Single Player vs. Multi-Player

[Chicago Ted]

See, it's not that I am dissing multi-player (maybe a bit) I just don't like people wanting a grudge match against me or shouting at me to heal them or help them. I just prefer to be able to sit and study a puzzle or map without a chat box popping up or someone talking at me and offering unsolicited advice.
"you need to hit that switch,"
thanks Einstein. I figured that out ages ago I'm trying to get the timing of the freaking arrows down so I don't get speared!
If you like Multi-Player than fine. I just prefer to play alone.

What on earth is the type of game you're describing here? I can't for the life of me think of any multiplayer puzzle games, besides something like Portal, or ones based off of board games. Or are you going on about MMO's?

As for multiplayer itself, it's fun because it's competitive. It's fun in the same way a sport is fun. You have your objective and you work towards it, competing against others to achieve it. Some are just basic deathmatches, but others are more objective based. Personally, I enjoy the ones that have you cooperating with a team, or squad, to complete a goal. Some of my favourite moments in recent years of gaming, were from Battlefield Bad Company 2, where it'd be me and three other guys, working in a squad to defeat the enemy team. To have everyone working together as a unit could turn the tides of the entire battle, and give you great satisfaction when you know you guys were the lynchpin to your entire teams success because you were able to sneak around to flank the demolition targets for example.

And aside from that, it's a great way to socialize. There are times when you just can't all go out to do something, so you'd all stay in, play a game together online. It?s a great way to hang out with friends and interact with them, especially if you can't see them in person. Hell, some of the best friends I have live hundreds of miles away, one in Virginia, and one Oregon, who I wouldn't have met without gaming, and who I wouldn't be able to continue socializing with as easily if it weren't for gaming.

So yeah, in summary, multiplayer is great for two reasons, competition and socialization. If these aren't things you enjoy, then you're probably not going to enjoy multiplayer. Simple as that.

 

[MammothBlade]

I've hever really understood what makes Multi-Player modes so great. (pardon while I channel Yahtzee) I've always prefered to play alone because you need to really think to solve the in-game puzzles. If you play multi-player than one of three things happens;
A)you are the ball and chain dragging the person who has logged 50 hours on a game new to you.
B)THEY are the ball and chain to your 50 hours.
or C) you are equal and begin to compete to the point where someone rage quits.

other games that offer mulit-player force one player to sit dead until the first player dies or remembers that they are not playing alone and decide to tag you in, example, Donkey Kong on the SNES. this is also a game that the three scenarios above can be applied to because there is a counter that tracks how many levels the person controlling DK has beat and how many the person with Diddy has beat. sorry, lost my train of thought.

anyways, my point is that multi-player makes no sense when so many games have content unlockable only in the single player mode. why would someone want to play with a person who's spent THAT much time on a game that they( the friend) has never heard of?

I'm very curious what others think about this.

You're mistaken, it does make sense. It's sometimes fun to play with other people. Strategy games, for one. AI can be hellishly predictable, and eventually any sense of challenge will decay.

Though there are four things I don't like about multiplayer:

a)It can sometimes feel like an obligation rather than a use of my free time to spend as I see fit.
b)People whining and quitting when they're losing. Low frustration tolerance or something.
c)Nasty behaviour in general. Noob hating, that sort of thing.
d)Connection issues.

I would play more often if these weren't such an issue.

 

[aguspal]

As long as they do well about as much as they get killed, people won't mind dying in a multiplayer game.

No.. just no... its not always true. At all.


And I have irrefutable proof about this...


*points self*


I get really annoyed ("Angry/ragequitting" is definitivly TOO much, I never do that unless Its somethink like a glitcher/hacker) at certain multiplayer games even if I am winning at time if they kill me a lot in a row and/or with what I consider cheap tactis or the such... Even if I have a K/D ratio of 2+, it still gets on my nerves.

It dosnt really last much thougt. Its usually something short like 15 seconds or so if inside rage, but after that I am ok again. Specially if I kill the culprirt that made me be that way, LOL.

 

[Lunar Templar]

*shrugs* only 'multi-player' I go near is MMOs, any other multi player mode gets totally neglected

 

[Sack of Cheese]

I don't like competitive multiplayer very much because I dislike losing. If I get beaten by a computer I can safely blame "Cheating AI", but with a human, I'd just 'lose'. I also dislike MMO, I don't like the thought of sharing my special world with strangers where everyone is "the chosen one".

The only form of multiplayer I like is co-op, preferably couch co-op, but they don't make a lot of this kind anymore.