You’ve probably encountered them, whether in shops, on trains, or perhaps burgling your kitchen. Other people are everywhere, like some sort of uncontrolled disease. Recognisable by their not being you, with their different faces and opinions, they’re exactly the sort of thing that‘s wrong with society. History books show there has never been a war that wasn’t caused or exacerbated by the involvement of other people, and while anecdotal, I’ve yet to get into an argument which didn’t involve at least one other person. And they’re ruining my videogames.
Since I was four years old, games either involved no one else, or at least only a very select few hand picked after passing a rigorous selection process. As I sat on stacked cushions to reach the Spectrum’s squishy keyboard, my entertainment was not encumbered by other people marching into the dimly lit cave and taking the rope before I could type my way toward it. I did not have to share my victory. Any gold I found? Mine. All mine. Am I a narcissistic curmudgeon? Yes, yes I am.
But now games are changing. The whole gaming landscape is changing. Remarkably, the single player game is rapidly become a niche within the wider spectrum, almost no games appearing without at least some form of multiplayer or co-op play. Now, I’m going to step in and make an exception for in-the-same-room-co-op play. We’re back to my elitist selection process, where a carefully chosen one can play alongside me. That’s not what’s on trial here – co-op can rest easy.
Multiplayer gamers, however, that’s right, look afraid. From online shooters to MMOs, will you people just leave me alone.
I’m not an unreasonable person. In fact, I’ll gladly play an MMO. But let me be clear: I have no desire to team up with you, I in no way want to be in your party, and joining your guild is the last thing I’m going to planning on doing. Because at the very moment I’m playing with anyone else, I’m suddenly responsible.
That’s the last thing I want. Responsibilities are what force me to fill in tax returns, or remember to put the bins out. In no way should my taxes and bins become a part of my leisure time. I absolutely do not wish to be beholden to anyone else when I’m playing. I don’t owe you anything, and I was perfectly happy before you came along, so just leave me alone. God.
This is why I’m so excited to hear about Bioware’s new MMO, The Old Republic. An MMO where you get NPC party members? Good grief, yes. A thousand times yes. I get the extra hands I require to tackle a stronger foe, but without them bitching and whining at me because I didn’t use my double-cloaking no-hit AOE poison buff at exactly the point they would have used it if they were playing on their own. See? SEE? Every single bugger in these games just wants the others in their parties to be the over-qualified AI companions that perform the tasks they don’t have time for. If you don’t play like they would have done it, you’ve failed them, you’ve let them down, you’ve spoiled their game. Why would anyone want that pressure? Why not fill in their tax returns too?
But if my party members are NPCs, they’ll do what they’re programmed to do, or when I tell them to do it. That’s great for any of the above frustrations I might experience. But more importantly, when I don’t do what they might want when they might demand it, they’re not going to storm off in a giant pissy huff and block me on IM.
Knowing you, you’re probably saying, “Then what you want is Knights of the Old Republic 3, not an MMO.” Well, that’s not true. I really do want an MMO of KotOR’s world, because then I’ll have myself a KotOR game that doesn’t end! And Bioware, mightiest at the RPG, utterly suck at endings. What better thing could I ask for than a favourite RPG series made infinite? And how glorious that I’ll be able to experience it without rubbish other people bloody going on.
Of course, someone might point out that in The Old Republic’s plans, NPCs who don’t like your behaviour might walk out the party. That’s something else entirely. Not approving of my moral choices – that’s fascinating. And rather different than puffing their chests out and whining because I didn’t hit the baddie they wanted me too.
So is this just because I’m rubbish, and let other people down all the time? No, it’s really not. It’s because I might want to go over there and look at that flower, and it’s no more reasonable for me to expect everyone else to join me on that sidetrack than it is for anyone else to ask me not to.
This isn’t exclusive to MMOs. If I’m playing a first-person shooter, you know what? I’m going to take my time. You don’t like that? Then kindly move along. I’ve sat in a room recently with people playing Team Fortress 2, screaming – and I mean SCREAMING – in anger at a Medic’s failure (someone not in the room) to uber-charge them the very instant they wanted it. The person may have been screwing up, I don’t know. But I do know that I have no desire, ever, to be that poor guy. Why would I? Why would I want to be weighed down by that much responsibility, such that other people playing a game get so incredibly angry with me? Maybe I didn’t want to do it then, because it wasn’t my fancy. Teamwork is a miserable experience when you’re meant to be playing. PLAYING!
