By RPS on August 11th, 2009 at 8:35 am.
Good morning, internet. We have a question for you: are you playing a multiplayer videogame on a regular basis? Whether it’s a racing game, an MMO, an FPS, or even head-to-head Tetris, we want to know. How many multiplayer games are you playing? How much time are you putting in? Please fill in the poll below and then let us know what it is you play in the comments. (Bonus points for recognising the header image.)
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{democracy:32}
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{democracy:31}
I don’t have the focus to play multiple multiplayer games. I’ll play one, burn myself out, go on to another, go back, etc. But always just have one singular time that I feel like playing. Typically I go for a couple weeks before switching.
Currently, I’ve been playing Soldier of Fortune 2 MP. It’s got a nice balance between mindless deathmatching and a tiny taste of counterstrike shooting mechanics to it, and I’m surprisingly really damn good at it. Been having fun with that.
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bah I hate other people ruining mah gamin!!!
I prefer single player games simply cause I like stories, which even MMORPG’s are severely lacking in. MP games are fun enough but feel pointless after an hour or two and I basically will never go back to it.
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I don’t play multiplayer games with strangers as a rule, and my usual compatriots and I have been too busy of late to coordinate schedules, so it’s been strictly single player for the last month or so. This is one reason I don’t place a lot of value on the multiplayer components of games (and virtually no value on MP-only games), you never know when your ability to play them is going to evaporate.
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Yeah. I played a lot since I found a community to play with, but if I didn’t have them I think I’d barely venture into MP at all.
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I used to play EvE alot but cant afford it anymore due to crap like the company the wife worked for goin under.
so im now playing Guild Wars again, after the initail layout its the best online rpg in my opinion, currently playing nightfall then ill work my way through the other chapters.
im in a fairly large Euro alliance that PvP’s alot as well so theres plenty going on.
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GM of a WoW raid guild, so even allowing for the fact that I try to play as little as possible I usually clock up 15-20 hours a week.
Funny how a game can suddenly become a responsibility.
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For some reason my MP gaming has been reduced to just TF2 as of late and my time spent on that has dipped dramatically. If you had asked me 2 months ago then I would have had to confess to a nasty case of WoW as well and raiding alone was costing me 20+ hours per week…oh the shame…
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It’s Extreme Violence on the Amiga, isn’t it?
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The pic is Extreme Violence on the Amiga, isn’t it?
It certainly looks that way, and I remember that game fondly. Came on a coverdisk for Amiga Power, I think. If I’m wrong, I’ve waffled a bit much here. Hmm.
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About the only multiplayer game I have played regularly recently (as in the last few years) is Trackmania.
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I’m not a big multiplayer gamer at all, mainly because of a turrrrble internet connection. But I do love some L4D with my mates every now and then.
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I don’t have much time to play, as do my friends, so we can’t get online at the same time (or offline, for that matter).
playing with RIPs (Random Internet People) just doesn’t cut it for me.
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I don’t even regularly play modern, multiplayer games, so my time put into online play is zero.
I used to play alot of Battlefield 2 online, but since then I have yet to find a multiplayer game that isn’t littered with hardcore sado-rushishists for RTS’ (yes, that’s a word now) or just laughably small in scale compared to BF2 for FPS’ (once you go 64 player, you never go back).
Needless to say, I look forward to BF3.
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1 – 3+ games
I still play Battlefield 2 almost every week with the guys over at 21CW.
Normally get a few games of Left 4 Dead a week with friends I met playing it.
Then I normally have 1 or 2 games that I’ve either got new or am dusting off a classic to placate an itch till something new comes. (TF2, CoD4, CS:S, WoW, WAR, hell I’ve even given Farcry 2 and Stalker multiplayer a go)
2 – Normally 12+ hours per week
I normally put 6 hours into BF2 over at 21CW on saturday while the campaign is running, so that’s half of that there.
Sometimes it can dip below 12+ if I’ve got a new single player game, biggest example being the new Football Manager each year.
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I don’t really have much time at home to play multiplayer games anymore so i’m usually confined to LAN games of RSV2/COD:MW during lunch at work
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I watched entire months evaporate from my life in Ultima Online. Since then, I overdosed on Wow in the first couple of years, and that’s about it. Most of the time I’m a single player kinda guy. I like stories, not shooting people in the head. Age thing, I guess…
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I’m not sure how to answer this, really. There’s periods where I do almost no multiplayer gaming, like right now. And then there’s periods where I play TF2 all week long. Really, all the multiplayer I do is TF2, and TF2 goes in cycles for me. So the answer will vary from 0 to 12+ (A LOT more than 12).
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i spend most of my time playing multiplayer (civ4 and quake live recently). i’d play more single player if the games actually had AI and were more accessible
AI needs to be non-cheating and good enough to compete against AFTER i learn “how to play” the game. the AI being challenging while i’m still figuring out the game mechanics doesn’t really count in my book. however, coop games manage to stay fun even with overpowered AI
accessible meaning I can play short amounts without having to make up for it later by relearning stuff when I come back to the game. i’m likely to forget the story and control setup if I take a break or something like that.
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Current regulars, in descending order of recent playtime: Battlefield 1943, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Battlefield Heroes. I normally play half an hour of TF2 or Heroes at work during lunchtimes, and have an extended session of random things with my mates every Thursday night. After that, I’ll normally play something multiplayer two or three other times a week (mostly with friends, sometimes not), so I think I make it up to the 8-12 hour bracket.
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A useful third question might be: “Do you play WoW?”
Because like all my friends, we started playing WoW when it came out, and we might play less now but still dabble in it. But we’ve no interest in playing another MMO, and certainly no interest in TF2, or anything like that.
