gaming The decline of multiplayer gaming.

[Killian Jones 2,655]

Now, time for a proper and long post here.

 

Multiplayer hasn't declined, but it has become a very very saturated market. Go back about 12 years, in the earlier days of PC Online gaming. You had games which played online, but there weren't that many games. There was Starcraft, Quake Arena, Unreal Tournament, a few others, but ultimately, not that many games to be playing online either way. Even if the community was fairly small, people tended to stick by their game for a long while, Many of these games lasting many years of online play, Most notably Starcraft going up to 2010 and still going on South Korea.

 

But the paradigm has shifted. Nowadays, making online multiplayer has become more affordable to create and maintain. In fact some publishers rely on their developers to create such content for their game. The result is that there is a such a great number of games out there with online multiplayer. And even though the gaming community at large has grown, the amount of games with multiplayer has grown at a rate far more quicker. Even more so that consoles have stepped into the fray.

 

It's easy to miss that PC Gaming did it first, and did it better. Console gaming did help make it all more mainstream with the likes of Halo 2's online. But the true origins lie with PC gaming.

 

Nowadays the whole thing has shifted. Call of Duty is seeing annual releases, meaning entire communities are shifted from one game to it's sequel as soon as it is released. And many other franchises pull the similar card out of their hands. This only enforces to fragment games even more. And as internet technology becomes better and bigger, online play becomes more diverse. With the ability to run netcode for simultaneous play. We see more and more interesting games head towards multiplayer. This is especially prevalent in MMO games, where hotkey based MMO's like World of Warcraft are slowly being outmoded by the more action based MMO's. But it also opens the door for MMOFPS for example.

 

But the main problem is merely fragmentation, there are so many multiplayer games worth playing, and thus communities become smaller centered around a singular games. Multiplayer is not declining, it has just changed over time.

[Lostwanderer 367]

I found the FPS couminty in general to be quite obnoxious, I think this was due to microphones as well as the games with large multiplayer bases.

 

Starcraft broodwar was a much cooler game multiplayer wise then starcraft 2, however people moved over, and thus Brood war is rarely played.

 

however,i do believe internet memes are partialy responsible, the small kids, those from 11-13 often think the're cool and good at games, and thus troll people on these online games and go off at people for no reason when the're bad. This deters alot of the community adn tehy stop playing because they find it annoying and tedious. Stuff like Tea-bagging and saying stuff such a OMGUN00BYUSOBAD, or even usernames like this will put people off these games.

[Evilshy 5,090]

Man, I remember back when my friend and I would play starcraft BW online for hours. Back when it was strange when you DIDN'T find a game you wanted to join. Back when people using 3rd party map editors made really cool maps for UMS games. Tarpit D 3.3 was my personal favorite

Now, it's hard to find good BW games, and I don't have SC2, yet. I've also heard it's not as good, and I'd rather not drop $60 on it.

 

O course, I spent $65 on diablo 3 because I didn't realize how laggy even single player would get at times

 

 

Andyway, Tich has it right. MP is becoming more widespread and more popular. Also, I think a major factor is that gaming is no longer a nerdy thing to do. I'm going to stereotype here a bit, but bear with me; groups of people who wouldn't ever have played games 10 years ago now do. The jocks of yesteryear wouldn't have played games because there weren't any that we're cool and accessible. But now with everybody having a 360/PS3, and everybody thinking FPSs are cool, we are flooded with a bunch of people I'd really rather not play games with. Also, the younger generation sees this and thinks "FPSs are the best games, and CoD is the best FPS" so they get their parents to buy it, then get online, adpopt the language of the people there, and the problem perpetuates itself.

 

Which is another reason why I don't play MW or BF3. I liked previous games in both series quite a lot. But these days they're just unbalanced, shoot it if it moves, die from a few bullets, auto aim out the ass games overrun by idiots

[spas-ticShotty 3,584]

First person shooters are declining? Thank god.

 

I take it that you don't like FPS'.

