Stop Forcing Multiplayer Into Single Player Games

Multiplayer or single player?  Developers, you can do both, just not willy-nilly.

[Gazondaily]

And vice versa

[manabyte77]

I disagree. Even if the single player campaign is uninspired, it still leaves me with a game to play once the servers are shut down. Otherwise it becomes a paperweight.

[Profchaos]

I feel like those comments above are a dig at cod but in actual fact trophy days shows at least 40% of players finished the campaigns.

That's not huge but in reality it's no small number

[Gazondaily]

Why would you want to be left with a shite component in a game?

The half life of many MP games is long.

[Jinger]

But are you going to care about playing the crap SP mode more than once? Or more than once YEARS later when better games are around?

[gangsta_red]

Who plays a crap, uninspired game years after?

[Goldenarmz]

by the time the servers shut down you have more than likely moved on to the next game in the series. So stop it.

[Obelisk92]

Especially vice versa.

Multiplayer on single player games like the examples listed on the articles can be annoying to get used to, but is a clever way to implement online features on a single player game.

Invasions on Dark Souls are made for additional challenge and created a whole PvP community. And you can choose to play offline, or not be invaded if you want.

So I don't really see the problem.

But crappy campaigns on multiplayer games (most modern FPS for examples) are a much worse phenomenon.

[Magnetar]

Can’t believe he knocks dark souls, the multiplayer/co-op systems are what makes it unique and one of my favorite series of all time. Let developers make the games they want and if you don’t like that type of game, don’t buy it.

[AnkitDanger]

SO FREAKING TRUE

[Prince_TFK]

I do agree. The gaming industry is big enough to accommodate both the single player and multiplayer game. It creates variety and most multiplayer games are very replayable. I just don’t understand why some people want everything to become single player experience only.

[Rachel_Alucard]

The single player only requests is a side effect of the market whose played games for decades wanting nothing to do with the current generation of BR, youtuber, twitch, streaming, politics, season passes, microtransactions, online only and social games that have brought in tons of corporations looking to ring out money from the hottest trends. I don't blame them, they just want good video games with no bull.

[thatguyhayat]

I remember the dude from platinum games and Microsoft weren't on good terms cause Phil wanted multiplayer option when they didnt.

[Youngindy21]

I agree. Unless it's co-op, I don't want other people interrupting my single player experience. They gave good examples in the article with MGS V and Dark Souls. When playing Nioh, I don't even connect to the internet because I don't have time to battle random d-bags.

[Magnetar]

It’s what makes dark souls unique, if you don’t like it don’t play it or play offline.

[CrimsonWing69]

I’m cool with co-op but the competitive MP in games that aren’t mechanically built around MP is awful, like Resident Evil 5 and 6... woof

[MasterCornholio]

Sometimes multiplayer makes the single player worse because developers have to assign some of their budget to it. We can all agree that God of War Ascension was actually worse off due to that.

[UCForce]

Yeah, God Of War Ascension was the weakest of GOW because tack on MP.

[gangsta_red]

You really believe Ascension would have been any better without MP?

The tacked on MP didn't make the SP worse.

Exactly what could that dev had done with the so called extra budget to make Ascension better?

[Razzer]

I think it was a lack of focus (as well as budget), but yeah, shoe-horning in multiplayer wasn't a good idea. Rather than focus on story and gameplay mechanics, the crux of the God of War series, the studio shifted gears with an online experience few expected or even asked for.

[TheOttomatic91]

Yup

[HeavyM]

He said Dark Souls is a terrible example... no, it's not, he's complaining about the invasions that one of the most unique mechanics in the series, Dark Souls always had the option to play offline whenever you want , if you can not stand the invasions, play offline, simple.

[Elda]

Agreed.

[-Foxtrot]

I'm hoping Bethesda never goes this route for their main line Fallout and Elder Scrolls games...it's a shame about Fallout 76 being rumoured to have online but as long as it's a spin off I guess it can be given a pass (even though it's hilarious still that just 6 months ago they made a video to "SavePlayer1" and Single Player Games)

However I'm just hoping we'll never see co-op in the main line games, people think it's p*** easy to do when it's clearly not, it takes months of development and considering that Bethesda can't even do a single player open world game without bugs/glitches can you imagine the ones caused by the online? It would be awful and in the end they'd focus on those ones instead of the game breaking bugs for the single player. People need to think things out when going on about multiplayer in a single player game, is it worth it? Can they do it? Would I have more single player content then them wasting time on an online mode? So on.

[Rachel_Alucard]

They are making a bunch of online games aside from 76. Rage 2 is a battle royale game that is reworked from the cancelled Battlecry game Bethesda Austin was working on for example. They don't even have a new Elder scrolls being developed currently because ESO is doing so well. It's so hypocritical to have that big #saveplayer1 push then pull this.

