Go Massive or Go Home
ByIn listening to the latest SUWT, I heard the sentiment by Adele of “Once you go mmo, you can’t go back”. This was in reference to Oblivion by Bethesda, in that playing the single player game felt like an mmo without the people. It just wasn’t the same.
I’ve had the same feeling for several years now in regards to single player games. MMOs, as fun and as great as they’ve been, have really ruined the single player experience for me. I’m just hooked on the interaction with other people, I really am. I grew up playing PC games solo, or maybe with a buddy now and again. I really enjoyed those games and those experiences. But once I went mmo, that was all she wrote.
I try, I really do. But I find that my PC games that I could play for hours and hours by myself, tend to gather dust. NWN2 is a good example. If it’s up to me to play it by myself, it will never get played. That wouldn’t have been true of me 15-20 years ago. I would have been all over that game. But today I find myself with no interest to enter into it alone. Now if I could get some friends to play with me, and we could experience it with all the dynamics and interactions that real relationships offer, I’d play it in a heartbeat.
I think single player games just bore me – or rather, it’s boring for me to play solo. I just can’t sustain interest for very long. I keep looking around for other people, for chat scrolling by, or someone saying “Hop on vent!”. It’s beautiful and interesting, but also lifeless. I keep hoping I’ll find some games that I can enjoy solo, when I’m not in an MMO or just need a change of pace. But for now, it’s either go massive or go home.
Kevin (110)
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pvthudson (29)
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Hailin (17)
I agree with you on this. I just can’t seem to enjoy offline games ever since my first mmo many many years ago. This is strictly in regards to PC gaming.
When it comes to consoles I can play a solo game for quite sometime. Even though Oblivion isn’t one of them.
This fall though is going to be a great time to be a console gamer. PC games though I follow them other then MMO’s hold no more interest to me.
That’s the thing – besides playing the original NES back in the mid to late 80s, I’ve never been much of a console gamer. Always more of a PC Gamer. BUT – this latest gen of consoles has me rethinking that position, especially in light of games like Gears of War, Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, Bioshock and more. I keep hearing great things about the Wii, although to be honest, when it first was announced I though it would flop. Tells you how much I know about the console market. I’ve debated buying an XBox, but just haven’t pulled the trigger.
If there is good solo play to be had via consoles, I may have to dive in just to have a place to go when the sever is down.
Yeah I’m having the same problem. But what really sucks is the Online games seem to all be moving to the soloing all together concept and that doesn’t do it for me either.
I big into grouping. It makes me wonder what kinda movement there has been among the group heavy game. FF11, EQ2, COH off the top of my head come to mind.
I would love a major movement towards group based MMO’s but I just don’t see that happening cause we are in the minority. /shrug
Sam you are correct – there certainly seems to be movement in MMOs to make sure the game is “viable” for someone playing solo. Soloing all the way to max level, etc. I’ve always felt that was a strange concept – to join a massive game with thousands of players, only to go solo all the time. But then again I’m not a solo person at all. I’m all about getting a good group together and hitting the content.
Hailin – I think Warhammer Online may be more of a group-centric game. RvR is really going to be their “end-game”, and from what I recall of my days in DAoC, most of the RvR was done in either 5 man groups or big “armies”. Now the pve content – I dunno. I actually need to do more research on WHO. I just have a feeling that game may be more group/team centric than solo centric.
We’ve already got games for soloers – Guild Wars, Sword of the New World, etc. :p
Its not that I have a hard time understanding viable solo play. I’ve got a job , family and completly enjoy being able to log in and do something productive when I can’t group. It’s the fact that there at least in wow is almost no reward for grouping. I knew my days in wow were numbered when some online friends and a good RL friend started griping about the fact that grouping was slowing them down. The sad irony is now they talk about how hard it is to find groups and how much that sucks. I think that the devs in many games forget that social structure is what keeps people behaving in a good fashion. When you have mmo’s where there is no real social consequence for what you do then the gloves come off and the game just gets mean.
Devs, in any game, really need to come up with someway to have consequences , both good and bad for social behavior. I’d love to see GM’s be able to Put “Shame masks” for a warning and maybe lock up thier characters in the stockades for bans. How great would that be. Especially if there was a public record that anyone could go look up of all past offenses.
I just hope Warhammer is more group centric. I’ll try it and tabula rasa. On the edge on Conan. Looks interesting but just not sure.
I think Warhammer will be more group centric – I think it’s inherent in the design of an RvR centered world. I’ll defintely be trying it as well. I think I will also try Tabula Rasa when it comes out. Not sure about Conan – not sure it will be a good fit for me.
You hit the nail on the head with your comment about the social structure. The social nature of mmo’s is what keeps me coming back. I enjoy playing with friends, whether RL buddies or folks I’ve met via a guild. I personally get bored when I solo, and I’ve never been a solo grinder. But as you state, sometimes the circumstances are such that you do need to solo for some reason, and there should be some content there to dig into by yourself.
@Kevin- I will and am looking forward to WHO in a big way.
Conan I not that interested in I am sitting in the back on this one. The big thing is the solo to 20 at the beginning part that holds me back.
TR I am approaching with caution I am just worried that Lord British’s mouth will get him in a big hole sorta like Peter Molyneux did with fable and Brad did with Vanguard.
Time will tell.
@sam You mention the stockades. In FF11 that would sorta happen. You would have your character instantly transported to dark gloomy room and you would have to explain yourself to the devs. I can tell you one visit there would be enough for me. The worst part is how do you talk your way out that situation when they have your chat log and everything can be watched. It was very big brother is watching.
I wrote about this yesterday on my site, but I hadn’t read your article before I did.
I think it really depends on which kind of games you’re playing: if you’re playing a game that feels like a gimped MMO (a la NWN, NWN2, Elder Scrolls III/IV) that really could have made it all the way to online play, then maybe this true for a lot of people. But I never have problems sitting down with a real single player game and feeling more content with that then I ever could with an MMO. Consider all of the zelda games, all of the Mario RPGs, and even the mario console games for N64+. All of the final fantasies; they never give even a hint of needing to be online to be successful, whereas the open, monotonous environment of Oblivion are just screaming for some other players. That was my take on things, anyway. Of course, these are games, so ymmv.
Ryan – I think I read your article after I had written this one as well. You have a great point, and clearly you are more versed in the console games than I am (or probably ever will be). My point is that for me, personally, I just can’t sit and play a single player game anymore *typically*, though some great exceptions may be coming out in the future (Assassins Creed comes to mind, which is tempting me to get into consoles). I’m just personally hooked on the interactions with other live people in online gaming (whether it’s multiplayer Starcraft or an MMO).
But yes, I do agree that there are probably very rewarding single player experiences out there. Clearly both the Zelda and Final Fantasy series showed that.
Yea, I should really preface all of that stuff (article(s) and comment(s)) with “I prefer” and “Some people might like”, but I guess I figure blogs are opinion anyway. I do agree that most console stuff is total garbage compared to the scope and depth of even the most ill-founded MMOs out there. I likes me Zelda.