It’s an anomaly and I think the figures for multiplayer would be far lower without it. (Not to mention all the people that play it as a single-player RPG)
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It’s all about the small group multiplayer for me at the moment: Neotokyo, Left4Dead and some Call of Duty: World at War Co-op and zombie slaying for me. I had kinda gone off multiplayer but Left4Dead reminded me how much fun it can be.
I haven’t played a MMORPG since burning myself out on em (and also making one) several years back.
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TF2 and, er, TF2?
I hate randoms and Live Kiddies, so generally only partake in multiplayer games with the RPS Steam chaps.
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I go through phases with games. My FPS’ing is primarily done on the PC, but for most of the other stuff I stick with my 360. Used to be the most hardcore of PC gamers, but a lot of friends got 360s and I sort of drifted over to that as my primary multiplayer platform.
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Can’t remember when I last played MP. I used to play OFP a lot with the same bunch of players but they moved on to ArmA and then ArmA2 (neither of which holds a candle to OFP imho) so it’s been pretty much SP since then, most recently Portal Prelude and Research & Development.
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Can’t really answer this. I used to play a lot of TrackMania – I mean, almost every day. Then I played TrackMania Sunrise almost every day, and then Nations, and then Forever. But now I’m bored with it. I play some local MP, though. Mostly FIFA (on the 360, or FIFA-machine as that’s almost the only thing I use it for), but some Fall from Heaven II (hotseat) as well. Even played a game of Ports of Call the other day.
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BTW: Extreme Violence?
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TF2, L4D – Demigod demo of late. Sometimes an MMO beta or trial (have played a full MMO but that was a while back). Defcon occasionally. Various HL2 mods. NOrmally with the same group of people I hang out on vent with.
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I’m not playing much multiplayer at the moment since it goes in seasons. Last autumn I was playing lots of Left 4 Dead and Multiwinia with occassional bouts of TF2. That’s dried up recently but when new games come out or a set of friends suddenly decide to start playing something again that can all change.
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LOL. 31 people play zero MP games but 32 people play MP games for zero hours a week =)
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I made a post but my browser eated it.
Sometimes i’d be 40+ hours. Most of my gaming time really is multiplayer, its one of those 54% mosts though.
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MonktonGaz says:
I like stories, not shooting people in the head.
Pansy.
I tend to be a one-mp-game-at-a-time guy myself, but that can stretch to 2 or more if I’m straddling genres (e.g. an FPS, Civnet, and Worms). At the moment I seem to keep going back to Quake Live, despite deciding that I’ve had enough at least twice a week.
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WoW, TF2, CS:S, DoW II
Have to admit WoW does become a bit of a “job” sometimes but I have friends so I play with them.
In fact all the games are played with people I “know” as opposed to internet people.
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Umm… let’s see: -Battlefield Heroes
-Battlefield 2
-World In Conflict, although my internet makes staying connected to a game a bit of a struggle.
-Team Fortress 2
- Left 4 Dead
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
- World of Warcraft, cutting down on it though
- EvE, my new fix now that I’m trying to kick WoW =P
Hooray horrible addiction! It would probably be more impressive if I was good at any of them.
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One thing in my original big post was the number of games i play, i have a few dozen multiplayer games installed, i probably dip into 8 or so in any given week when i’m really in a multiplayerific mood.
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I run a TF2 server / community (Killing Joke -KJ-) so guess where all my time goes…
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I never spend much time with multiplayer. I’ll generally just try it out once I finish the singleplayer portion of a game I like, and when I’m confident that I understand its basic dynamics, I stop and forget about it. Team Fortress 2 is the only exclusively multiplayer game that I own, and the only MP game I’ve kept playing after grokking it.
Co-op is different – if a game supports co-op I will always attempt to arrange to play it with a friend – Dawn of War 2 for example, I have played with 3 different people, so never made it very far :P
Unfortunately, too few coop games exist; not even enough for me to play one per month, let alone a week. So I’ve voted 0 on both questions.
A few years ago this would’ve looked different, when I still played in a couple of DM’d Neverwinter Nights campaigns. Those were the days. But the campaigns are over now, so no multiplayer for me at the moment.
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Oh uh actually that’s a lie about owning no other MP games than TF2, there’s also Left 4 Dead (okay it can be played SP, but who does that!?) and of course World of Warcraft. I don’t play either of those anymore though.
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This week I have been mostly playing: Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, Battlefield 1943.
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I pretty much never play MP anymore.
Dabbled in some Battlefield Heroes for a bit about a month ago, and that was a lot of fun, but I don’t really care much for MP.
Once in awhile I’ll also pick up WWII Online for a bit, and play it constantly for about a week or two, and then start getting annoyed by some of it’s mechanics and slowly play it less.
Used to play WoW (Got bored at lvl 30 something.). WoW is a job, and any friends you make you lose if you stop playing for about a week at a low level. I spent most of the time in game alone, doing random “Kill X amount of Y quests”, and as much as I liked the World of WoW, I figured if I was going to play a single player game, might as well play one with a story.
Done free trials for EvE, and WAR, wasn’t thrilled by either of them.
Otherwise, I play some steam MP games, like CS, DoD or NS, but only if I have a friend over at my house.
I played the SWG open beta, which was great fun because of the community, and I used to play XWA as part of the LSF (Wonder if anyone remembers that :).
I used to play LOAAADS (like, 12+hours a week) of AoE2 and Day of Defeat (Back when the had the OFP style crosshairs). But this was like, 6-7 years ago…I was about 15-16 then.