Okay, that’s not fair. Those people are angry because that Medic’s play is spoiling their game. If the Medic had played to their advantage, they’d have had a better time, possibly not been killed, and their time would have been altogether more enjoyable. And once again I come back to the pressure. What messed up set of events are in place where my actions are responsible for other people’s having a decent game? Too much! Get me out of there! See, I’m very happy to play TF2, but so long as I can muddle along with my own thing, in my own time, making my own mistakes. I’ll be the one trying to solo the game, thanks indeed.
So I say to you planet Earth, enough with other people. Either you all back away and leave me to enjoy my games in peace, or I start to introduce sanctions. Harsh, possibly unfair, but I think entirely appropriate.
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So who is going to write the counter blog to this?
I think you are being a bit short sighted about games like this.
For me the key thing to do with an mmo is to find a bunch of organized people that have the same play-style/lifestyle as you. Even to a point where if the guild that you are in decides to quit playing that game you would all as a group move on to another one.
As mmo’s mature game guild/teams etc are becoming more of a important part of online multi player gaming. Games are fun but with a bit of serious organization you can have serious fun!.
You seem to be trying to rationalize why kicking a football against a wall on your own is better than play with in two teams of 11. I dont know why people speak out against cooperating.
Not playing team games is gimping your opportunities to have a bit of fun.
PS: the continued rise in the numbers and popularity of game guilds is very interesting and worth looking into. Bizarre as it sounds but guilds like Nihilum have a massive fan base. It would be interesting to read up what RPS chappies have to say about them.
This is kidna why I’ve never bothered to play the copy of TF2 I got with Orange Box. I’d be that guy going the wrong direction trying to figure out the keys and what I’m supposed to be doing while everyone else spews obscenities in all caps in my general direction.
I wonder if we’ll ever see a proper offline, single player MMO… I mean, because lets face it that’s just dying to be clarified, you play on your own (in terms of players), but the world is FULL of NPCs you can interact with, which would be the substitute for the other players.
In my head it sounded great. *pouts*
itt: shit people.
glad you can’t stand the heat, you suck anyway. too long have you diluted the talent pool. clear out and let’s keep raising the bar. shame this doesn’t happen so quickly and efficiently irl. oh well, it’s a good model at least.
Amen
I’m a little worried about Left4Dead. I know I’m going to have to buy and play it, it being a zombie apocalypse game and all (I can’t let a game genre I’ve been hoping would emerge with a glorious game go by) but 4 people having to work together… I’m probably going to have to buy copies for those select few…
I am often amazed at how the people who praise the philosophy of eugenics and elitism are often the very people who I don’t think would reach the bar. At all.
You don’t see rocket scientists or neurosurgeons and the like championing it but masters of videogames and obscure nerd lore. But, yeah. I lol’d.
Oh the irony. Never have I read a comments thread which proved the articles point where most of the comments are actually trying to agree with the article.
erlam meet Team Fortress 2.
Team Fortress 2 & Counter-Strike are not the same game.
H: “I wonder if we’ll ever see a proper offline, single player MMO… I mean, because lets face it that’s just dying to be clarified, you play on your own (in terms of players), but the world is FULL of NPCs you can interact with, which would be the substitute for the other players.”
It seems like you’re looking for a really good sandbox singleplayer RPG. Well, Fallout 2 is avaialable again….
Oblivion might have fit the bill if it had strung some of those dozens of inconsequential linear microquests into quest chains involving and affecting more nuanced NPCs. But it didn’t, alas.
[ISTM Oblivion is a lot like an offline version of Guild Wars -- loads of quests, loads of NPCs, but few of them are at all special. It would be nice if we could one day say that Fallout 2 is a lot like an offline version of Bioware's Star Wars MMO -- loads of quests, loads of NPCs, and quite a lot of them are special.]
I’m hoping that Left4Dead will have a good lobby system that helps you find people to play with. I’m not currently a member of a gaming “community”, and don’t know enough gamers in RL to make it work.
John, part of me kept thinking you were writing ironically. But, whether or not you were, and I’m guessing from your comments you were not, I couldn’t agree more with each and every word you wrote. I think I may feel even more curmudgeonly than yourself on some of these points but that may just be my overinflated pride rearing it’s gorgeous head.
However, ‘responsibility’ is not my core reason for disliking MMOs (although I’ve played many of them). My primary dislike is the other people. The only way to for me to begin to make WoW palatable it to turn off all public channels so I don’t have to listen to all these people trying to suck the immersion out of the game I’m trying to enjoy.
