I mostly play video games to switch off and relax. So generally I play single player RPGs on the easiest setting and just explore the world and the story.
I do occasionally play something like PUBG if I’m after some excitement but I don’t have time to master games like I did when I had no responsibilities or kids!
Pvp games are more likely to leave me feeling angry after a session compared to single player and coop games where I’m more often ending the session happy.
I had a hard time sleeping at the end of the 90s due to some issues and I used that time to play counter strike and star craft. You didn’t want to play the latter while the Koreans were around. That was beyond competitive.
I love me some online coop, especially with friends. I even enjoy a few fighting games, like Tekken, although those are also more fun with friends.
Single player is pretty fun though, especially ones that are intended to be single player but have the option to do multiplayer like Valhiem and BG3.
I think it mostly comes down to how competitive people want to be. A lot of younger folks, including me 20 years ago, loved seeing ourselves on leaderboards even in team games. But over time the experience of getting immersed in single player or laughing about a shared experience in coop is just more fun that reminiscing about being at the top of a counterstrike match 15 years ago.
Plus some of us remember when skins and new maps were added to many games by the devs or through mods well before microtransactions became popular.
Coincidentally, teenagers are also the reason most gamers prefer single-player games.
This is a fact.
When I was late teens I played vanilla wow, but after adapting to adulthood, the appeal of playing with or even talking to people decades younger than I am (with maturity to match age) has absolutely no appeal. I really want to play a lot of the multiplayer games out there, but don’t want to play with a bunch of asshole kids with nothing better to do than be assholes.
Face to face, maybe, because there’s a lot more context and social boundaries and stuff, but honestly I don’t even understand a lot of what they are trying to communicate at this point, and I honestly usually don’t care, so it’s not an appealing proposition at this point. That’s the full whole reason I don’t play ttrpgs anymore; can’t find an adult group and can’t stand to be around a group of 14yo boys.
I just play them exclusively with friends and mute random people that get obnoxious.
That genuinely sounds like a good middle point, unfortunately it isn’t actionable for me as I haven’t any friends with whom to play. My humans have drastically different genre interests than I do, assuming they even game.
As someone who doesn’t play with friends either:
If the games don’t need communication to be good, play em anyway. Go for solo performance and if the team wants to whinge then it’s their fault for being mutable. I give everyone a chance, mute them if they spam or go squeaker, it’s honestly not that common to be an issue these days even in games like COD
Right from the start there have been adults only guilds in WoW though.
It’s a shame, too. I don’t really mind playing with other people, usually PvE, but when you’re just so much more mature than they are the whole dynamic can be grating. PvP though? I’m not sure what’s worse, the shit talkers or the teammate griefers who throw a game for some silly reason.
That said, I met my wife in an MMO and you very much can make genuine connections with strangers on the internet. Just… You know, if you’re hitting 40 and they’re 14, the FBI might want to have a word with you.
I dont mind teenagers, it is the absurd toxic masculinity culture I hate, which isnt really a teenager specific thing in my experience.
There’s definitely an aspect of catharsis in showing that kind of person how much better at the video game you are though. I don’t play a lot of PvP but when I do, and everything clicks, I absolutely get it
I mean, you’re more or less correct although toxic masculinity feels pretty immature, and certainly more common with teenage boys. Given the number of muscle cars nearly running me off the road these days, I certainly agree they’re not all teenagers, though!
Gotta wonder if that guy who just said he slept with your mom on COD was really 30+ year old “alpha male” lol
I agree and I think a salient reframing of your statement is teenagers typically more than anything else want to be treated as adults, to be a teenager is to constantly be observing young adults and attempting to emulate their social behavior. So the question becomes why do we tolerate toxic adult conservative men setting such a cruel and hateful example that teenagers then copy and magnify?
What some teenager screams at you in an online match is just a shrill echo of the serious and dangerous ideologies modern (and not modern) conservatism is explicitly founded on and violently defends the “right” to spew everywhere in every context consequences be damned (the consequences being a feature not a bug).
I have a big problem with internal validation. This makes most singleplayer experiences pretty meaningless to me. Antidepressants help, but only to an extent.
As a kid/teen, I only wanted to do online pvp. As I’ve gotten a bit older, I’ve found a lot not enjoyment out of coop. There’s still some competition, like dps charts in a raid, but it’s mostly the feeling of overcoming a challenge as a team that I look for now.
And as others have said, online coop is king. Love me some asymmetrical puzzle games.
As an adult gamer, I have a lot less time for games. Single player games are nice because I can make meaningful progress on a storyline/etc, and even do things like finish a game and move onto the next one.
Playing online pvp games can be fun, but it usually takes a huge time investment to be good. And in the time I have to play, there’s rarely a feeling of progress. Spending 1-2 hours on a single player game and I have progressed in a distinctive way. Spend that same time in League or some other multiplayer game and I have nothing to show for it except a few ranking points.