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TF2 and WoW… I’m so mainstream.
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Playing TF2, L4D, Neotokyo, used to play some counter strike before Neotokyo came out and I also play some Pangya online haha
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I find that only multiplayer FPS games can hold my attention these days. Occasionally there’s the odd SP gem like the Half Lifes, World of Goo, etc. but generally I always end up gravitating back towards TF2 or Battlefield 2142. Apart from the social aspect I think the main reason I play MP is because you can’t just pause it to wander off and make a cup of tea/ watch TV/ browse the internet etc. which is what always happens when I try to play a SP game.
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About 3/4 games a week. differs of my mood. Playing Age of Chivelary in a clan, and playing Forgotten Hope 2(BF2 mod) in the World at War tournament with custom maps and all that. So that kinda ranks up to 12+ hours a week. Although i do enjoy vacation time right now. I also play games like Trackmania, project reality, Point of Excistance and a few more mods for other games.
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I used to work in the prison system, and my reasoning for avoiding multiplayer was that if I was going to get called a faggot by a squeaky-voiced teenager, I wanted it to happen at work where I was at least being paid.
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Until fairly recently I’ve been playing a reasonable amount of TF2 and Red Orchestra. I’ve since stopped that and gone back to LoTRO, and I’m having a whale of a time. I guess I’ll probably end up playing it pretty solidly for a while, then back to the shooters.
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At the minute only just come back from holiday, so there’s been no mp action. I’m not a WoW fanatic but rather dip into TF2 and L4D when i fancy it as well as a brief stint on NeoTokyo following the mention here. I’ve been playing more single player, namely Grid. All of this is inbetween RAID failures at the minute making my life fun.
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I’m an MMO/RPG junkie, for the most part. Currently playing a lot of: Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and Neverwinter Nights 2. Randomly playing: City of Heroes(/Villains) & Titan Quest.
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I’ve tried a few online multiplayer games in my time and haven’t found any (that still playable) that are enjoyable enough to want to play them. The likes of TF2 simply bore me to tears and most MMOs just aren’t worth playing unless you live in the US/EU zones due to server location.
So, it’s single player games mainly for me right now. Far more enjoyable and no worries of little toe rags and their desire to cheat/insult anyone that plays better than them.
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I have a small group of friends and internet friends (less than 10 people) who’ve know each other for 5+ years and are of more or less the same taste and level of jadedness when it comes to games.
We love doing co-op and MP, but only in a select few titles. Like L4D, which is the greatest MP fun we’ve all head in years. The only MMORPG we’d consider getting into, we all agree, is The Old Republic. Other than that we’re can’t really be bothered.
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I’m rubbish at online FPS, RTS and the like so I tend to only play them a few times. And as for MMOs I get bored of them easily…
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I found it hard, some weeks I’ll loads and possibly a few different games. But many weeks I’ll play absolutely nothing multiplayer.
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I didn’t used to play much in terms of multiplayer, but once I found a good community I largely try to stick with them. And it’s pretty awesome when you’re playing with non-jerks.
Usually one or two games depending on what’s out. Until recently Dawn of War 2 was my prime choice (still is for co-op, but Relic, please, balance your multiplayer game), and either Left 4 Dead or TF2.
I’d say that more important than how regularly you play is whether you tend to do so with a community of some sort. It makes all the difference in the world when you don’t have to put up with random internet idiots ruining the fun. I mean, that’s part of the reason that even RPS has a semi-official TF2 server right? And it works, because even there, on an open invite group server, the gameplay’s a lot better than what you’d usually find going to random places on the internet. People communicate more, and aren’t generally prone to be sweary morons.
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Within in the last week I’ve been playing no less than TF2, Zombie Panic!: Source, L4D, Counter-Strike: Source and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic MP. Definately been racking up the most hours in ZP and TF2, L4D in 3rd closely followed by DM MP and CS: S comes in last (I was just going through it again for the girlfriend mind).
Still the DM MP is almost sad to play, such promise with nary a rifle but many a fireball, sword and poisonous orb. If the devs had kept on supporting it then it could have been truly grand, now I sometimes play just to egg me on to create a source mod that does a FPS magic-based DM/TDM/Team game better than that.
Also I miss Air Buccaneers, if I see a server up for it I’m in it like a shot.
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I was thinking about this the other day in reference to the L4D boycott, simply in the context of how much gameplay time have I got from my purchase, in comparison to single player games for the same price.
It was roughly 40 hours of L4D which for any game is quite good, and then as I was playing it last night I added up the play time for each class in Team Fortress 2 and found I’d played over 200 hours.
I can safely say for the price I paid I got a bargain in those games.
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Currently zippo. After sinking a year into WoW all of the other MMORPGs have failed to grab me in any meaningful way. WAR was a particular dissapointment. I’ve found multiplayer RTS games too intimidating and too reliant on spider-fingered micro management to spend much time with.
I used to spend a fair amount of time with multiplayer FPS games and get a genuine adrenaline thrill, but I don’t really have the time to sink into one in order to become much good at it. I had thought TF2 would be a good casual one I could dip in and out of, but once they added unlockables and achievement grinding I just couldn’t be arsed. I might try it again now they’ve changed things a little.
The main deterrent is that it’s hard to find good mature servers with decent support, courtesy and teamplay.
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playing warcraft 3, counterstrike source, call of duty 4 and whatever else strikes my fancy on a regular basis
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My multiplayer comes from WoW instances and L4D.
