single player. Talk of Portal 2 being the last single player focused type of game from Valve. Blizzard's single player mode is basically to play an MMO by yourself. I would have preferred KOTOR III to another damn MMO and I would have preferred Age of Empires 4 to the Age of Empires Online.

Do you think that if this keeps up, you will lose interest in gaming in the near future?

Mentioning Diablo 3, which is the sequal to a game that's always intended to have multiplayer elements, and Age of Empires, a game which has always been a RTS, is not going to make any sort of valid argument about the multi-player-ification of single player games.

Yes, multiplayer game sequals are going to probably have multiplayer elements in them. In other news, blue skies are going to be blue all day, birds have wings, and water is going to be wet.

Trying to see your point in all of this.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

The examples posted by the OP seem to suggest that s/he's primarily a PC gamer. The thing about PC games is that while the focus does seem to be shifting to MMOs there are a ton of free games that are both awesome AND single-player like the multitude of flash-games you can find on Newgrounds or, Exploding-Rabbit's Super Mario Crossover.

I do fear a time when even console players have to be online at all times or be unable to play. Luckily when that day comes, I'll have already shifted my focus and buying patterns to the point that I'll have not only a very healthy collection of single-player games from yesteryear, but the connections to enable me to keep on building on those collections.

I don't think single-player games will ever actually die though. I sure as hell hope not anyway.

 

[WaffleCopters]

they arent moving away from singleplayer ( i mean unless the games entirely revolving around multiplayer, like MMOs) i think theyre more leaving SPLIT-SCREEN behind... Halo did splitscreen well, and when halo 3 and reach allowed splitscreen online it was the best thing to happen to splitscreen since splitscreen even existed... but alas... splitscreen seems to be dying out still...

Also, Co-op splitscreen or just co-op in general, that seems to have issues with a lot of game devs... its a simple concept....

 

[EternalFacepalm]

CoD has brilliant multi- and singleplayer.

This made me laugh. :3

Anyhow, no, they're not going away, and they never will, either. The "all-multiplayer" is just a fad like any other: developers will eventually stop putting multiplayer in their games just to have it.
At least I hope so.

 

[Epona]

It seems companies are now beginning to abandon single player. Talk of Portal 2 being the last single player focused type of game from Valve. Blizzard's single player mode is basically to play an MMO by yourself. I would have preferred KOTOR III to another damn MMO and I would have preferred Age of Empires 4 to the Age of Empires Online.

Do you think that if this keeps up, you will lose interest in gaming in the near future?

Mentioning Diablo 3, which is the sequal to a game that's always intended to have multiplayer elements, and Age of Empires, a game which has always been a RTS, is not going to make any sort of valid argument about the multi-player-ification of single player games.

Yes, multiplayer game sequals are going to probably have multiplayer elements in them. In other news, blue skies are going to be blue all day, birds have wings, and water is going to be wet.

Trying to see your point in all of this.

Alot of people aren't buying Diablo 3 because of the always online single player that doesn't even have a pause.

Age of Empires games have always had LAN, skirmish and single player modes. Taking out the LAN, skirmish and the single player modes and filling it with boring quests doesn't work well for an RTS. You see, I play LAN games with people I KNOW. When I want to play single player, I can play skirmish against the AI campaign. Age of Empire Online fails on so many levels and ultimately nobody wanted AOE Online, they wanted a proper sequel.

If you were trying to see my point in all of this, you would have. It isn't in any way difficult.

 

[Epona]

The examples posted by the OP seem to suggest that s/he's primarily a PC gamer. The thing about PC games is that while the focus does seem to be shifting to MMOs there are a ton of free games that are both awesome AND single-player like the multitude of flash-games you can find on Newgrounds or, Exploding-Rabbit's Super Mario Crossover.

I do fear a time when even console players have to be online at all times or be unable to play. Luckily when that day comes, I'll have already shifted my focus and buying patterns to the point that I'll have not only a very healthy collection of single-player games from yesteryear, but the connections to enable me to keep on building on those collections.

I don't think single-player games will ever actually die though. I sure as hell hope not anyway.

Yes, I mostly play PC games but I don't play flash games. I prefer single player games because they have depth that is provided by developers, not 12 year old kids whining into a mic. I have never played a flash game that had any depth so why would I be interested? I am not interested in "look we made a game that looks like it belongs on the NES" Indie games either and don't even get me started on social games.

No, I like AAA games but I don't like that my favorite franchises are moving towards being more internet dependent.

 

[Ubermetalhed]

I think the bigger problem isn't whether the game has a substantial singleplayer option it should be whether the game has a split screen multiplayer mode.

Most games have single player thankfully but alot now have only online multiplayer. I'm sorry but I don't really want to play with people I don't know, I have friends we like to play together in the same room so give me split screen.

One example of a bizarre lack of a split screen is Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. I mean seriously what the hell.

Failing offline splitscreen give me online splitscreen for me and a friend, I mean I hate COD but Blackops online split screen is a great idea.

I do agree with OP on Age of Empires and KotoR becoming online games being a bad idea. Especially for the latter. Also I do think alot of singleplayer campaigns are becoming shorter and that is a major negative of more modern games.

