Why Online Multiplayer Isn't That Important

cyrus_zuo writes "GameTunnel has published an article on why they believe online multiplayer is over-rated. Specifically, author Russell Carrol feels that multi-player is only at its best when you have an emotional connection to the people you're playing against. In his words: 'Multiplayer gaming is awesome, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that online multiplayer modes are all that great. Unless I'm playing in the same room as the person I'm playing against, I lose the emotional and physical connection that makes multiplayer games fun. .. It's like going to a party where you drink and dance by yourself in your living room, and connect to everyone else through headsets, video cameras and HD TVs. No matter how you look at it, the end result is a lame party.'"

Comments

Pfft.

[reality-bytes]

n00b.

Re:Pfft.

[Red Flayer]

Funny, but it strikes me that he's the opposite of a n00b (what would that be, a b11n?)

Frankly, in a get-off-my-lawn kind of way, I can't stand talking on the cell phone in public, text messaging all the time, etc. Maybe it's my old (relatively) age, but it seems to me that someone who grew up without purely digital relationships will be uncomfortable with them their whole life.

I suspect that younger gamers have developed an aptitude for making emotional connections online that older gamers have not -- and this is the root of Russell's problem.

agree, but there clans

[erbbysam]

I totally agree with you but that's exactly the reason why most serious gamers will join clans and such so that they can fell some sort of attachment to their opponents, instead of just playing against other usernames.

the key is good communication

[no_opinion]

From personal experience, I'd say that you can have a fantastic time with complete strangers if everyone is playing with the same objective and attitude, and communicating well enough that the team can coordinate its strategy. There's nothing more satisfying (in the game context, of course) than a coordinated and simultaneously executed diversion, attack, and defense to win the game.

Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

I respectfully disagree, along with 7 million WoW players.

Anyone see "The Breakup"?

[QuantumG]

The way Vince Vaughn plays against whining kids over the Internet using his XBOX, that's what online gaming is all about.

This isn't an article

[brkello]

...it's a blog. Opinions should go below the article...not be the article itself. Why should we care if some guy feels lame playing multiplayer with strangers? If that were true for everyone, multiplayer wouldn't exist the way it does right now. He isn't talking about online trends or how to improve anything. He is just whining. What will his next "article" be? Will we find out what he had for lunch or how people picked on him because of his haircut?

Re:Bah

[AuMatar]

On the contrary- I can play just fine without the competition aspect, look at the MMO genre. I can't stand playing with random gamers, I can't put up with their stupidity and there's no real sense of group accomplishment with them.

So if my best friend lives 50 miles away...

[mr_mischief]

I can't have an emotional attachment to him when we play games online? So I had no emotional attachment to my wife when she and I were engaged and she lived 1400 miles away? That's a pretty peculiar idea.

Sure, it's often more fun to have a LAN party than to jump on a server together remotely. Just because something's not quite as fun as something else doesn't mean it's not fun. The world, even for computer geeks, is not binary in every respect. There's no switch that flips from "fun" to "not fun".

I guess the author of TFA thinks that playing a game and losing isn't fun because playing an winning is more fun. That winning $10,000 in the lottery isn't a nice surprise because winning $10,000,000 would be nicer... That having sex with one woman isn't fun because it's not a threesome...

What a tool.

Sadly, many people think this way.

[Durrok]

This is why EA and other game companies continually puts lackluster support into their online games and get away with it. The percentage of people that play online is at best 10%. When you have 90%+ of your customers buying the game who cares if their are balance issues or you can ruin a game just by pressing alt+F4 (damn you mismatch errors, damn you to hell).

I can't understand it personally. AI for games are very boring and predictable. The only way game developers make the game harder is by letting the AI cheat. This isn't the AI outsmarting you or being better then you, it's just plain crap. Even then it's usually a moderate challenge at best.

For you people so scared to play online: Go try it out. It's not as bad as you think, especially within the first month that a game has came out. Yes, you will get owned. You will likely be called a n00b. Watch what they are doing though. Learn the tactics that are being used on you and use them to defeat other players. If you want to go the extra mile read forums about tactics in between refreshing slashdot while at home or work if they allow it. You too will see be "pwning" "n00bs" with your "l33tness".

... or play through the single player and shelve it. To each his own.