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Only a smattering of EVE these days. Most of what little time I now spend at the computer is in TF2. Someday I’ll get to fifteen whole minutes played as a spy…
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Am back playing L4D survival for a bit; before that, was playing COD4 online. Otherwise, I occasionally dip into old faves TF2 and Day of Defeat: Source. I can go for weeks without playing anything online though. It’s not over a year since I last played WoW, keep meaning to go back, never do.
My experience of people online is generally good. Sure, while playing L4D Versus Mode a while back, I did meet some insufferable assholes, but playing Survival recently, most people have been courteous, sometimes funny, and took the game seriously without forgetting it’s a game.
P.
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I hate the majority of multiplayer.
It’s like single player gaming with a bunch of worse stuff. Waiting, disconnecting, people being pricks, lag.
There are exceptions to this rule (I played a lot of CS back in the day), but I vastly prefer single player.
Or local multiplayer.
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ArmA2 is the only multiplayer game I’ve played (more than once or twice) for a long time. Strange that I could ‘get into’ a soldier sim, but find TF2 intimidating and confusing…
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Mostly spending my time in the budget angry-house-em-up Battlefield 1943, and rather fun it is too. I’m also still dabbling in Team Fortress 2 and occassionally playing a few rounds of deathmatch in Call of Duty 4.
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None. I used to play Soldat quite a bit, but haven’t played it recently. I played Minecraft for a bit on a private server.
Competitive multiplayer tends to just frustrate me.
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I’d like to play more MMOs but unfortunately can’t thanks to my internet usage being capped (I live in Australia).
But for the most part, I particularly enjoy single-player RPGs, not to mention the fact that I can’t find anybody to play MMOs with as well.
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I’ve always drunk deeply from the font of Multiplayer FPS games, starting with quake back in the day.
I tend to play a few hours every night or other, but if there’s mates on I usually hop from game to game(bit of CoD4 there, bit of L4d Here, dash of CS:S on the side).
Used to be a full-time WoW-head but I’m 6 months clean :3
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I just play TF2.
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I only play multiplayer if I can get at least one of my friends to play with me. Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 is slightly ahead of the rest of the games in terms of time played.
There’s also been a lot of CoD Modern Warfare, CoD World at War, World in Conflict, Company of Heroes and Quake Live these last couple of months.
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Sassy says bah I hate other people ruining mah gamin!!!.
Agreed. Singleplayer only. My MP experience was short-lived due to aggressive, hate-mongering players.
Playing with a clan or LAN I’m sure is great but I’ve never been able to shake that first impression.
Which game was it that announced a kind of blurring of SP/MP with the ability to connect and step into the shoes of enemy AI in a “single player” game?
In game chat combined with bunny hopping is enough to get my hackles up!
I bought BF2 but only took it online a copuple of times – I quite enjoyed playing against the bots. They were, on the whole, very polite.
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I play to much div. games .. but hell ya. Only one..*pff* In the moment more CoX | CoH | DoW 2 | WAR | L4D | WiC | etc. etc.
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Have a new word, world: “copuple”: An experience that was performed a small number of times but was concluded to be disappointing, and a bit poo.
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Still got my ongoing addiction to Team Fortress 2 and play Left 4 Dead every now and then with some mates.
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i play 0 games dedicating 0 hours to them, i really dont give a ratass about the multiplayer component in games, the SP component means 99% of the game value to me
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I should point out that what multiplayer I do is with people I know or have met through people I know.
It’s a shame I’ve read so many WoW PUG horrow stories because the one time I’ve actually done it for an instance it was an absolute hoot.
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I strongly dislike multiplayer games. I play games to escape, not to be reminded of human banality.
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Nimic wrote exactly what I had to say. I only play TF2, could spend much more than 12 hours in one week, but there’s times when I don’t play at all. Haven’t touched TF2 for 2 months now. So, ehm…. I decided not to vote.
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I’ll rarely play on public servers these days. I play ArmA 2 and Raven Shield on-and-off in co-op – there’s something special about a plan coming together and everything working just so. It’s also hilarious when it all goes tits up and everything explodes.
As for public servers, I used to play a lot of Call of Duty online, but I drifted away from that. Most people are fine, but there are the occasional whiny man-children that spoil the atmosphere. That, and the bastard helicopters & bombing runs murdering any chance of the losing team doing anything except cowering and dying.
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I’ve never really been into Multiplayer, and much prefer games with stories ordinarily, but recently I’ve had the opportunity to play in the same room as a friend or two, and have fallen in love with co-op L4D and Red Orchestra. In the past have tried other multiplayer games, but it’s never lasted more than one or two sessions if it’s not with something that I know outside the game. I’ve only played L4D twice in this manner. Swat 4 is another good one. I haven’t played much this last week because my friend has moved away! If they ever sort out Empire Total War co-op campaign I’ll probably lose my life to that.
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I love SP and I love stories in RPGs which is something multiplayer can’t match. But I play WoW when I want brainless entertainment while IMing my mates (like watching rubbish on TV only less rubbish and more socialable). And I’ve been playing some Trackmania lately, going MP with it sometimes cause it’s a very solo MP. The other people set targets but don’t affect my drive in any direct way. Also the odd TF2 session to let off steam makes my answers above look like those of a “hardcore” multiplayer gamer, despite the fact that I think the ultimate joy of most games is SP.
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I’m not a big fan of multiplayer outside FPS games – currently i spend about 5-8 hours a week playing Battlefield 1943 on the ol Xbox 360, but i’ve discovered playing Sacred 2: Fallen Angel online is pretty fun too (it’s a loot ‘em up, after all).
Historically i played the most Multiplayer when LAN or direct connections were mandatory, now that it’s all internet-based for the most part i don’t play, mainly due to the amount of strangers i guess.