I’m not antisocial. I used to be a passionate MUDer and have even been known to date despite that obvious handicap. But modern MMO players just drive me up a wall. MMOs can be fun if I want to play a game as a game, like a card game. Potentially fun mechanics, action, etc. But if I want immersion, and I DO want immersion more so than anything else in a PC game, then I just can’t seem to find that in current MMOs.
I’m glad they are promoting SP-play in SW:TOR. This is not because it’s a good idea. I generally think that attempts at doing so will fail and it will do neither as well as if it had specialized. However, I’m happy because I desperately want a KotOR 3 and am stuck with this. And if Bioware sticks to their blasters and does as they are saying, maybe they’ll just prove me wrong. Perhaps, they’re our only hope.
I couldn’t disagree more!
Single player games hold my attention less and less these days, they are too repetitive, predictable and superficial.
I love multi-player games and I love to play with random Joe Pubs.
The secret to my success is that I am actually genuinely unfriendly. I don’t join groups in MMPORGs to make friends or chat about firefly. I’m polite and diplomatic but I don’t engage at all in the personal soap opera that would make the play so offensive.
If people start to mouth off about x, y or z I just ignore them. Not just in a pretending to ignore them, but actually still listening and getting a bit annoyed sort of way, I really do become completely oblivious to them.
IMHO, this represents a kind of tolerance (admittedly a cynical sort of one!), and is probably an essential skill for enjoying games with random others.
Personally I think that tolerating other people’s crazyness is a small price to pay for the extra variety and dynamism that playing with people rather than wonky AIs brings.
Its also worth bearing in mind that every now and again you can have really positive interpersonal experiences playing games with random strangers too, although I’ll accept that its far from the norm!
I have to disagree with Mr. Walker. I know that soloing in an MMO can increase immersion and be a more relaxing experience than grouping up. It’s like playing a single-player sandbox RPG except in an MMO you have a built-in irc client to chat to your friends in while playing!
Now, there’s nothing wrong with playing an MMO like that and enjoying it – not as an activity in itself. However, when a lot of people are doing that, they’re effectively preventing the people who WANT to group up from doing so by diluting the server population available for groups! You’re effectively taking away a server spot from someone who would want to group with other people, and therefore detracting from their enjoyment of the game.
I’m not saying people should’t solo at all. It’s comforting and relaxing to go off and kill a few mobs on your own without having to worry about keeping pace with someone else. But when a game is designed so that progression via soloing is just as fast and easy as when you group then you’re effectively discouraging people from grouping, and what’sthe point in playing an MMO if there’s no incentive to play with others?
(My private opinion is that content optimised for soloing also leads to addiction, in that your play patterns gradually fall into the “Pick up quest, use skills 1,2,3,4,5, go back for quest reward, pick up next quest, kill mobs by using skills 1,2,3,4,5, rinse, repeat”. Playing with others breaks up this pattern because it provides variation, even if it comes only from watching another player’s avatar move about on screen without conforming to the movement patterns of the AI, and therefore makes play less addictive. However, I’ve got no way to prove this so I won’t bring it into this.)
For me to want to pay a sub to be in a world filled with other players, I want to either be able to fight them, or group with them (and preferably both). Most modern MMOs don’t offer any decent 1v1 PvP, because class balance rests on the rock/paper/scissors design, and it’s not much fun when the outcome of 90% of fights can be predetermined. So that leaves grouping, either to fight mobs or to fight other groups of players. But if most of the content is designed to let you solo it, it makes forming a group both harder (cause there’s fewer people willing to group) and less rewarding (cause most of the content becomes too easy).
what is the problem with lettting your teammates get slaughtered, wha ha ha ha ha. even funner if freindly fire is on. too stupid to keep themselves alive? let em die
I understand John’s anger with other people. I play mostly Medic on team fortress 2 and as soon as I play Medic, everyone shouts for me and asking for ubers!!! I cannot be in two places at once, all the enemy scouts hunt me down while my teammates are wondering where that blasted medic is? All I got to say is playing medic is taxing but… I seem to enjoy it. Just makes the game a little bit more as soon I let my ubercharge RIP. If someone shouted at my crap healing or not ubering them, I change class and play as a sniper humping up and down near them. Alot.
For the people talking about TF2: It does have a mode where you can run around empty maps. Either find a completely empty server, or “create server” of your own and just run around the map so you know where stuff is.
