Is Single Player Mode Dying in Modern Video Games?

[markdf]

6 hours ago, Zaflis said:

I guess it also partly comes down to "sex sells" ?  Have you looked into Subverse hype? The game isn't even out yet and it's definitely going to be singleplayer. But that doesn't stop it from becoming propably the most wanted Steam game soon enough.

 

Not to mention World of Warcraft is planning to open its first ever solo dungeons in coming expansion as its i guess main selling point.

The waifu stuff doesn't appeal to me at all, but the space combat and turn-based tactical combat look awesome! Thanks for posting that.

[KoolHndLuke]

6 hours ago, Zaflis said:

I guess it also partly comes down to "sex sells" ?  Have you looked into Subverse hype? The game isn't even out yet and it's definitely going to be singleplayer. But that doesn't stop it from becoming propably the most wanted Steam game soon enough.

 

Not to mention World of Warcraft is planning to open its first ever solo dungeons in coming expansion as its i guess main selling point.

Yeah, thank you.

[27X]

7 hours ago, Zaflis said:

Subverse hype

Considering the devs can't even pay their contractors what they promised, hard pass.

[Mr. Otaku]

I'm surprised this thread is still going.

[sammythesquirrel]

so to sum up the thread and the question: no sigle player is not dying  some companies ARE  trying to kill it bit its not working YET

[worik]

5 hours ago, sammythesquirrel said:

so to sum up the thread and the question: no sigle player is not dying  some companies ARE  trying to kill it bit its not working YET

good summary

[MasterMoose53]

I don't like to think it is given that I am an old-school player and love these single player mode games. But the reality is, I think they are dying. Which, in my opinion, is a terrible shame. Oh well, I'll get the N64 out if it gets too much!

[megamantaray]

People keep coming back to this thread to whine without doing any research or looking into these things at all and it's damn near infuriating, saying these stupid things so matter-of-factly.

It's almost like some part of the population enjoys going "Oh no, my precious [REEEEE object] is going away. It's all these generational trends, they're ruining my [REEEEE object]."

Did no one fucking notice that the newest EA product is a single-player only game that critics and players alike have been RAVING about?

Death Stranding, for all it's quirkiness, is also Single Player, with cutesy little interactions online. I posted a list earlier of incredibly popular Single Player games too.

"Oh I'll bust out the N64." Ok boomer, good job. Jesus Christ.

[FauxFurry]

31 minutes ago, megamantaray said:

Ok boomer, good job. Jesus Christ.

Don't put this on the Boomers. It is Gen-X that can't kick its defeatist doom-and-gloom outlook on everything. 

[megamantaray]

12 minutes ago, FauxFurry said:

Don't put this on the Boomers. It is Gen-X that can't kick its defeatist doom-and-gloom outlook on everything. 

Well boomer's just a ridiculing insult for juvenoia or elitism nowadays, at least that's how I use it.

It's not much of a serious insult anyway it's just obnoxious that people will come here without reading anything and go "hurrr mur vidya gaims" boi Steam, PSN and Xboner are jam packed with super good single player games coming out all the time. I just bought a bunch of em this weekend that I'll probably never play because I'm fucking retarded xD

[FauxFurry]

In the event that anyone needs to be reminded of this fact, the first generation of mainstream video games were multi-player only as they were electronic off-shoots of table top games like ping pong (the game was even named Pong) or Foosball.

It was people like Shigeru Miyamoto who understood that there was a market for single player content and championed it in its infancy. 

That very single player focused content is what helped to pull video games out of the Crash of '83. Single player games are what make up for the bulk of the 'killer apps' and exclusives which drive hardware sales to this day. As foolish and short-sighted as some publishers can be, the most successful of them understand that the lasting value comes from the stand-alone non-service based titles.

 

Worrying that single player games will be done away with is like fearing that story based fictional content will be phased out for Reality TV or sports.