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I pity the people who are afraid of multiplayer games and try and palm it off as disinterest.
People, you are playing solitare when you could be playing poker. Even people who don’t like antagonistic gaming should play coop.
Ai is cheating and letting you win, all at the same time.
The people who are genuinely disinterested i envy, you must lead such productive lives when you constantly avoid human interaction. :)
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Holy shit, Extreme Violence! I loved that game. My brother and I played it for hours.
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Ultima Online was the last. Tried other titles, but it has been mentioned above why Multiplayer usually sucks.
When I play at my pc I want to be away from real people as far as possible. Got more than enough of those from mon-fri.
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SP is my primary component of games, with some exceptions. I really only play MP games with people I know in the flesh and RPSers (and that seems to be limited to BloodBowl for the most part). I enjoy playing HL2 mods and L4D with my best friend / god sons and some other friends that live a few hours (or days) away. I’ve played MMOs, and they are great for their interactions, but it’s hard to find a good guild. I was lucky in WoW and met some great friends in that game. Hellgate with friends was great fun and I hope Borderlands can fill that void. I got tired of random grouping with random people not because of the lack of entertainment value, but because a lot of them were selfish asshats and that’s no way to co-op.
When playing a game, my idea of fun is to play the game, not grief others or be a tool. If that is how other choose to play, good for them, but I’ll leave a server and will not play with them. When I used to MP every night with Q1 DM and Arena, it wasn’t like this. It really wasn’t. Maybe it’s because our objective was just to kill each other anyway. It seems to be rarer and rarer to find a good group of random humans who just want to play the game together, and that’s on the PC. I won’t even go into my experiences on XBoxLive and the cesspool of filth that is.
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Regularly, I play EVE and TF2. There’s various other multiplayer games I play from time to time.
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re: Heliocentric ‘s comments –
I don’t think that it’s a matter of wanting easy gameplay for people that enjoy single player games… i think it is more just about the escapism or the attachment to the story that single player does better than mp in most cases – Fallout 3 is a great example of an enveloping world that requires no more than one player to work perfectly.
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It’s all in periods. I might be playing 20 hours of WoW for a few months. 10 hours of Team fortress 2 for a few weeks. And then just play single player games like Anno 1404 for a while.
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Oh, i love singleplayer games, but its when people demand only single player the cracks start to show for me. But i’ve always desired the never completed coop mods for various bethedsa games (back to morrowind), and as much as i love stalker, a second player could be amazing.
And even for competitive multiplayer some games would be desirable, but mostly coop.
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I’m DirOps for a 1350 man corp in Eve, so assuming you count time when you’re not logged in, then pretty much constantly in one way or another.
There’s the (very) occasional TF2, L4D or similar too…
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I play RS mode Soldat in 15-minute breaks so I can still laugh at incompetent 20-something reviewers who can’t even handle their games.
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L4D
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Purdamuch just TF2 for a few hours a week, although I should like to have time for others as well. =T
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Pretty much only Football Manager Live for me, though I am tempted by a return to LOTRO as well.
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Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory. It’s graphics are outdated, it’s full of bugs, it has poor netcode and is the damn best multiplayer game I’ve ever played. There is nothing like it and there is nothing better.
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Day of Defeat (not the Source version) has pretty much held my online gaming attention since it came out. I play with a decent bunch of regulars on a server that is well policed with sensible, not overly strict, admins, mostly just for fun although I was an ED player for a while (but people take that far too seriously for it to be entirely enjoyable).
Very occasionally I’ll crank up BF2 and have a runaround but only very occasionally these days.
Other than that; not into MP at all.
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I used to play TF2 alot for about a year. Had a great clan with lots of ambititions but I quit due to not having enough time for that. Excessive multiplayer worked when I was 16 (Hell, the Quake series is still my all-time favorite) but it does not anymore.
So now I meet with a friend of mine every 2 weeks or so and we spend a whole evening just battling it out on LAN in a wide variety of games and game modes (Men of War co-op, Quake 1-3 duel, WC3 tower defense, Garry’s Mod let’s-build-a-fortress). It’s great fun.
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The only mp game I play at the moment is Uniwar on the iPod touch … it’s fantastic.
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After thinking about it for a while I was a bit surprised that my MP gaming came down to just TF2 and EVE.
I had taken a bit of a break from TF2 for a few weeks recently but then found a server with a set of generally good custom maps so I’ve been really enjoying that. And I’m in a good corp in EVE so that usually sucks up around 12 hours a week itself.
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Damn Planetside and being free this month, otherwise i’d hardly be playing any online game!!!!
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I once played The Ship and sundry Valve titles regularly, but since buying a fancy new computer it’s been a positively embarrassing amount of TF2 and the occasional game of L4D.
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TF2 accounts for all my regular multiplayer hours. It’s the only multiplayer game I’ve really felt relaxed and at home in, oh except maybe WoW battlegrounds but I wasn’t going to keep up my WoW subscription just for the battlegrounds. Geneally I’ve always found the social preasure a bit too much so games like CS or UT I’ve always played against bots but in TF2 it’s all such an obvious joke that I feel I’ve a cast iron right not to take it seriously. Having said that I play to win almost all the time because I’m a hellishly competative person but I don’t take it seriously.
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As a general rule I prefer single-player, but TF2 has changed that quite a bit.
I’ve been through phases with other multiplayer games but they’ve all ended.
Since I don’t have a regular group that I play with I have to rely on the general public. For TF2 that’s great almost all of the time, CS:S and L4D however are beyond my skill level in those particular games.