 

I'm honestly surprised how a Rated M game ends up with $1,000,000,000 in less days then Avatar (MW3 being said game). You'd think parents would have a little more control of their kids, right?

[Killian Jones 2,655]

Another thing you could talk about, something which TotalBiscuit in fact mentioned. Modding tools, modern FPS games will have all content creation done by the developer and publisher. Mostly to sell this as DLC. In the days of yonder, you could easily creates selfmade maps and mods for many FPS games. But now, things that were done in the past have been outmoded in favour of pretty much selling out. Perhaps the inability to mod or make maps on console has something to do with that, but PC gaming has had to suffer for it as well.

[CapnKrunk 307]

Speaking of trashtalkers, check out the reaction of this trickshotter named SoaR Stat. Shameful -_-. Skip to 0:48 for the start of Stat's rage

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgRK8BKaa0&feature=plcp

 

To quote from this vid; "I DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

 

This is kind of the reason I dont really play search and destroy on MW2 a lot.You got a lot of people these days that trash talk all the time on COD.

[spas-ticShotty 3,584]

This is kind of the reason I dont really play search and destroy on MW2 a lot.You got a lot of people these days that trash talk all the time on COD.

 

This is hilarious from this perspective, but when you're playing the game itself, it can be quite annoying

[Nas 2,873]

I don't think it's much the multiplayer gaming community in general as much as it is just the FPS multiplayer gaming community.

[Strafe 594]

I take it that you don't like FPS'.

 

With my username...how can you say that?

 

We just need less of them.

[spas-ticShotty 3,584]

With my username...how can you say that?

 

We just need less of them.

 

I never looked at it like that . The again, whenever I saw your username, the Strafe Run from MW3 almost always pops up

[Pony Joe 583]

Yeah, I would say the problem is more or less contained to the console FPS multiplayer community.

 

I do all of my online gaming on a PC, and I rarely find times when people are being unreasonably unreasonable. I think there's two reasons for this:

 

1. Easier to find unofficial servers with a good sense of community.

2. PC's take a decent amount of intelligence to set up and maintain for modern gaming in the first place.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Pony Joe

[I_wesley125 393]

Yeah, I would say the problem is more or less contained to the console FPS multiplayer community.

 

I do all of my online gaming on a PC, and I rarely find times when people are being unreasonably unreasonable. I think there's two reasons for this:

 

1. Easier to find unofficial servers with a good sense of community.

2. PC's take a decent amount of intelligence to set up and maintain for modern gaming in the first place.

 

I suppose it is not as prevalent on the PC.

I guess my perspective is a bit off since I spend most of my time on Halo.

[Sand Piper 12]

From what I've read and heard about so far on online gaming going down hill, ever since console gaming made it more convient for the casual gamer. I would have to agree with everypony here on that it certainly is a harsh environment to actually enjoy playing any game that is online. There isn't much I can relate to in terms of online gaming, mainly because I've only joined the online gaming community about 5 years ago. However I can see why everypony believes it's hard to find a mature and enjoyable game online.

 

In my humble opinion, I think most of the trash talking and raging seems to be centered around games that are very competitive, e.g. CoD & BF3. However I've also noticed the same kind of mentality in games like Lol where players trash talk their teammates for being a noob when they just want to play the game. Mmorpgs on the other hand seem to be have a more friendly community as everyone is working towards a common goal but aren't competing against one another. There are things like clans and factions that add some tension in mmorpgs, but never enough to incite complete flame wars as other online multiplayer games do...in my opinion.

 

Also the kind of console plays a part in the kind of community one faces while paying games. I've actually made more friends playing Blops on the Wii (Ikr, Blops for the Wii who would have thought?) than I have playing both MW3 & BF3 on the Xbox together. Most of the messages I would recieve on the Xbox would be of the most vile feelings that I end up just deleting them without reading. On the Wii however, messages I recieved would be from people I just beat and would be as simple as GG to asking for tips & requesting to be friends. So which platform you play on tends to affect which kind of players you come in contact with.

[Shadow Chaser 633]

[Evilshy 5,090]

 

Eh, I find it to be the opposite. Everything thing kills practically instantly, so it's largely a game of who sees who first, not who's a better player.