While the latter have their trends in popularity, it inevitably fades, leaving the former to flourish.

A fictional property possibly can even go on to become a multi-generational sensation franchises while a sporting even or a reality show moment is only remembered by either hardcore enthusiast or as a cautionary tale told by anthropologists. 

[27X]

1 hour ago, FauxFurry said:

Don't put this on the Boomers. It is Gen-X that can't kick its defeatist doom-and-gloom outlook on everything. 

Considering the project leads for the latest slew of SP games are gen x starting with GoW, perhaps blankets don't fit a s far as thought.

[FauxFurry]

6 minutes ago, 27X said:

Considering the project leads for the latest slew of SP games are gen x starting with GoW, perhaps blankets don't fit a s far as thought.

Oh, I wouldn't say that. David Jaffe and Cliff Blezinsky, the heads of the creative teams for both GoW franchises, just channeled that gloom and doom for something constructive as did bands like Nirvana, Alice and Chains and Sound Garden.

It can be used for the benefit of one's culture rather than end times pronouncements.

[SexDwarf2250]

The gaming industry started before multiplayer was even possible outside of hotseat etc. A decline of singleplayer was to be expected as technology enabling it improves, people are more online than ever and so on. On the flip side, certain genres and styles only lend themselves well to singleplayer. So there will always be at minimum a healthy niche and indie segment to keep singleplayer alive.

[taxman251]

I believe that single player games are still going strong and always will be. Although I admit it seems like some games concentrate mostly on multiplayer. For me I don't have to look any further than the modding community. If people didn't want single player games. Why would they still be modding so many single player games years after launch. I mostly play single player games like Skyrim, Fallout, Stardew Valley, Even when playing Minecraft and 7 Days to die I play almost exclusively single player.

[Glaurung26]

Maybe once other players start being fun to play with I'll try multiplayer games

 

Single player is much easier to orchestrate the quality of. People like playing with other human beings. People also like having a fun experience. These two don't always line up. Some, like me, tend to pull the ethernet cable out and just fight the computer. Others suck it up and deal with the PUGs. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

 

I don't think that singleplayer vs multiplayer is at the heart of this movement to sideline singleplayer games. Multiplayer is more conducive to the "live service" many big publishers want us to sub to. Customers do not "own" the game, they "rent" their "experience" from servers that the publishers own until they decide that it's no longer profitable and then pull the plug. They can put in an online store. They justify more varied ways of monetizing the game. They can use crypto currency to bypass gambling law. They can manipulate the have vs havenot mentality that leads to kids being bullied for being "default" because they didn't use their parents' credit card to buy Fortnite skins.

 

Color me an optimist but I don't think singleplayer games will go away. Ever. Players need a way to "turn it off" and just immerse themselves in a fantasy land FAR WAY from xxxscrubkiller69xxx. Maybe as the next generation comes up they'll be more normalized to microtrans and invasive storefronts and prefer social gaming experiences. That's certainly what EA, Activision et al are gunning for. But too large a subsect of the gaming community is educated enough to be wise to their shit. Also they're slipping up in a big way. Belgium vs Lootboxes. COPPA smacking YouTube. Governments are finally paying attention and realizing businesses [which make money] are making games not just a hobby [so cut us in before we sue you for everything]. The ESRB and other game industry "regulators" have slept on it too long. They have failed to be an internal regulator of the industry so as to keep the gov't out of it. Welcome back to the 90's everyone. "Won't someone think of the children!" and "videogames = mass gun violence". Okay that somehow escalated back into cynicism again. But yea the live service bubble will pop. Or divergent evolution will kick in and we'll have classical product based games and gacha microtrans gambling simulators.

[Clea Strange]

There is one major company that does say that Single Player games are dead every year and yet every other game company proves them wrong with doing really really well with Single Player games. The company that I'm speaking of that says single player games are dead despite the proof that single player games are selling really well is EA, EA the king of micro transactions IMO and I hate micro transaction or buying power.