It’s not playing against bots, but I’ve played against Counter-Strike’s bots, and you’re not missing much.
For the people talking about TF2: It does have a mode where you can run around empty maps. Either find a completely empty server, or “create server” of your own and just run around the map so you know where stuff is.
It’s not playing against bots, but I’ve played against Counter-Strike’s bots, and you’re not missing much.
Or play those levels in Gmod of course. All the same fun plus you get to make silly pictures!
And a big aaaaaaahmen to this–Mr. Walker’s fairly nicely outlined a good many of the reasons I don’t have a lot of enthusiasm for modern MMOs (though he did forget the flipside of the ‘responsibility’ issue–just like you don’t want to have to feel ‘responsible’ for your part, you also don’t want to have to be stuck relying on someone else being responsible in order for you to have fun).
My view on MMOs–I love the purely social aspects, like being able to chat with others I know have similar interests while playing, having an in-game resource for help when I get stuck (instead, of, say, hitting GameFAQs while my game-avatar just stands around), and being able to hit up PCs and/or PC-stocked shops for items/gear that would be annoying/tedious for me to go fetch on my own.
Buuut…I absolutely loathe setups that make partying required instead of optional, both for Mr. Walker’s reasons, and for the ones I pointed out above–if it’s a situation needing extra muscle/whatever, I’d rather have the option of hiring/renting skilled ‘bots’ instead of being absolutely forced to deal with other players.
Mind you–I can quite understand the opposing arguments, too–getting a good team of people you know and work well with together and going out and accomplishing some big task can be a rush, yes…but frankly, you’re the lucky ones. If I wanted to deal with the headache and heartburn of having to worry about whether or not someone else is going to show up when needed and be competant at what they do in order to accomplish what I want/need to do in the game, I’d go back to work where at least I get paid for it. :-/
Sartre said it best: Hell is other people.
I like Massively Single Player games. That is what I like.
See, I vastly prefer singleplayer games. But not at all for most of the reasons Walker cites. I’ve never really had a point in any multiplayer game I’ve played where I worried about responsibility or being yelled at for not playing properly. I just find that I enjoy games a lot more when I can play them at my own pace and be the star of the show in a good, scripted, exciting gameplay experience. Competitive multiplayer is basically the equivalent of sports – do some insanely repetitious thing against other people because….well, I don’t know really. It does nothing for me. And competitive multiplayer is the vast majority of the multiplayer scene (albeit less so these days).
But I really do enjoy cooperative multiplayer – on my console, same system in my living room. On PC, online with my online friends. The joy of the MMO, then, is its focus on doing huge swathes of game with a big, organized group of players interacting. And frankly soloing ruins that. (In addition to being stultifyingly dull in most MMOs, particularly before World of Warcraft, because a singleplayer RPG can provide a far, far livelier, more impactful play experience than you can achieve as one guy whacking things with a stick in an MMO. At least now they give quests and storylines. You still have no impact on the world, though.)
And there’s where I do agree with Walker – if I want to play with other people, but they don’t want to do what I want to do, well. Then there’s most definitely a problem.
Brilliant article.
The thing that made it possible to make MMO’s last so long, is the huge amount of people that pay you the money you need to develop that amount of content. MMO’s have several downsides though. When you’re making a game that lasts so long, you can’t make it so that every moment you play is fun. In a single player type game, having timesinks that aren’t fun is usually frowned upon, while in an MMO most people figure the time spent is worth the reward. Also, an MMO includes The Other People. A lot of them. You can’t do anything you want when The Other People rely on you and you rely on The Other People. Well, you can, but The Other People would probably not like you much more than you would like The Other People if they did something completely wrong when you relied on them. Anyway, this can take away a lot of freedom, and so take away a lot of the fun for many people. This is your problem with the game, I guess.
To some people, those sacrifices in freedom to do what you want isn’t worth it, while others enjoy using teamwork to overcome a challenge. The former would be the people like you, who doesn’t think the lack of freedom to play the way you want to play when you’re responsible for other peoples enjoyment, is preferable to the freedom to explore everything the game has to offer, without people calling you a noob for it. The latter would be the people that are patient enough to accept the lack of freedom and the mistakes and/or failures of you and everyone else you play with until the challenge is overcome.
It’s pretty obvious that there is a market for the people who want a game that lasts as long as an MMO, lacks The Other People, and is as fun as a classic Single Player/coop game. But is it possible to make a successful game this way, I wonder?
