# Gaming is being taken over by extroverts



## apx24 (Jan 31, 2012)

That's what it feels like, with all this emphasis on online multiplayer gaming. You have games like Destiny, which you cannot play unless you have friends. I actually have Destiny (got it for free) and I was so disappointed when I found out that some levels of the game are almost impossible if you play alone. Then there are games like Halo 5 which were designed for co-op play. Games like this are going to become more and more common.

What happened to gaming being for everyone equally? Now it feels like games are made for the normals to play with their mates, and those of us who don't have friends to play games with are going to be left out.


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## Todd124 (Aug 31, 2015)

I'm also someone who never plays in multi-player simply as I have no friends.

It's annoying but I guess the gaming industry caters to the larger market.


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## Vaust (Feb 12, 2012)

That might be stretching it. There's still tons of single player games. Try Arkham Knight, Infamous, Witcher, Call of Duty or Halo's campaigns, Tomb Raider, I can go on. There's room for both imo.


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## apx24 (Jan 31, 2012)

Vaust said:


> That might be stretching it. There's still tons of single player games. Try Arkham Knight, Infamous, Witcher, Call of Duty or Halo's campaigns, Tomb Raider, I can go on. There's room for both imo.


Fair enough. I was just watching a video about Halo 5 and about it's co-op mode and it made me feel a bit sad. When I played Destiny, I felt as if the game was punishing me for not having any friends.


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## Staticnz (Mar 25, 2013)

I totally agree with you. I like two player or even four screen player games, but I'm not into multiplayer games. I don't like having other players analyze what I'm doing and have to compete. I just want to kill things and level up on my own...so I usually play single player games. I don't like the pressure of multiplayer.

But I'm going to try out some games with my friends. We're gunna played "Vermintide" or whatever it is.


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## MylesB93 (Feb 25, 2014)

Fallout 4... Just, Fallout 4.


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## Lacrimosa Night (Sep 28, 2015)

Well I play RTS's which are great if you want play online but can't find a partner and I stick to the 1v1's . Nowadays I am playing company of heroes 2.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Kind Of (Jun 11, 2014)

Vaust said:


> That might be stretching it. There's still tons of single player games. Try Arkham Knight, Infamous, Witcher, Call of Duty or Halo's campaigns, Tomb Raider, I can go on. There's room for both imo.


^

From the way I act in online games, some people might think I _am_ an extrovert.

It's a completely different environment, though, so why not capitalize on it? You can chat in text-only in many games, and there are easy shared goals to socialize over plus people you're likely going to be seeing on a regular basis if you're part of a guild, raiding static, etc.

Compare to sitting face-to-face with someone who has nothing in common with you except that they were bored or lonely enough to go to a meetup who probably won't go to the next, anyway.

For those of us who are alone most of the day and too tired, busy, or jaded to try to build a new offline social life from scratch, multiplayer is a blessing. Not to mention more interesting than things like recycled forum drama.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Haven't noticed that yet, and it'd be a problem for me. I go back and forth on Runescape (which I essentially play like a single player game,) played WoW a bit back in 2009-2012 and otherwise don't really do multiplayer partly because of SA.

Also yeah, Fallout 4 should be good


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## Nozz (Oct 6, 2015)

I play Destiny also, and I'm to a point where grouping is mandatory to progress/see new content. I expected this at some point, so it doesn't really upset me too much, but my playtime has been pretty dramatically cut on it.

I don't like the trend of games like Battlefront cutting single player campaigns out entirely, but there are a really good selection of single player games you can always find. And yes, Fallout in two weeks .


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## Jake93 (Sep 5, 2015)

It seems that FPS's are getting more and more co-op/online multiplayer focussed (mainly because E-sports is a massive thing now) but there are many genres of games out there which are single player focussed.

I know what you mean about Destiny though, I enjoy the game but am annoyed I can't do certain things within it because I play by myself.


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## Vaust (Feb 12, 2012)

Here's a tip: If you're not fond of multiplayer games don't play a MMO.

One thing I will say I noticed is many games that are multiplayer online do not have splitscreen built it at all. Whenever I have a friend at my house I'm like "Uhhh we can't play that together. Go home and buy it and we can online though lol".


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## To22 (Apr 6, 2012)

Introverts like online gaming just as much as extroverts. Plus, Halo has almost always featured a serious co-op campaign. Granted, Halo's story is more co-op conscious than ever, but consistently featuring co-op campaigns nonetheless.