 

The statement of Sex Sales is true IMO and video game companies know this and not just video game companies but also the companies that does TV shows/movies/animes/mangas and comic books knows as well

[KoolHndLuke]

I've been playing kotor/kotor 2 lately with a few mods installed and I am really, really enjoying it! What I remember about reading reviews when these two games came out was the usual complaints about bugs and stuff and even some complaints about character/story development...to name a few I think. Now, I read some people's reviews touting these two games as "masterpieces!" even though the graphics are so dated the characters look almost like stick figures and the combat reminds me of FF titles. But the games were hard!... to the point where you actually had to think about what you were doing in order to progress without turning the difficulty down to stupidly easy (game was still hard in some places). Funny how opinions change after a decade or two. And yes, I know those two games were made by different devs. Bioware was in top form at the time and Obsidian has usually done a great job furthering solid titles in a newer game with more than a few cool wrinkles of their own.

 

The thing is that new single player, "story" driven games just don't compare in that the player is not really challenged to try and approach things from different angles to see what might work best. It's simpler to just let the player fight their way outta shit I guess. What the industry seems sorely lacking in nowadays are quality writers and the same level of commitment to make as good and complete a game as they potentially can I think.

 

It's just that a single player game of some complexity and difficulty probably does not appeal as much to the casual player- whom make up the majority of the market. The only dev that comes to mind now is CDPR in that they have not compromised their approach to making games in order to earn more profits. I'm not sure if that's integrity or plain stubbornness, but I'm glad for it whatever the reason. Now if they would just honor their promise to the modding community.

[lordgdavid]

Don't buy into bullshit corporate ass licking headlines. AAA studios owned by suits want you to believe that their favoured format of games is the way forward so the avg customer does not question them. In reality a couple of years worth of "support" on a game that looks crispy but all the "content" is skin/texture asssets and animations in the form of emotes while the gameplay is generated by pitting gamers against each other in a pvp environment is in my opinion just cheap. They blow tens if not hundreds of millions on dated marketing tactics while the product (if you can even call them products anymore) is as cheaply made as possible. Just let it sink in that essentially, early buyers pay off the cost of marketing while that is costing more than the product itself. Check out the #patientgamer movement. Mimic their behavior and these kind of issues shall be over one day. It is only a matter of time for enough people to be fed up with industry bs.

[megamantaray]

4 hours ago, lordgdavid said:

Don't buy into bullshit corporate ass licking headlines. AAA studios owned by suits want you to believe that their favoured format of games is the way forward so the avg customer does not question them. In reality a couple of years worth of "support" on a game that looks crispy but all the "content" is skin/texture asssets and animations in the form of emotes while the gameplay is generated by pitting gamers against each other in a pvp environment is in my opinion just cheap. They blow tens if not hundreds of millions on dated marketing tactics while the product (if you can even call them products anymore) is as cheaply made as possible. Just let it sink in that essentially, early buyers pay off the cost of marketing while that is costing more than the product itself. Check out the #patientgamer movement. Mimic their behavior and these kind of issues shall be over one day. It is only a matter of time for enough people to be fed up with industry bs.

The only disagreement I have with you is that you said you shouldn't call them "products" that's not quite right.

It's kinda like the Disney formulaic movies and such. They're not "movies" they're "product" and you're meant to enjoy product and then be excited for next product.

It's the same with these companies, easily remade yearly releases aren't games, they're not experiences, they're product.

I love this clip it's from a parody podcast RedLetterMedia did to make fun of Disney shills:

Spoiler

 

 

[phillout]

3 hours ago, megamantaray said:

The only disagreement I have with you is that you said you shouldn't call them "products" that's not quite right.

It's kinda like the Disney formulaic movies and such. They're not "movies" they're "product" and you're meant to enjoy product and then be excited for next product.