They did – it was called Morrowind :p
Seriously, I really get what makes soloing enjoyable, I’ve done it myself not infrequently, but I always thought of it as a relaxing break from grouping, or, at worst, as a last resort when I was playing at some ungodly hour and there was no-one else around. The thought that there’s millions of people there who PREFER to play solo except when necessity dictates otherwise, using an MMO that cost tens of millions of $$$$ to make as a glorified IRC client is mind-boggling!
What MP say.
My favorite stuff from Morrowind is that I am greeted by all NPC’s, I feel warm on my interior to *really* be know and loved as a hero after *YEARS* playing, killing foes, saving people. Morrowind is more a alternate universe, than a videogame. MMORPG games hare becomming lobbys +grindboxes. If you don’t want the lobby part (you don’t want people) theres only teh grindbox. As a RPG, most (reads: all) MORPG suck. Singleplayer RPG’s like Mass Effect, The Witcher, Morrowind or Baldurs Gate, have much better RPG and sould be played insted… And If you like grindboxes anyway, then play some korean free RPG, like Atlantica Online, AION (will be grindintense?), Shaiya Online, Perfect World , Maginobi, Hello Kitty, or other stuff.. IMHO.
You’d like Guild Wars. It has a henchmen system where you can obtain a full party of 8 without having to interact with another soul. This includes 3 ‘heroes’ whose stats and gear you can customize to your liking. PvE deliciousness.
Um, ignore what jonfitt said about the grind. It takes maybe a day to get to max level, a couple more days to get the max items in the game. After that, all grind works towards non-essential stuff, ie.
a) Better looking items, with the same stats
b) Cool titles or emotes
c) Unlocking new builds for your character to try
I never play multiplayer games (cooperatively) unless there’s somebody I know playing it with me. Once there are none left, I quit. It was like that in Planetside, it’s like that in TF2, and it’s the secret sauce of console gaming. I don’t mind competitive-only play against strangers, provided that the only interaction required or minimally expected is that of the game itself – if, in short, aside from the occasional “thanks” or “good game” we are all just bots to each other.
If the only thing I have in common with a person is that we’re both playing the same game at the same time, I don’t want to meet that person. The odds are terrible.
be sports in any game we play…tnx
I have to keep this brief, and I wasn’t able to read the whole list of comments, but here goes:
I love single-player games. I prefer to play them with headphones and away from other people. A single player experience is a private matter.
I love multiplayer. I play on AOF (Angry Old Farts) servers whenever I can, because they play for fun and and you don’t get any swearing 13 year olds.
John, after reading your article, my first reaction is to try tell you that “We’re not all that bad.” and defend MMOs and their players. But I can’t honestly. I’ve never enjoyed MMORPGs for long because there’s no RPG. All it is is a glorified math simulator so people can determine the downright best way to do things. And then that’s all anyone ever does. I assume you enjoyed Oblivion? There’s a mod out that lets a few players play in the same world. Perhaps you’d enjoy something like that, since you’d never NEED to meet anyone.
But I’m rambling now. You are entitled to your opinion. I just want you to know that Multi-player CAN be fun. It all depends on the players.
This is the reason I prefer playing with plp I know in rl, or guildies, those I can trust will not scream at me if im wrong but simply accept it. And yes I play monk in GW (guild wars) and I enjoy the responsibilty. (I love having power over plp ;P)
Completely agree with the article. In fact, this more or less mirrors my own psyche. I play MMOs quite a bit, and never, ever team up. Not in the last few years, anyhow.
The only exceptions are when I’m trying out a new trial version, and join into a fellowship by accident, then don’t know how to politely bow out; so I play along for a bit, but it’s absolutely fun-killing for me, and I can’t wait for the first opportunity to split ways.
Here’s a question for others of the same ilk: do you think it’s a fault of the games, themselves, that we don’t enjoy teaming up (in what are supposed to be social, or team-based games), or is it just a personality quirk, that can’t be mitigated by even the most subtle gameplay design?
I remain hopeful.
I totally agree. Other people ruin games for me.
Co-op is fine, but I haven’t played an MMO for years.
I have to say though, Bioware the mightiest at the RPG??
Bethesda dude, that’s all I’m sayin
No one will write a counter blog to this because he is absolutely right and there is no grounds for disagreement. I have decided this and so it is true… so long as those despicable ‘other people’ stay out of things. :-P