MGS V, Fallout, Tomb Raider, Just Cause 3, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, are all new big budget titles that focus on an exclusively single player, story driven experience. That's not to mention the handful of remasters, expansions, early 2015/early 2016 releases, and "indie" games. Besides, optional co-op campaigns are optional, and hardly ever detract from the single player experience; Destiny and Borderlands are rare exceptions.


If anything, gaming is becoming more equal, although single player games still own the vast majority of the market. Extroverts aren't taking over gaming, online games are just overhyped as usual.


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## Jermster91 (Oct 25, 2015)

I think those of you that are not playing multiplayer games are missing out on a huge untapped market. Over a year ago I probably had a dozen or some people who I called friends but I never played with them on my Playstation 3.When I got my Playstation 4, I started playing War Thunder, a World War 2-inspired multiplayer online combat game. I joined a PS4 squadron and one night I asked if someone wanted to play with me and this guy said he would and a year later, me and him are best friends and have met over a dozen other people that I play the game with share similar interest in History and World War 2.


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## joolz (Aug 28, 2015)

I get irritated by this as well. You can't even play an MMORPG (to the full extent) unless you're willing to be in a guild and use TS. Though from what I've heard WOW has recently changed this to some degree, to the great protest of many of its guild players who complain that the game is "too easy" now. A rationale I've heard from many guild players in discussions about the group-oriented gameplay: that somehow group quests are more challenging than solo quests. That doesn't make sense to me, however. The challenge of a game or quest is dictated by how its been designed, not how many players it requires to play it. A solo game/quest can be designed to be exactly as difficult as its multiplayer counterpart. In fact, I would make the opposing argument: you may be able to get by slacking off in a group, or say, giving only 75%, if the rest of your team is giving 100%, not so if you're on your own. Even the single-player modes in COD (and probably others I haven't played) have become artificially team-oriented, wherein you're part of a team, taking orders and following/supporting AI teammates. I must have quit COD:BO single player after about 20 minutes, and never returned, because to me it wasn't a game as much as some sort of scripted movie.


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## Vaust (Feb 12, 2012)

Speaking about WoW specifically the game is basically single player now. They removed group quests entirely and even group content like dungeons LFR are so quick and easy no communication is required and it's typical for nothing to be said whatsoever throughout a run. For a MMO I think community and coordination is literally the defining aspects of a game and for them to weaken them so drastically is really bad game design and is reflected in the game losing so many subs lately.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

joolz said:


> I get irritated by this as well. You can't even play an MMORPG (to the full extent) unless you're willing to be in a guild and use TS. Though from what I've heard WOW has recently changed this to some degree, to the great protest of many of its guild players who complain that the game is "too easy" now. A rationale I've heard from many guild players in discussions about the group-oriented gameplay: that somehow group quests are more challenging than solo quests. That doesn't make sense to me, however. The challenge of a game or quest is dictated by how its been designed, not how many players it requires to play it. A solo game/quest can be designed to be exactly as difficult as its multiplayer counterpart. In fact, I would make the opposing argument: you may be able to get by slacking off in a group, or say, giving only 75%, if the rest of your team is giving 100%, not so if you're on your own. Even the single-player modes in COD (and probably others I haven't played) have become artificially team-oriented, wherein you're part of a team, taking orders and following/supporting AI teammates. I must have quit COD:BO single player after about 20 minutes, and never returned, because to me it wasn't a game as much as some sort of scripted movie.


I think a good mmo should be designed in a way that involves lots of multiplayer participation (otherwise what's the point?) and encourages some amount of communication for completing tasks but it also needs to make it easy to group up with people in game. If you have to form groups using external sources or even people you know in real life, that is a flaw imo. As is having servers that remain practically dead for years and charging you to move your character to another one.


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## wishin and hopin (Jul 22, 2015)

this is what happened to the internet as well, hurts


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## joolz (Aug 28, 2015)

Persephone The Dread said:


> I think a good mmo should be designed in a way that involves lots of multiplayer participation (otherwise what's the point?) and encourages some amount of communication for completing tasks but it also needs to make it easy to group up with people in game. If you have to form groups using external sources or even people you know in real life, that is a flaw imo. As is having servers that remain practically dead for years and charging you to move your character to another one.


