Is Single Player Mode Dying in Modern Video Games?

[Vyxenne]

I no longer play any muliplayer games except a couple of "idle" games on my phone. My reasons are:

1. The rudeness and immaturity of many MMORPG players (trolls, griefers, etc.) has to be experienced to be believed. Certainly there are exceptions, but they seem to be getting fewer and farther between. The whole MMO experience is just pretty much repugnant to me any more.
2. I have a life. This means that I need to play games that I can pause and freeze everything while I let a dog out, or answer a phone, or go potty, or answer a text, or fix a snack, or read f'cking War and Peace. It's an impossible MMO design feature- what are the other 10,000 players online at that moment (or even the 50 in my immediate vicinity)  supposed to do while I'm AFK? If I'm in the game world, I pretty much need to be at the keyboard, not making a sammich and expecting others to just chill and wait for me to return, or not raid Orgrimmar while I'm AFK on top of the Bank where I was hawking my enchantments.
3. I like a game I can mod. Most games' characters/"avatars" don't look very good or have very much character customization flexibility without mods. I would have abandoned Skyrim years ago were it not for mods, and the Skyrim I'm playing now bears little, if any, resemblance to anything anyone at Bethsoft ever imagined back in 2011. Same for Oblivion, FNV, FO4. I understand why allowing players to mod MMOs like ESO, WoW, SWTOR, RIFT, GW2, TSW, FO76, etc. could pose problems for the developers.... but the truth is that many of game characters are so fugly *shivers remembering her gawky SWTOR characters* that without mods that provide the ability to roll a sexy, good-looking character who can wear her own taste in outfits, I just don't want to play.
4. I no longer feel the need to be competitive. My idle games on the phone are great examples of the only kind of game competitiveness I enjoy- I enhance, train, equip and set up my team the best I can manage, then enter them into the Arena and go to bed. Fire and Forget. I get an email the next day letting me know how I did and what my rewards are. Perfect. In contrast, every MMO I have ever played, or read about, is all about PvP competitiveness. Just meh.

Give me a credible not-impossible-to-survive-in world of PvE goodness and let me at least mod my own appearance, traits, perks, strengths and/or weaknesses, plus dress the way I want to dress. As far as I know, those things are only available in single-player games. So for me, the demand is very high for good, female-protagonist, controller-supported, single-player customizable/moddable games, and zero for any MMO I have seen or read about so far.

[landess]

On 8/13/2020 at 7:25 AM, KoolHndLuke said:

Think when I started this I was looking at some mmos that I liked and wished they had single player options

Interesting choice of words. Many MMO's 'did' start allowing focus as a single player experience (LotRo is a great example), yet it defeats the entire premise which MMO's originally were created for. Also - many single player games began incorporating certain elements and game mechanics which MMO's were 'famous' for.

 

It makes me realize many lines have been crossed in both 'types' of game play which has led us to what we have now - Single player games with not only crafting, skill upgrade mechanics, etc. but also an online multiplayer aspect (which is hardly MMO), while also many of the so called MMO's being completely playable as a single player experience.

 

Looking at gaming in this light tells me 'both' types are doing well, but the dividing line is beginning to vanish.

 

>>> Side note: Stream Sniping - wtf - it's amazing we need to come up with new terms in gaming because of game design, and certain uses of technology.

[worik]

1 hour ago, Vyxenne said:

I have a life. This means that I need to play games that I can pause and freeze everything while I let a dog out, or answer a phone, or go potty, or answer a text, or fix a snack, or read f'cking War and Peace.

This ?

 

Spoiler

 

Multiplayer IS fun, .. in my own social RL group where we all share the same real life.

E.g. : "Pee break? Fine! For all of us" Like we would do with any table top game from the 70's

 

 

[winny257]

1 hour ago, worik said:

This ?

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Multiplayer IS fun, .. in my own social RL group where we all share the same real life.

E.g. : "Pee break? Fine! For all of us" Like we would do with any table top game from the 70's

 

 

I have hated it, there were more outbursts of anger as joy!
even in the family circle I tried to evade group games.
multiplayer are even worse, when i play alone and I'm making a mistake, then i'm mad at myself.
but when I play in a group and someone else makes a mistake, then I get a tantrum, I could plain bite in the keyboard!
not good for health. 

[worik]

14 minutes ago, winny257 said:

but when I play in a group and someone else makes a mistake, then I get a tantrum, I could plain bite in the keyboard!

I feel with you. Did you ever play Doppelkopf with your family ? Well, at least half of them are happy when I play in the other team.

No difference between RL games and virtual games.

 

And an RPG with pen and paper is full of opportunities to wipe out your whole adventure party with one brave decision ?