For me funnily enough it feels the opposite for me, multiplayer competitive games get right to the point in a similar way that sports do, the motivation, depth and deep mental stimulation are always right there on the surface, meeting me head on the moment I open up the game and jump in. Very few singleplayer games do that and almost none of them can come close to the dynamic and always evolving experience of playing against (and with) humans.
I hate overly competive toxic players, it really isnt needing to win that motivates me, it is the mental stimulation from competing with humans that stimulates my brain because nothing is there to simply entertain me, rather everything is there to create an emergent experience that always surprises and challenges me and doesnt waste my time trying to make me feel like a powerful hero.
I like how differently we see this and I can definitely see where you are coming from!
Same here, especially if I can play ranked matches. I get matched with other players that are just as bad as me! lol
Same lol
Yeah I mean so long as the playerbase is good your win rate is always going to trend towards 50/50 which as someone who really doesnt need to win to have fun is honestly ideal, it means every match I play is a compelling self contained narrative where every choice I make matters towards tipping the scales in my favor.
From my perspective the competitive part is just there to pull the strings taught on the core gameplay experience and make the game come together into a cohesive experience where every element matters and is genuinely in conversation with other elements.
Again I cant stand playing with toxic competitive players tho, and I understand people being turned off by that.
I’m glad I’m not the only one like this. I don’t play single player games often because it seems like they’re all 60+ hours long. That’s such an investment in my mind. It’s especially frustrating for me getting stuck on a level or boss in a single player game, because when I get stuck, that’s it. I can’t progress, and now I’m stressing about the video game I just bought and can’t complete.
On the other hand, with multiplayer I can do a quick match whenever if I have a spare half-hour. And I like that you compared multiplayer games to sports, because that’s how I see it too. I’m just there to improve my skills and test them against real people in an even match. So what if I lose? That’s part of the game, I’ll get them next time. Or not, I’m honestly ass at video games in general, but I like a little healthy competition, and I like reading opponents and trying to get into their OODA loop. I don’t even play with mic chat on except with friends, so I don’t hear trash talking, it’s just that NPC’s in singleplayer games don’t do it for me. They feel like puppets. I get bored of that so fast. I’d rather watch a movie or read a book if I’m going to entertain myself alone without Internet.
I don’t mean for this to come across as bashing single player games, tons of them look like a lot of fun. Truthfully, I’m jealous of the people who enjoy them because it seems like I’m just not wired to.
May I ask what your total play time on a multiplayer game is? Some people rack up 100s of hours on both multiplayer and singleplayer games. So, I was just curious because you said 60 hours long felt like too much of an investment, but I feel like you’ve probably played plenty of multiplayer games that were well over that 60. :P
I just happened to check a couple days ago and apparently I have about 135 in rocket League, but that’s pretty much it for real games, everything else I’ve played looks sub 50 hours. I think the longest I’ve stuck with a single-player game is 30 hours in mad max. I did play a ton of pubg mobile when I was younger, PC/console-less, and had more free time.
It’s not really the total hours that bothers me though, it’s the commitment, the games that demand x amount of hours from me before I get a conclusion to the story. I hop into rl whenever I feel and think “one more round…one more round…k I’ve had enough for today”. There’s no real demand on my time.
Now I’m sure there’s tons of holes in that logic, but this isn’t really a logical thing, I’m just trying to explain how I feel
They’re out there. I played new world for the better part of two years all in mature, grown up clans. I think at one point we did have a 17ish year old that we all kind of ragged on but he was a good kid who eventually left for a more PVP focused guild. Recently I’ve been playing pax dei and the average age in our guild has got to be 50ish. We started out with a group of like 5-6 late 20’s-mid 30s folks but a long the way we ended up picking up around 15ish folks mostly 40-75ish? Retired gamers are here and if you need people to gather resources, craft and just chill while you roam the world dungeoning, I can’t recommend a better bunch.
I represent that remark. My son has a bunch of 30ish buddies playing enshrouded. Me and another late 50s retired guy are totally fine crafting and building and mining while they go out to pla :) Thats exactly how we phrase it “wheres the kids?, oh out in the woods playing”.
I only enjoy multi-player with my wife. Our Valheim settlement and world progression is something beautiful to behold. Even vanilla WoW for me is solo or bust. I just don’t like people or Discord culture.
I mostly prefer single player games myself, but I’ve been addicted to the online multiplayer game Enlisted for the past couple of years.
I mean yeah but Teenagers aren’t people.
They scare the shit out of me
Right? They are angry, physically enduring, strong. Luckily they’re also constantly horny and therefore stupid.
Unfortunately, they’re constantly horny and motivated to do stupid things.