I'd like to see an MMORPG that provides the option of multiplayer participation, but not the requirement of it. As someone else said, in such a game it feels like you're being punished if you don't want to do certain things. You're already on a server, exploring a fantasy world amidst hundreds of other people, that seems to fulfill the criteria of an MMORPG. I'd rather be able to advance/quest on my own, and then PVP and interact with people at my leisure. Questing would be business, and interacting with people would be fun. The compulsory group questing creates a negative community I've found, where people don't care or don't want to interact with you, but they simply have to, and thus they're never really having fun. There are many, many other ways to interact and form community outside of group quests.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

I can't play online/multiplayer at all. Triggers my anxiety too much. I only play single player games. But there are more than enough of those to keep me busy.


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## aaaa1111bbbb2222cccc3333 (May 10, 2015)

joolz said:


> I'd like to see an MMORPG that provides the option of multiplayer participation, but not the requirement of it. As someone else said, in such a game it feels like you're being punished if you don't want to do certain things. You're already on a server, exploring a fantasy world amidst hundreds of other people, that seems to fulfill the criteria of an MMORPG. I'd rather be able to advance/quest on my own, and then PVP and interact with people at my leisure.


You can do most of Guild Wars 2 alone, except for some high level content. I soloed my ranger for 99% of the pve.


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## Mysteriis (Apr 7, 2014)

If you're into stealth game, play thief gold/2 and there is also a ton of fan missions too same goes for the dark mod


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## eukz (Nov 3, 2013)

truant said:


> I can't play online/multiplayer at all. Triggers my anxiety too much. I only play single player games. But there are more than enough of those to keep me busy.


I've played the entire campaigns from Starcraft 1 and 2, and I played a lot of multiplayer matches with people I know, so I became a bit good at it. But despite this, I've always been terrified of getting in the whole online world, because the few times I played with unknown people I got so anxious that I even got swety at the end of the game o.o

Then my few acquaintances I had stopped playing, and I stopped too


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## GhostlyWolf (Sep 7, 2015)

Try SWTOR out for an MMORPG. You can practically play all content except for the raids alone. Be warned however the PVP community is very toxic. You do get a companion though -AI/NPC- that helps you level.


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## ScorchedEarth (Jul 12, 2014)

I'm extremely introverted and I love some MMOs. I don't develop any friendships, only acquaintances. My dislike of voice comms would be a major handicap if I tried to do certain activities, but thankfully most activities in most MMOs don't require it. I've read that a lot of people love these games for the social element, but to me it's the persistent world and variables offered by the other players, especially in games where players are the driving force like EVE Online.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

GhostlyWolf said:


> Try SWTOR out for an MMORPG. You can practically play all content except for the raids alone. Be warned however the PVP community is very toxic. You do get a companion though -AI/NPC- that helps you level.


Yeah the game has a good single player campaign, for an mmo.



LawfulStupid said:


> I'm extremely introverted and I love some MMOs. I don't develop any friendships, only acquaintances. My dislike of voice comms would be a major handicap if I tried to do certain activities, but thankfully most activities in most MMOs don't require it. I've read that a lot of people love these games for the social element, but to me it's the persistent world and variables offered by the other players, especially in games where players are the driving force like EVE Online.


I like that you can basically solo everything in Eve. Other than a few things, but you're not missing much content by not doing them. The pvp seems so fun too because you can just grab a stealth bomber and go wreak havoc by yourself until you get spotted and shot down. There's a lot of ways to pvp/pve in that game without having to be part of a social corporation.


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## Jesuszilla (May 26, 2013)

No it's not


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## SusanStorm (Oct 27, 2006)

I don't play a lot of online because of anxiety. Only gta 5 right now and COD before.

Took me a while to get comfortable playing gta 5 online,but now I'm fine. 

I don't have any friends so it would be hard to play games if you needed friends and couldn't invite random people.

But there still is a bunch of single-player games out there. Actually sometimes it annoys me that everything has to be online. Like Elder scrolls. I would like it much more if they would make a single player game rather than doing an online game.


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## joolz (Aug 28, 2015)

thedevilsblood said:


> You can do most of Guild Wars 2 alone, except for some high level content. I soloed my ranger for 99% of the pve.


I've never played it. I probably skipped over it because of the implications of the title, as being guild-centric. Maybe I'll check it out sometime. EVE sounds interesting as well.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

joolz said:


> EVE sounds interesting as well.