[winny257]

3 hours ago, worik said:

I feel with you. Did you ever play Doppelkopf with your family ? Well, at least half of them are happy when I play in the other team.

No difference between RL games and virtual games.

 

And an RPG with pen and paper is full of opportunities to wipe out your whole adventure party with one brave decision ?

Nah, Doppelkopf in the family not, but in the pub and i have several times the table *abgeräumt*! 

 

with family sometimes *Mensch ärgere Dich nicht*, but here too there gave evil blood. 

[Molevalence]

I doubt it will be in my lifetime or next few generations, when the time comes where you can send you conscious into a game world and be whatever you want to be (Sword Art Online) or (Ready Player One) will be the peak of gaming in general. Single player games are not dead. Some of my favorite games are single player (Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim, Frostpunk, Final Fantasy I - X, Metal Gear Series up to Guns of the Patriots, my NES, SNES, and PS2 collection, Gameboy, God of War Series, Ace Combat Series, Resident Evil Series, and much more. Some of my best memories from gaming. I feel that gaming in general is suffering from triple A greed and on the other end of the coin gamer society as a whole. Not all but a large chunk of the gaming community is pure toxic, self absorbed snowflakes that will never be satisfied. Like all things in life you get the good with the bad. Honestly I appreciate single player games more these days with this generation of gamers wanted everything to be online and social. Some days I miss the "BI" (Before Internet) Era of gaming.

 

Quote Doctor Cadaver: "The sooner single player gaming dies, the sooner I give up gaming for good.  Especially in the modern era." I am in the same boat here. Personally I fear for another video game crash like the one in 1983.

[KoolHndLuke]

11 hours ago, winny257 said:

when I play in a group and someone else makes a mistake, then I get a tantrum, I could plain bite in the keyboard!

Maybe if "making a mistake" had some fun, unintended (or just cool) consequences then the emphasis is less about winning/fucking other players over and more about hanging out/enjoying things together. I don't have anything to prove to anyone and loathe the idea that I need to be some online gladiator.

 

Are there any mmos where players can hook up in the game? Imagine TESonline with Sexlab mods. Boy would we have shit to talk about then!

[Molevalence]

Just now, KoolHndLuke said:

Maybe if "making a mistake" had some fun, unintended (or just cool) consequences then the emphasis is less about winning and more about exploring/enjoying. I don't have anything to prove to anyone and loathe the idea that I need to be some online gladiator.

I remember hearing a line from Honest Trailers a while back from their League of Legends video. It was somewhere around the line of "Where every perfect move you make goes unnoticed, but a single miss click will condemn you to a world of insults and raging." Unfortunately that is what a large majority of gamers are these days. 

[KoolHndLuke]

2 hours ago, Molevalence said:

"Where every perfect move you make goes unnoticed, but a single miss click will condemn you to a world of insults and raging."

*coughs* That's not manipulative- meaning that it totally is.

[Molevalence]

Didn't say it was. Just giving my opinion on what gaming feels like lately.

[27X]

5 hours ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Imagine TESonline with Sexlab mods.

Lol, no.

 

Given the amount of fetish driven bullshit and the rampant narcissism here, not even during the apocalypse.

[Darkpig]

1 hour ago, 27X said:

Lol, no.

 

Given the amount of fetish driven bullshit and the rampant narcissism here, not even during the apocalypse.

Loverslab ROASTED!

HEYOO!

But that statement includes everyone on Loverslab even me... HEYOO!

[KoolHndLuke]

3 hours ago, 27X said:

Lol, no.

 

Given the amount of fetish driven bullshit and the rampant narcissism here, not even during the apocalypse.

Never imagined that as the go-to in a million years and it was more an example. Dysfunctional family that it may be, LL is still a fuckton more liberal than any other modding communities due in no small part to our fetishes. Otherwise you might never have visited- let alone kicked your feet up and stayed. 

[Molevalence]

1 hour ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Never imagined that as the go-to in a million years and it was more an example. Dysfunctional family that it may be, LL is still a fuckton more liberal than any other modding communities due in no small part to our fetishes. Otherwise you might never have visited- let alone kicked your feet up and stayed. 

Probably because of the perverse nature of the mods created here, and like you said, fetishes I feel the majority of us at first glance came for the mods but then stayed for the community because to me, no one here is judged and for a online community that is saying something. 

[Mr. Otaku]

48 minutes ago, Molevalence said:

Probably because of the perverse nature of the mods created here, and like you said, fetishes I feel the majority of us at first glance came for the mods but then stayed for the community because to me, no one here is judged and for a online community that is saying something. 