They could care less as long as someone’ll bleed.
For me it’s really a matter of mood and if my friends are available for something co-op.
I do have one PvP pleasure though and that’s Street Fighter. I can’t stand anything team based, but give me two characters on screen 1v1 and I’m all over it.
Yea, I think I would probably say I prefer single player or co-op games over multiplayer.
But I am pretty sure that I put more time into street fighter 6 last year than every other game combined. I do really enjoy my fighting games… But I can’t really stand to play any other competitive multiplayer genre.
For me I think Street Fighter (and most other fighting games) avoid all the most frustrating parts of PvP.
No teammates to worry about. Whether they’re bad players that need to be carried, or trolls, or just some raging screecher. They’re annoying more often than not in team based games, and even when they’re not usually they’re just… non-entities quietly playing the game. There’s little to no social engagement in modern team based multiplayer, so what’s the point?
Some people might find the lack of a team frustrating as that means there’s no one else to vent at or assign blame for a loss to other than yourself, but those people can piss off and keep playing their MOBAs. They’re just making the experience worse and I’m glad to have something keeping them away.Very well balanced. While I’m sure there are other balanced fighting games out there this is more specific to SF6. Capcom has done an incredible job balancing the cast. People like to talk about who’s top tier and complain about matchups they don’t like, but looking at the overall win rates online you can see that the best v worst character is only a 3% spread. Some individual character matchups are pretty wildly skewed, but I think that’s fine.
Both players have perfect knowledge. This is a big one, imo. Nothing is hidden from either player. You know where the other person is at all times, exactly how much health you both have, and exactly what resources. Losing to something you were not aware of is one of the worst feelings in any game, and most fighting games avoid it entirely.
I don’t play multiplayer because I don’t want to be cussed out by a 6 year old.
I play games to have fun. I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone.
I don’t play multiplayer because I don’t want to be cussed out by a 6 year old.
Or talked to. The younger, the more rude they are in chats.
Lol you’re right
That’s why MMOs are fun because we don’t use voice comms for random people, just text.
Hit them with the “i tapped ya mum”
In another news a month ago, it said, young gamers do no longer seek confrontation as much and therefore play less PvP games.
I prefer co-op but the times I can play don’t always line up with the times my friends can play.
My favorite games are things like Destiny, Minecraft, Helldivers, and Terraria, when I have friends to play with.
When playing alone, live service games can be ok, and competitive PvP is about the worst experience out there.
Single player games are often a much better experience than either of those.
We need more asynchronous game mechanics
What is an example of an async game mech?
SimCity’s cooperative structure building - anything where the group has to earn “points”. PvP asynchronous mechanics are essentially anything where a player can be attacked while offline.
Death stranding where people built structures for other people in the world is one.
Minecraft servers where you gather resources for your friend and put a sign up with a message.
Anything where you can interact with each other but don’t have to be logged in at the same time.
I always thought the messages left by other players in Dark Souls was such a cool mechanic.
They could be helpful, letting the player know to be wary of danger, or they could be completely disingenuous and trick the player into jumping off a cliff and dying.
I always labored over whether or not to take a leap of faith based on other players’ messages cause it was a toss-up whether they were being helpful or trolling, lol.
I feel nothing when playing singleplayer games. It just gives me the feeling of wasting my time. The exception would be platformers or something challenging like cuphead.
I much prefer the grind of getting better at games that have a great feel to them. Like Quake, smash melee, cs or dota. It feels like i can keep improving infinitely
Hey man as long as you have fun.
To me single player is having fun on my own terms at my own pace. There’s nobody to randomly decide the course of the game and no egos I have satisfy to not leave a match.
To me, story-driven games are a bit like reading a book, but with the ability to make decisions.
I also quite enjoy games like Celeste where the sheer challenge is the main appeal.
I enjoy the mechanics of games like Smash or League of Legends, but playing online is always so awful. It always feels like I’m either way better than the other team, or the other team is way better than me. And if there’s any sort of communication (e.g. chat in League) it gets so toxic. But I don’t want to turn chat off because occasionally people actually use it to productively share information.
But even in Smash Bros, where there is no chat and Nintendo turned off emotes in an attempt to reduce toxicity, people still find ways to be toxic.
I’d play against people IRL, but League requires 12 people and in Smash Bros I’m at the uncomfortable place where none of my friends want to play against me because I’m too good, but I’m not good enough to go play in tournaments.
While I still feel like I want to be good at these games, I’ve been trying to stop lately because they just make me feel awful.
I love coop games and so many games seem like they’re perfectly suited for it, but don’t support it. A prime example is the city builder genre. There’s a multiplayer mod for Cities: Skylines but it isn’t perfect. On a bright note, the multiplayer mod for Rimworld is virtually flawless.