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Eve still, for seven years now albeit at a much reduced rate. I should let it go really.
TF2 fairly regularily and L4D with friends.
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You probably should have asked for the age aswell, since from what I’ve read in the comments excessive MP gaming goes down a lot at around 22.
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I will play online with my friends, from the following set of games we all have:
l4d, dow, defcon, warcraft 3 and starcraft. Of those, only l4d works reliably, for the other games we almost always have firewall woes. Our computers clearly hate each other, as we always find it easy to join other people’s games, but when we want to play together it won’t let us…
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L4D Versus, just join a random game and hope for the best!
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“Day of Defeat (not the Source version) has pretty much held my online gaming attention since it came out.”
T’was my first MP love and I still play it regularly. When I’m old and grey, I probably won’t remember my middle name, but will still be able to walk around dod_avalanche blindfolded.
P.
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I pretty much exclusively play multiplayer games nowadays. No time or patience for the slow moving single player stuff, and I’m addicted to the competitiveness. I like games you can “win” by making other players “lose.” Gives me a nice sense of accomplishment, and is a reward for honing your skills.
I dabbled in Fallout 3 a fair bit back when it came out, and had some good times, but even on the hardest difficulty each combat encounter became rote; exploitation of the numbers and the AI.
Current poisons are Dawn of War 2, Left 4 Dead, and Team Fortress 2.
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The original DoD was my first online game too!
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Don’t really play multiplayer games anymore, although I used to spend several hours a day on WoW. Then I came to my senses. I’ll occasionally have a quickie in L4D or TF2, or a spin in Trackmania, but that’s about it.
Header image: don’t remember the name, but I’m pretty sure I played that on my Amiga way back in the day. It made an entertaining “SPLERGH!” noise when you rendered your opponent into a large red splash.
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@Ian: I second (or third) Extreme Violence on the Amiga.
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TF2 only, almost two hours a day before last week.
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Extreme Violence! Yep, that’s the fella.
SPLREGH!
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I play a chapter of Left 4 Dead with a friend of mine whenever I get a free hour or two.
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I regularly play a whole load of Source mods with folks: Gmod 9 and 10, Fistful of Frags, occasionally some Hidden: Source.
We’ve also recently gotten into big ole Regicide matches in Age of Empires 2: Conquerors. 8 players (PCs and NPCs), Regicide, Giant map. I favour the Vikings. :D
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Probably around 15 hours, several multiplayer games. Usually one a lot, but I squeeze in 2-3 other games for short bursts in between.
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TF2, a couple days a week, for a couple hours. I used to play WoW, but quit due to a variety of reasons.
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Street Fighter 4 is about it for me, unless you count co-op Pixeljunk Monsters, which I’m still loving after well over a year.
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It varies (I bought L4D, for instance), but on the whole my multiplayer gaming hours over the years would very much approach zero as a proportion.
Worms 2 was great, however. Most of the other players were actually courteous and fun to play with. I would have put more online hours into that game than any other.
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I play the Team Fortress 2 and Wii Sports Resort a couple of times every week =)
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LAN FTW. Pity that idiots like Blizzard are going to destroy it in the end.
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*Someone* introduced me to Wurm Online, and I’ve become a member of an established village, playing about 2 hours a night. The slower pace and the fact I’m actually making something instead of just blowing things up is attractive, due to the stress in real life right now.
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The statistician in me cringes.
Second question is entirely uninformative. Unless you have a ballpark ‘average hours per week RPS readers play games’ you do not have any basis for comparison, nothing which can tell us interesting things such as : Multiplayer games are played more/less than single player games. Are people who play a lot of multiplayer games are more likely to spend more of their spare time playing games? There are a significant number of people who only play one MP games (probably an MMO) but do so for the majority of their gaming time? And other interesting insights.
Second question should either have been preceeded by ‘roughly how many hours do you play a week’ or replaced by ‘roughly what percentage of your time playing games do you think you spend on multiplayer games’.
Rant aside, I’m playing much, much more now than I used to. TF2 is a regular, as it’s easy to drop in for half an hour or so. I’ve finally started playing L4D regularly, now that the matching system is good (I spent most of my time after release being put on servers where my ping was 200+, so I stopped playing due to frustration – that’s mostly gone.) and I’m getting (back) into EVE Online. God help me.
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I used to be in a TFC clan, so I played online constantly. But nowadays, I have 3 kids and just don’t have time to invest like that, and in any case I have no interest in playing online with random people. So I’m purely a single player gamer now.
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I would say about 90% of gaming is online. Usually FPS and semi competitive (pugs scrims etc). These days mostly just play TF2, and to a much lesser extent a bit of Natural Selection (biding my time until number 2).
I rarely play singleplayer games, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them. I just never get enough replayability out of them. Can’t wait for hl2ep3.
I suppose some games have a great mix, where its almost seamless between solo and multi, good example is the diablo series.
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Avoid all multiplayer except the odd bit of Mario Kart which is the only kind of multiplayer one can have with real people.
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Yo, Sajmn, how do you play Chaos Theory these days, LAN, XBL?
For me I’m playing Worms Armagedon [sic] with friends over the web bout ever’ 2 days, and I’m rocking The Specialists (ver 2.1) w/ friends over Hamachi a few times a week.
Multiplayer totally rocks!!! Singleplayer is ok!!!
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I currently play Blood Bowl once or twice a week. Otherwise I only play multiplayer games in LAN parties about three times a year.
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Pretty even spread, there. Meaning…?
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I play TF2 for massive amounts of hours per week under the name GIVEMEREPLAY. I used to play a good amount of L4D too, but that got well tired. Other than TF2 the occasional game of Warcraft 3 or an iPhone game are my only other multiplayer experiences.