Yeah, that's the reason i started posting on LL after a year of being here only to get mods. It was nice to find a community that is mostly non-judgmental. There are exceptions of course, and i won't name any names (for obvious reasons, they know who they are) but mostly it's pretty good. Much more mature and flexible than more mainstream spaces.

[27X]

2 hours ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Never imagined that as the go-to in a million years and it was more an example. Dysfunctional family that it may be, LL is still a fuckton more liberal than any other modding communities due in no small part to our fetishes. Otherwise you might never have visited- let alone kicked your feet up and stayed. 

Kicking up the feet is fine, Conan Exiles showed pretty handily that as long as you keep your digital bits to yourself in IRL things should be fine. The reason Second Life even still exists is coop sex mods in an "open" format (and an abject lack of concern for copyright infringement)

 

No, you'll find the issues stem from those wanting to take things to their "illogical progression" off the screen and into the IRL-verse and Bethesda games seem to have a particular type of fanbase, which is the salient ingredient coloring the mix.

[landess]

Still waiting on some game engine built to take advantage of Google Earth so developers have a built in map to work from. Then only objects need to be created, either by hand, or procedurally rendered (or both) depending on the type of game, need for specific interaction in a given locale, or period in history being offered.

 

Flight Sims in the past were the closest to a real world environment I've experienced, but every time I use Google Earth to look at something, I find myself using it for much longer than planned.

 

As mentioned earlier - probably not in my lifetime but still, the possibilities seem intriguing for many open world applications. Could even lead to some amazing cross play opportunities in some form, maybe even resembling 'Ready Player One' for lack of a better example off the top of my head.

[KoolHndLuke]

3 hours ago, landess said:

Still waiting on some game engine built to take advantage of Google Earth so developers have a built in map to work from.

Wait....we don't have that already? I thought all those rioters were playing "The Walking Dead: Our World" or some other weird new AR game! Just say "no" children. 

[27X]

8 hours ago, landess said:

Still waiting on some game engine built to take advantage of Google Earth so developers have a built in map to work from. Then only objects need to be created, either by hand, or procedurally rendered (or both) depending on the type of game, need for specific interaction in a given locale, or period in history being offered.

 

Flight Sims in the past were the closest to a real world environment I've experienced, but every time I use Google Earth to look at something, I find myself using it for much longer than planned.

 

As mentioned earlier - probably not in my lifetime but still, the possibilities seem intriguing for many open world applications. Could even lead to some amazing cross play opportunities in some form, maybe even resembling 'Ready Player One' for lack of a better example off the top of my head.

The reason MFS is so gigantic is the devs have to literally double nav coordinates on the hard drive and in RAM to accurately simulate the amount of location data needed. With the I/O speeds possible and having two throughput coprocessors on the PS5, for the first time devs can build one instance of something and then deploy it in real time, on demand, even in multiple instances.

 

Say you have a 7/11 or mailbox in Spider-Man 2 or Infamous 3. Right now those are duplicated models that exist in copy-paste all over your map of Queens and take up multiple instances of install space and active ram alike. In the sequels, the artist modeled one mailbox or convenience store, period; the game parses out those models and the one instance of data and geometry with them all over New York; the only thing different between them will be procedural metadata that is generated on the fly covering weather/wear and tear handled with procedural damage maps and contents metadata in a tiny array, and all of that happens in real time as they come onto the screen right before the player sees them.

 

You won't see this on PC until the same Marvell drive is available or an equivalent thereof, which is about two years away for most people. Second iteration Zen3 will be the first time the PC will have a dedicated storage I/O throughput chipset, and Intel won't have anything until Alder Lake which is at least two years away.

 

However, when this does happen, the change will pretty much be quick, and thorough, and permanent, and it's coming over the next three years.

 

People saying the PS5 demo was bad are complete idiots because the GI and sparkles aren't the point; the point was over three thousand individual buildings were generated and exploded in real time with no fps loss.

[FauxFurry]

I'll post this just because I can:

 

[ayushiest]

this is single player mode amazing work video games, recently i used it now.

[Darkpig]

Are multiplayer games dying?

[FauxFurry]

Now that I am reminded of this thread's existence and the question that it posed, it is clear that single player games are bigger than ever, be it on PC or console (even if the console is portable or the PC game is a console port).

These trends will likely come and go in cycles until someone figures out that it might work better to just have games dedicated to multiplayer or single player just like any other gaming medium does. Pinball will never be Foosball nor does it ever need to be. 

[ugrena]

No, it simply seems that way because the games that get the biggest marketing campaigns tend to be multiplayer. The single player games haven't gone anywhere, we as a community just need to dig deeper beneath the surface to find them.