 

[Reaper195]

I don't think it is, but a lot of SP games are coming out with multiplayer. However, I do not find this bad as long as the SP is just as good/better as it's preprocessor.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Yes and yes. And it irritates the fuck out of me too. I don't LIKE playing with other people! ...well at least not dipshits on the Internet that I don't know anyway. If I want to play games with other people, and that's a big "if", I want to do it with all the players in my living room.

I just wish multiplayer was sold separately. Sell us the real game cheaper. I would rather not pay for things I didn't use.

Maybe as DLC or something, so that those of us who don't want it aren't stuck with something we're not going to ever use.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I think the bigger problem isn't whether the game has a substantial singleplayer option it should be whether the game has a split screen multiplayer mode.

Most games have single player thankfully but alot now have only online multiplayer. I'm sorry but I don't really want to play with people I don't know, I have friends we like to play together in the same room so give me split screen.

One example of a bizarre lack of a split screen is Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. I mean seriously what the hell.

Failing offline splitscreen give me online splitscreen for me and a friend, I mean I hate COD but Blackops online split screen is a great idea.

I do agree with OP on Age of Empires and KotoR becoming online games being a bad idea. Especially for the latter. Also I do think alot of singleplayer campaigns are becoming shorter and that is a major negative of more modern games.

I hate how split-screen has been dying off. It's understandable that it would be since 2 of the three big consoles pretty much force you to make a profile the moment you turn the console on and I think the swap from cheats to achievements may also have factored in to that but I could be mistaken.

I know the Halo games have always had split screen, even the 3 360 titles have it but most other games that I would want to play with other people like Saint's Row 2 and, GTA IV but as soon as you chose multiplayer (for me anyway) it tells me I have to be connected to Xbox Live (always plays offline)

To expand upon my first statement, I play single-player games and, flash games on my computer because I strongly prefer to jump in straight away and have fun. I never understood the appeal of social games though like Farmville and even the genre wars here on the escapist isn't something I really liked. I do absolutely love the games however, that look like they would work on my NES. It's great to see that there are people who are still interested in what gaming used to be.

Remember when you would buy a cartridge that came in a plastic or, cardboard box and that game not only had a full, complete game and, if you were lucky, had a mode that allowed you to play with your friends and/or family in the same room, at the same time? I miss those days.

 

[SamtheDeathclaw]

Bethesda's still around, and despite all their flaws, maybe they learned their lesson from Redguard and the atrocious Demon's Forge thing- stick to single-player. Also, Bioware makes good single player games.
But yeah, the industry as a whole is trending towards multiplayer right now. Maybe the trend will reverse itself someday, maybe it won't.

 

[Monkey_Warfare]

Co-op campaign is my favourite as it requires teamwork and organisation (usually). Most of my favourite multiplayer games are like this e.g. DotA, Diablo, left 4 dead, Baldurs Gate, Alien Swarm and Magicka. I think I would like MMORPG's for this reason though I refuse to play them on principle.
Multiplayer centric games are currently stagnating I find. I don't get why people pay for new CoD as they are essentially reskins of CoD4:MW and I found TF2 offered a better multiplayer experience and is now free. These games you only need to buy 1 per genre in each gaming generation as they improve slowly as perfection is more important than innovation, contrasting most single player games where innovaiton seems to occur and is then gradually shifted to multi.

 

[SageRuffin]

Well... you're not gonna get but so good playing fighting by yourself...

...

Oh, this is gaming in general? No, I don't think single-player experiences are going the way of the dodo, but I do think that they're sometimes needlessly tacked on (ME3, optional participation notwithstanding).

 

[DracoSuave]

It seems companies are now beginning to abandon single player. Talk of Portal 2 being the last single player focused type of game from Valve. Blizzard's single player mode is basically to play an MMO by yourself. I would have preferred KOTOR III to another damn MMO and I would have preferred Age of Empires 4 to the Age of Empires Online.

Do you think that if this keeps up, you will lose interest in gaming in the near future?

Mentioning Diablo 3, which is the sequal to a game that's always intended to have multiplayer elements, and Age of Empires, a game which has always been a RTS, is not going to make any sort of valid argument about the multi-player-ification of single player games.

Yes, multiplayer game sequals are going to probably have multiplayer elements in them. In other news, blue skies are going to be blue all day, birds have wings, and water is going to be wet.

Trying to see your point in all of this.

Alot of people aren't buying Diablo 3 because of the always online single player that doesn't even have a pause.

Age of Empires games have always had LAN, skirmish and single player modes. Taking out the LAN, skirmish and the single player modes and filling it with boring quests doesn't work well for an RTS. You see, I play LAN games with people I KNOW. When I want to play single player, I can play skirmish against the AI campaign. Age of Empire Online fails on so many levels and ultimately nobody wanted AOE Online, they wanted a proper sequel.

If you were trying to see my point in all of this, you would have. It isn't in any way difficult.

That's the method of implementation of multiplayer... and single player elements. That's not the multiplayerification of single player games... that's bad single playerification of multiplayer games.

I get your complaints with those games... but to say it's the 'mutliplayer addon of single player games' is erroneous--those aren't strinctly single player franchises.