[MellauxGMNG]

I dont understand whats wrong with having the option available? If you dont want to play multiplayer then dont play it. And a common argument I see is "it takes away from the single player because they use resources blah blah", thats just one big assumption, no? has a developer ever came out and actually said that having multiplayer in their game made the single player not as good?

[gangsta_red]

Agreed, I have had many conversations where it seems a person doesn't want any trace of MP, even when it's a separate option in the game. That some how the game is weaker because of it.

"...having multiplayer in their game made the single player not as good?"

No, and where some people get this idea from makes no sense at all especially when they have no proof or examples.

[Nyxus]

It does take recourses doesn't it? Or is it free to develop an entire multiplayer mode?

[MellauxGMNG]

Ok, sure. But since when did money available = how good a game is?

When peope say multiplayer is "tacked on" isnt that good for their argument? If the multiplayer is "tacked on" that means it was an after thought and was probably done after the main single player experience was completed or very near it.

[Razzer]

"But since when did money available = how good a game is? "

It isn't the only factor, but yeah.....it is a pretty big one when you are talking about a AAA game with a high pressure delivery date. Let's not seriously suggest that the availability of resources isn't an aspect of making a great game.

"When peope say multiplayer is "tacked on" isnt that good for their argument? If the multiplayer is "tacked on" that means it was an after thought and was probably done after the main single player experience was completed or very near it. "

That isn't what "tacked on" means. It means the MP felt like a cumbersome inclusion that doesn't really make sense. To say it was developed after the single player is just an irrelevant assumption. You are still sacrificing development time for that aspect of the game, regardless of when it was done. If you break down a project into units of work then you have two considerations. Resources and time. How many resources and how long will each unit of work require. If you have a single player game and want to add multiplayer, that takes more units of work and unless you delay, the amount of time stays the same. Now you have to have resources with expertise in netcode as well as multiplayer game play mechanics…..more budget.

[Rachel_Alucard]

Why would a developer ever say anything negative about his game? That's never gonna happen as long they are under a publisher. Bungie will never admit they went to Activision and said "Making this is too hard" but we know it happened. Just like Treyarch cut the campaign from BO4 and is trying to spin it as "We never planned for a traditional single player"

[MellauxGMNG]

Why is it so hard to believe that Treyarch didnt plan to have single player from the beginning? Cod is a multiplayer game 10 times over than a single player game so it only makes sense for them to cut out the sp and REPLACE it with another mode

[Rachel_Alucard]

@Scarzfx

Because you don't just suddenly cut a staple mode. The BR mode was only developed in 6 months from Raven softworks and is still unfinished when it launches. BR wasn't even a thing 3 years ago when development started, so it makes no sense for them to just decide not to have one with no replacement.

[Kyech]

If the guy is willing to criticise the Dark Souls franchise, at least make it with a inch of inteligence, I mean, in DS you can play hollowed, being imune to invasions, in DS3 you have the option to disable multiplayer, and in all three games of this franchise you can choose to not log in, so multiplayer is pretty much an option, and seeing the autor of this article crying about it is shure disrespectfull to any true game criticist or consumer. It's ignorance, desisnformation and unprofessionalism really tell us everithing we need to know about this article and it's autor.

[subtenko]

and stop acting like a game cant have multiplayer. Whats up with the sudden surge in people who DONT want there to be well developed multiplayer in a game? (not every game needs multiplayer)

Ya know what, how about all the sites like N4G have 'single player comment sections' Where only you post a comment but you only see your own post (your own thoughts) OR we can have the OPTION of having an open ended comment section TOGETHER vs none at all.

[ShottyatLaw]

I feel like some users already have that filter applied.

[Jinger]

I love MP modes. Even if it is casual it can still be fun for a bit, but then evolve into something decent. Case and point... Uncharted

[Helios86]

Dark Souls multiplayer is not forced by any means.
It was meant as a way to 'legitimze' griefing and adding an additional layer of challenge or rather threat to the player.
And it works well enough, if that isn't to your liking you can play offline or even play hollowed.

I don't get why people are so pissy over a few thousand souls, you get souls all the damned time.
Take the invasion as an extra layer of fun and stop being so damned afraid of failing.

[InKnight7s]

MP games are the least effort just design and let players play in the field, where SP is full of contents. The only oy game I really liked without pushing myself to it was MGO, one of kind with really amazing cutscene lol.

[KillBill]

Totally wrong with Dark Souls in that it was never forced on the game as the game is built around the premise of being hard and built around the idea of interactive relationship with online players and choosing to stay hollow or not. Don't like it... don't buy it. Simple as that.