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Well, ever since playing Unreal Tournament I’ve been pretty muck hooked on Multi Player FPS’s.
Mainly from playing Planetside, but also from lots of BF2, large scale vehicular and infantry combat is what I enjoy most.
So I still play Planetside and BF2, but also TF2, L4D, CS:S and ET:QW
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Team Fortress 2.
Before that it was Diablo 2, before that CS.
Basically it has to be an extra special game but when one gets its claws into me I’m on for the ride.
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I’m an annual subscriber to iRacing and I have a subscription (I plan on letting run out) to Football Manager Live. Other than that I’ll have the occasional game of Team Fortress 2 & Left 4 Dead, but not much else that I can think of off the top of my head.
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Currently I don’t play any multiplayer games at all. But I voted 1, because that is usually the case for me. And then I play it a LOT. (more than 12 hours)
The last one was TF2, which I played for a year. Before that was Warcraft III, which I played for forever. And before that Dark Age of Camelot, which I played for probably 3 years. And there were probably some titles in between or since which I didn’t play that much, like L4D or Burnout Paradise.
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I have TF2 and I play it sometimes but, basically it’s just a wolf:et mod called True Combat:Elite. Also a little Warsow.
Anyone play Tremulous? I couldn’t get to grips with it.
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Used to be heavily into CS (and clan/league CS), TF2, L4D etc, etc as well as a bit of MMO, but nowadays I just don’t have the time and instead prefer to play SP games these days when I can. Will probably dust off the MP boots for L4D2 though, if only for a month or so.
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Well it has to be mostly an absurd amount of TF2, interspersed with online multiplayer delights such as Mario Kart and Bomberman Blast.
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I definitely play more than three a week, which explains why I’m not very good at any of them.
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I almost exclusively play online multiplayer games and I think for pretty much all games clans are for fags. (except mmos where you pretty much need them)
So I’m logging in 12+ hours a week online with random people.. and wiping the floor with their tears of rage.
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It’s rare to find a single player game that can hold my focus for its entire length. The main problem hinges on the game mechanics usually. Half way through most games I’ve mastered the game mechanics and learned the AI’s reactions. At which point, no matter the difficulty it just becomes a grind.
Multiplayer is different. Every game is different, every opponent reacts differently. From the weak player who charges headlong into a face full of bullet, to the twitch kiddy pro who decimates you every time you leave spawn. It’s the variety that keeps a multiplayer game alive for me long after a singleplayer game has been uninstalled.
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Quit playing multiplayer games about 2 years ago. It just hasn’t been the same sine I stopped playing RTCW and call of duty 1 competitively. Mostly due to growing up I’ve had to stop (curse you game jornalists and your wonderous jobs) and just taking a higher interest in story. I have really gotten into older lucasarts adventure games and pop into fallout 3 and replay half-life when I can.
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Used to be all I played, now I just find it to be boring unless I am playing with friends. And right now none of my friends seem to be playing l4d or tf2 so i play defense grid. I really have not been playing many games at all. I find people much more fun nowadays . I think my serious video game playing will be reserved for when I get older and bars become too loud. Dont worry I will still come to RPS everyday.
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i dont play single player games at all. Dont know why realy. Just not as good as killing a person. I would probably only now play a sper game when say HL Ep3 comes out and or the next blizzard title like SC2 or D3. Some might call me a fan boy but the last single player game is played (farcry 2) was a vast disapointment so i just dont buy games any more that i dont KNOW im goin to love and play for ever and ever. Ive got damned good value for money over the years from WC3 and HL sieries. Nothing is as good as sitting down getting on a sever with the same old faces and kicking some ass ( well in the gaming world atleast ;) )
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TF2, L4D, and ermm, Section 8 beta.
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I’m with the single-playerers.
Just don’t have the time to pour into MMO, and I don’t find playing against Random Internet Denizens terribly interesting. Playing against actual friends is great, but a pain to schedule.
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Singel Player and LAN for the eternal win.
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I have been playing Battlefield 2 since 2005. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (w/ O.L. 2.2) takes up most of my time nowadays though). Just don’t do much multiplayer anymore.
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possibly not a good idea to post this the weekend of i37, I’ve played many many games much much more often than usual ;)
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I was right in the middle for both questions. At the moment I’m in a transitionary period so I haven’t played many MP games these last few weeks but starting to get back into them. I don’t really play any MMOs because I can’t really dedicate that sort of time to them anymore, and they don’t tend to hold my attention span unless I’m playing with people I know.
However, when I am playing stuff like L4D and TF2 with people I know it definitely ranks amongst my favourite gaming experiences ever, and I bloody love it. I would say though that for the most part, I play single player games or single player games with the multiplayer features being on the side sort of things (leaderboards etc etc)
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While I’m certainly capable of enjoying multiplayer games, and partake of them on occasion, I always prefer single-player games. For me, immersion absolutely trumps challenge and I’m happy to sacrifice playing against worthy opponents for not having to deal with cheating, whining, bad attitudes, jerks, teamkillers, campers, trolls, lolcats, language butchers, people with significantly worse frames/sec and/or network latency, people with significantly better frames/sec and/or network latency and MMORPG players that lack even the concept of how to RP.
Additionally, concessions to game play and immersion usually have to be made in order to benefit MP. I tend to consider MP support a negative in SP games. Meanwhile, game reviews frequently pan a SP game for not having a MP component.
