Traditional Single Player Experience Gone in 3 Years?!

[random_bars]

Bullshit. This is wrong for one simple reason: people like single player games. This is not something that is going to change, no matter how much high-up businessmen in the industry want it to. Therefore single player games are not going to die out, only fluctuate steadily like everything else: as they stop getting made, the few that are made will sell more. Companies will see this and make their own single player games, which will begin to make less in turn until they gradually stop making them again, at which point the few that are made will own the market again and make lots of money, meaning more will be made, etc etc.

No, the reason this argument keeps being brought up isn't because it's true. It's because it's what publishers desperately want to happen because single player games are prone to pirates about a million times more than multiplayer games. ...That's it. That is literally the only reason. Just look through this thread to see how many people hate this idea and you'll realize that something that lots and lots of people enjoy is not going to stop being made.

 

[Netrigan]

Whole thing really depends on what they mean by it. As long as they continue to provide a good solid single player experience, then it doesn't matter what on-line bells & whistles they add to it. In such a scenario, it either enhances the experiences or can easily be ignored. Infamous 2 included a mission editor and the ability to insert these missions into the single player campaign. Ignoring them doesn't alter the experience at all, while playing them can add longevity to the game.

The problem will come if they try to take what is truly a multi-player game and put forth the illusion that it's a proper single player game. I recently got into the Ratchet & Clank games and the upcoming 4 player co-op game gives me serious pause. Will it provide a good single player experience (like the Lego co-op games) or will poor AI make the game frustrating to play alone?

Even in the best case scenario, I figure this will end up being a waste of money for most developers, who will never produce a game popular enough to really benefit from any sort of on-line content. You see this with first person shooters since Doom, with only a handful of titles getting any sort of on-line following, while most games pretty much wasted a lot of time and effort building a multi-player arena that is virtually ignored.

 

[Blow_Pop]

colour me very sad if this happens. I like my single player and not having to be connected to the net to play. I like playing by myself on consoles most of the time. Demon's Souls lets you choose from a list of pre-programmed messages if I recall correctly(haven't played it in a while so don't remember fully). If I wanted to leave a message for someone in a game I'd want to be able to type what I want to say not have it censured or have to choose from a pre-programmed list. Not to say I don't enjoy Demon's Souls but if every game starts turning into something similar I will start refusing to buy new games and just play older games. And I'll be perfectly happy with that. I tend to buy games on the Wii so I can play with my friends but I also don't take the Wii seriously as a console either. I don't see the point in playing with others. That means I need to actually be...nice...*shudders*