[Shadow Chaser 633]

Eh, I find it to be the opposite. Everything thing kills practically instantly, so it's largely a game of who sees who first, not who's a better player.

 

Yea, but I've seen plenty of kill death cams where the person who dies had spot on aim (Or at least that's how it looks) and they get destroyed by someone firing randomly.

 

Also, I don't take that gif seriously, it just made me chuckle. haha

[butter scotch 79]

People have got used to the style of running around aimlessly while spraying machinegun fire everywhere and playing a story mode which is the same every game:

Spend hours chasing the bad guy, find the bad guy, kill him in a cheesy way...

Call of duty opened the door for the 16 year old ragers...

On the other hand Halo has a good community because of things like the vidimasters and custom games, not to mention the mulitiplayer which required skill AND teamwork! CoD was just one or the other...

This isn't just my view, it is also the view of avid Halo and CoD fans which I know AKA 50+ people...

I rest my case

[Evilshy 5,090]

I want Unreal Tournament back

[Tom 891]

The pinnacle of multiplayer gaming: sitting around one screen with a couple friends playing Super Smash Bros on a Nintendo 64. XD

 

Now onto the topic, I think it's mostly because more people are playing these games.

Playing on PC, where you can get unofficial servers can circumvent this issue though.

 

...and to be fair, Neither Halo, nor CoD are providing a lasting worthwhile multiplayer scene like older games did. Too many quirks, too many things which change the game improperly.

 

Another reason why I dislike CoD, particularly Modern Warfare.

I think it's perk system does nothing but break the balance of the game, giving an unfair advantage to those who have been playing for longer. And now nearly ever FPS that is released uses a similar system. -_-

[One 498]

I just ignore them, last time I played blackops (3 days ago) at a friends house people where saying I was using aimbots and cheating and stuff but really...Im just that good!

[spas-ticShotty 3,584]

 

Everyone but Commando lungers die instantly .

 

The pinnacle of multiplayer gaming: sitting around one screen with a couple friends playing Super Smash Bros on a Nintendo 64. XD

 

Now onto the topic, I think it's mostly because more people are playing these games.

Playing on PC, where you can get unofficial servers can circumvent this issue though.

 

 

Another reason why I dislike CoD, particularly Modern Warfare.

I think it's perk system does nothing but break the balance of the game, giving an unfair advantage to those who have been playing for longer. And now nearly ever FPS that is released uses a similar system. -_-

 

 

The perk system is great IMO, but it's sure hard for the devs to balance them out for some reason . For example (Also including the annoying deathstreaks).....

 

CoD4:

Martyrdom, Last Stand

 

WaW:

Martyrdom, Second Chance

 

MW2:

Commando, Last Stand, Danger Close & One Man Army with noobtubes (Without noobtubes, they're good perks), Martyrdom, Final Stand, Painkiller

 

Black Ops:

Ghost (This is what happens when you remove Stopping Power, Treyarch!)

 

MW3:

Assassin, Final Stand, Dead Man's Hand

 

Black Ops II:

??????????

[yehaaa6 60]

The music games have really dropped off the face of the earth and they're considered a multiplayer game. Guitar Hero is on hiatus (potentially permanent haitus) and Rock Band is just releasing the occasional DLC pack every so often.

 

not exactly true with Rock Band. they release new content every week. While the heyday of rock band is gone, it's still quite alive. I play a lot of rock band, but it's usually alone. the online component is kind of... sketchy.

[Lemon003 13]

Not that I play a lot of different online PC games, but they seem to have much happier and more helpful communities than console gamers, probably because auto-aim isn't necessary for the vast majority of players to spray on target.

[Bacon 48]

I'm sticking to good ol' counter strike source! That never dies!

[The Awesome One 1,315]

I remember when Battlefield 2 first came out. Everyone was so...friendly. But today? Only a few days ago I made a some douchebag 12-year old cry just because I killed him on and on because he was so full of himself thinking he was a 'somebody'.