It's a very unique experience. It's the only mmo i've played for a long time(more than two years) and i've done the most boring stuff in it like run missions and mining. I haven't touched exploration or pvp yet. I would probably still play it if i had done those things instead i think. The repetition of missions burned me out a little and i had to take a break.

But anyway. It's definitely worth trying. 14 days free trial too, so you get a nice feel for the game.


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## joolz (Aug 28, 2015)

Scrub-Zero said:


> 14 days free trial too


Nice. Are the servers still well populated?


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

joolz said:


> Nice. Are the servers still well populated?


Back when i played it everyday you could easily see 50k+ anytime you logged in. But that got a lot lower. Now it's 20k+ on average daily.


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## joolz (Aug 28, 2015)

That's still a good amount. It's far from dead anyway.


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## My Hearse (Aug 28, 2015)

I don't think so.


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## OutsideR1 (Mar 13, 2014)

There definitely does seem to be a trend of adding co-op to games because publishers think it will make them money. But trends come and go. Just look at assassins creed unity and syndicate. Unity had co-op for the first time in the series, and it was terrible. Syndicate has no co-op or multiplayer.

It's actually weird but at my current job I met 2 guys that game and we become friends on steam. They used to want to play l4d2 with me, and now vermintide for co-op but I just dont find co-op fun most of the time so I dont even play with them lol.

I played star wars beta with one of them and will probably play when it comes out, but was having a friend there with you any better? Not really. You still just run around and do your own thing in the end.


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## Orbiter (Jul 8, 2015)

No Man's Sky will soon come out and it will blow everything out of the water.
Also it has no Multiplayer or Online restriction and the universe is so big that you will never fully explore it, even if you play it your whole life. lol


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## iAmCodeMonkey (May 23, 2010)

Orbiter said:


> No Man's Sky will soon come out and it will blow everything out of the water.
> Also it has no Multiplayer or Online restriction and the universe is so big that you will never fully explore it, even if you play it your whole life. lol


I am waiting for this one, among others.


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## Sprocketjam (Feb 16, 2014)

Nah, that's stupid. Online games have always been popular and with the internet being as widespread as it is, of course devs will focus on multiplayer titles. Are they focused toward extroverts? Not really. Destiny is the one outlier due to raids needing friends. Most other games don't require friends or much communication these days besides some co-op titles. Look at the state of WoW for an example of this.

Plenty of single player games still being made, though. The Witcher 3, Fallout 4 etc and games that cater to both crowds like GTA5.


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## knightofdespair (May 20, 2014)

All the game companies are now multi-billion dollar empires who are trying to add DLC and tack on as much enthusiasm for their product as they can.. Someone sitting alone for a week playing a one time purchase makes them angry.


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## aaaa1111bbbb2222cccc3333 (May 10, 2015)

Orbiter said:


> No Man's Sky will soon come out and it will blow everything out of the water.
> Also it has no Multiplayer or Online restriction and the universe is so big that you will never fully explore it, even if you play it your whole life. lol


Seems really cool... Added to my wishlist.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

Sprocketjam said:


> Nah, that's stupid. Online games have always been popular and with the internet being as widespread as it is, of course devs will focus on multiplayer titles. Are they focused toward extroverts? Not really. Destiny is the one outlier due to raids needing friends. Most other games don't require friends or much communication these days besides some co-op titles. Look at the state of WoW for an example of this.
> 
> Plenty of single player games still being made, though. The Witcher 3, Fallout 4 etc and games that cater to both crowds like GTA5.


Every game should have co-op and multiplayer imo, but not just multiplayer alone with no single player-co-op.

Who wouldn't want to play Fallout or Witcher in co-op? As long as it's not required to finish the game. I just don't like it when you are forced to join others to progress further in a game you're into. I like Warframe myself, but i'm forced to play with people to get ahead. So i quit the game and they haven't made any money with me.


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## ZM5 (Sep 13, 2015)

Nah, I don't think it is, it's just multiplayer games in general seem overhyped.

Though myself I do like the option of having a coop mode, that's something I always think is worth playing with a friend.


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## lonerroom (May 16, 2015)

apx24 said:


> those of us who don't have friends to play games with are going to be left out.


I never cared much for online gaming, I can't stand playing video games with other people, all they do is call each other names and act like jerks. I'd rather play alone. Fallout 4 is going to played alone. Sure, sharing with a friend and playing with someone you like is fun, but when you have no friends to play with, its no fun to play with mean troll people.


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