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 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.

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.

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

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!

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?

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.