It's the same with these companies, easily remade yearly releases aren't games, they're not experiences, they're product.

 

 

Why would "product" be a pejorative term? 

[megamantaray]

1 hour ago, phillout said:

Why would "product" be a pejorative term? 

Well I dunno if I got my point across properly but what I was trying to say is that those movies and games aren't really made with a creative or innovative mindset, they're basically mass-produced for minimum risk and maximum profit. I.E. just generic "product" they can cheaply renovate each year with minimal loss, if any.

They're not crafting new experiences or taking you somewhere new, it's just more product you can buy and then wait for new product when that one goes out of date.

It makes sense in my head, I mess up explaining things a lot.

[phillout]

1 hour ago, megamantaray said:

Well I dunno if I got my point across properly but what I was trying to say is that those movies and games aren't really made with a creative or innovative mindset,

 

I'll just comment on this part, leaving the rest aside, if you don't mind. Being the lead developer in a software company I just happen to know how easily those creative guys can get carried away in a random creative direction, so having just a few of them randomly wondering around being creative results in the product never being released. IMHO the process of releasing any product (yes, I use the dirty word) is a dialectics between the creative part of the company and the cold hearted management - yin and yang of the development. It's easy to treat some mod you make yourself on your own as an expression of your pure creativity, but once you start working with someone else - just a single person - those management problems start kicking in. Once you've got half a dozen people working together, if they all are just being creative - they will never ever compete anything. And as the result - won't earn anything and will starve. The company of the Bethesda's size (IIRC something like 300 developers) all being just creative and expressing themselves would be a madhouse. 

 

So some management treating the goal you are supposed to achieve as "releasing the product" is necessary if only for the reason of having to complete the job in a limited time before the Sun get turned off permanently.

 

The problem here is the situation where the balance is lost by having too much of either side.

[27X]

11 hours ago, phillout said:

 

Why would "product" be a pejorative term? 

The implication is pretty clear, it's set of demographically researched demographically approved demographically safe check boxes packaged in a particular way using the latest marketing techniques aka every disney product ever made since after Black Hole. No trend setting, no clear artistic direction, no brave or controversial choices, all the the zeitgeist "hip thing" montage-managed content you could ever dream of. The only Disney based vehicle to slightly veer from this has been russo directed films, and I do mean slightly.

[megamantaray]

44 minutes ago, phillout said:

 

I'll just comment on this part, leaving the rest aside, if you don't mind. Being the lead developer in a software company I just happen to know how easily those creative guys can get carried away in a random creative direction, so having just a few of them randomly wondering around being creative results in the product never being released. IMHO the process of releasing any product (yes, I use the dirty word) is a dialectics between the creative part of the company and the cold hearted management - yin and yang of the development. It's easy to treat some mod you make yourself on your own as an expression of your pure creativity, but once you start working with someone else - just a single person - those management problems start kicking in. Once you've got half a dozen people working together, if they all are just being creative - they will never ever compete anything. And as the result - won't earn anything and will starve. The company of the Bethesda's size (IIRC something like 300 developers) all being just creative and expressing themselves would be a madhouse. 

 

So some management treating the goal you are supposed to achieve as "releasing the product" is necessary if only for the reason of having to complete the job in a limited time before the Sun get turned off permanently.

 

The problem here is the situation where the balance is lost by having too much of either side.

Well, yes, I understand that part and I've seen what can happen when creative types butt heads. I've seen it first-hand with Warframe once or twice and that isn't exactly a huge team by comparison to Beth for example. I wasn't necessarily talking about that though, I was talking about what 27X explained, peer-reviewed market-research results lazily reworked once a year for the lowest common denominator without a hint of personality to it. I.E. the yearly shooters, a good portion of the Marvel movies, Disney "products" etc. An Indie game can have setbacks internally from artistic types having disagreements but at the end of the day you get something that might be different or interesting, where "product" is what I'd call Call of Duty or Pokemon.