When Did We Become Obsessed with Multiplayer?

[Iron Mal]

Multiplayer has become the more 'acceptable' way to play games as far as the general media is concerned since it's about as close as gaming gets to being a social activity (rather than the stereotypical 'shut yourself in a dark basement and stick on the 60 hour single player while everyone else goes to play in the sun' option).

The majority of 'normal' people enjoy engaging in social activities as well as being able to play on the entertainment box thing they just spent most of their money on, online multiplayer allows the combining of these two things.

Also, compared to a lot of single player games, multiplayer is very much 'pick up and play' with very little in the way of required dedication (most games last a maximum of 20 minutes) and don't require the player to get too involved in what they're doing (if someone asks you what you have to do in a game it's much more sociably acceptable to turn around and say 'get more points than the other team' than to state how you intend to save the fair people of the Kingdom of Aldiair from the foul necromancy of the evil Wizard Zarrok and maybe loot a few castle keeps on the way, complete with virgin princesses).

In short, multiplayer is more accessable as far as games go, you don't really need to be a diehard gamer to get into a multiplayer game.

 

[CK76]

I understand multi player with friends, fun to hand controllers off and trash talk a bit while playing one another. To me playing online feels similar to playing AI, just AI that yells homophobic bile at me the whole time.

 

[Optimus Hagrid]

Am I the only one noticing the year old bump?

I have recognised this bizzarre phenomenon over XBL however, people degrading entire games just because the multiplayer experience was 'laggy', 'boring' or 'faggy'. No idea why though.

 

[thehoff]

I guess people have come to expect it with the advances made in the internet region. It adds time to a game to have it extend to almost limitless play time against other players.

 

[silasbufu]

When ppl started fighting about who has the largest penis, over the internet. No offense to female players, I can't think of a fitting example for your part right now

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

Put me down in the "has never given even a fraction of a shit about multiplayer" category. Part of the reason I play games is that I don't want to deal with other people. Besides, it's way harder to enjoy myself when I've got a thousand retarded twelve-year-olds screaming profanities directly into my ears.

 

[Deleted]

Multiplayer is a selling point for me. What happened to the days of 4 player split screen :'(

 

[OneBig Man]

That is why I hate games that are single player that are also amazing, then making an average sequal with multiplayer. They should just stick to making single player better. That is why I think bioshock 2 won't be as good.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

Multiplayer has A LOT more replay value, especially in FPS's. True, some games really shouldn't have it *like Bioshock 2*, but it's usually a nice addition.

 

[bcponpcp27]

If it seems like a game that could have good multiplayer (this discounts all Nintendo games unfortunately), it should have it. Honestly, there isn't really a reason not the have multiplayer if it fits the game well. Don't just paste on some bs though, put some work into it.

 

[Stewie Plisken]

Personally, I don't mind multiplayer games at all. I mind that the single player experience is often-times shunned in favor of that. That's why the only multiplayer games I still play are those in the vein of Counter Strike.

 

[Eyebiter]

When did we become obsessed with multiplayer? I'd say when the shareware version of DOOM was released back in 1993. Previous to that most games were single player or hot seat play only. After that LAN and later internet play became almost mandatory for many game genres.

 

[Chrissyluky]

multiplayer is what decides replayability the more replayability a game has the better it is.