Lastly, good MP games, while they can be a lot of fun, usually leave me feeling like I haven’t accomplished much after putting in a lot of time, whereas good SP games tend to leave me with a sense of accomplishment and some good memories. I suspect this is quite the opposite for MP gamers, but it’s likely just the way I’m wired.
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Most regular ones in descending order of play:
TF2, L4D, Infiniminer/Minecraft, Civ IV, Rock Band 2, The Dishwasher.
Currently at Uni in a house with 2 friends, so that probably explains the relatively high number of games and hours I play.
I’m kind of wary of getting into an MMO, as I have another friend we rarely see due to WoW =/
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For the last few weeks it has been 0.
But normally it is one FPS at a time. CSS, DoD:S, HL2DM, TF2, L4D, QuakeLive, Warsow… played all of those a lot, but normally just 1 at the same time (like… 4 months of game A, followed by 4 months of game B, etc)
5-8 hours in a normal week.
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I play TF2 religiously, though after 100+ hours of play I’ve only become decent at the game. I usually throw in one other as well, for variation; either CoD4, L4D, or that sexy new Demigod demo.
I’m not entirely sure why I play multiplayer games. To be honest, I don’t think it’s strictly a matter of multi or single, but it’s really the overall quality of the game and which suits it better. For example, TF2 is mostly about the unique interactions and communications with your teammates in an attempt to blow the shit out of your enemies in a coordinated way. Although it does have colorful characters which would seem to make a good single-player experience (see: Meet the Team videos), the canned voice commands wouldn’t be the same as a real person screaming “GET ON THE POINT!” as you rush frantically back to your own base.
Also, I do own a few single-player games for the PC, but for one reason or the other I prefer to take out the ol’ Gamecube when it comes to going solo. I dunno, maybe it’s the controller.
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Its mostly TF2 and L4D for me.
I split it about half and half between single player games and multiplayer games.
Always liked the thought of getting lost in an MMO one day, but then I always remind myself that the real world is much more interesting than any game world.
Still, that might change with SW:Old Republic :)
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and Wazzle, i hear ya man, that Gamecube controller was the height of gaming interfaces if u ask me.
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Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead
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TF2, L4D, WoW, DoW2, EVE
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Occasionally Trackmania. And that’s it, really.
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Wow, Extreme Violence, that brings back the memories! For a free game on an Amiga cover disk, we spent hours playing that. Magic Bullets FTW.
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How many different multiplayer game titles do you play in a week?
I play quite a lot of games that have a multiplayer component, but I rarely delve into the multiplayer side of the games though. I’m quite thouroughly bored of the usual team death match FPS type stuff. Personally I thought it all started to get a bit samey after Unreal Tournament. Although there have been a few Half Life mods that have entertained me such as Action HL. But by and large the only multiplayer gaming I bother with these days is if the game has a co-op offering.
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I play quite a bit of City of Heroes, with the rest of my time rounded out with a bit of Left 4 Dead and Killing Floor. I fire up TF2 now and then, but I don’t tend to spend a lot of time on it.
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I one of these games a night for 4+ hours with my g/f and steam friends:
L4D: Custom campaigns
TF2
COD: W@W, Nazi Zombies mode (lots of custom maps)
Serious Sam: First and Second Encounter (lots of coop fun)
Synergy: HL2 Coop fun (Finally got to Nova Prospect!)
Follow Freeman mod: gobs of fanmade Coop maps that are gobs of fun.
I’m trying to finish Kings Bounty: The Legend so I can complete some of the other single player games I have bought, but haven’t unwrapped or installed yet:
Mercenaries 2
Assassin’s Creed
Mirror’s Edge
Men of War
Prototype
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Maybe once every couple of months at most. Never saw the appeal of multiplayer, the odd times I do bother it’s generally because someone’s talked me into it.
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In the office we occasionally have lunchtime games of Urban Terror which is always fun.
At the moment I’m restricted to this for my multiplayer kicks as my connection is too poor to play online from here.
Back in the days when I had a real internet connection, a mate and I used to play several hours of Co-op Operation Flashpoint every night, and before that I was severely into QuakeWorld. Ye gods, that was a long time ago.
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TF2, L4D, Guild Wars. That’s all that’s worth playing for me at the moment.
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was always intrigued by mmo’s since playing MUD’s and UO, stuck on WoW since the launch and played too much, also guild officer, and slowly the “game” part of the game disappeared and i was left with responsibilities and a grind for tiny upgrades, logged out last fall and haven’t been on since. online fps and such is fun, kill few hours, but when games swallow your life, you’re in deep shit.
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I must spend around 90% of my time in Singleplayer games and 10% in Mp.
I only like Mp games that bring together a sense of team-spirit. So I quickly log out of games filled with imature idiots (of any age).
My favorate Mp games are TF2 and Generals: Zero Hour (co-op against the AI) as these are great at building team co-operation. Its also great when mini-objectives arise through the dynamic team play, such as escorting a friends MVC into friendly territory.
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I love how almost every other poster says they play either TF2 or L4D. Really comes to show you how masterful Valve is at making games.
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Not big on multiplayer because I rarely enjoy playing with complete strangers, and friends who like the games I like and like to play online are very rare.
This year, it’s been Left 4 Dead almost exclusively until my recent Trackmania binge (thanks RPS, for both).
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zero and none for me. It’s not the same anymore when you have more money than time – and broke college friends.
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Yep, basically l4d and TF2 – my steam profile name is Octacon100
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Many games with a mp component have this problem that when the game is a few months old, the mp community around it is already shrinked. If a game is played a few years after release, chance is that nobody is playing it. There are exceptions to this rule, like Starcraft and others, but it’s still a problem for people like me that play only old -but still great- games.
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