Single Player Gaming Content Experience: What happened?

Shortbread

Island Hopper
Legend
This has been eating at me for a while… about single player gaming experience becoming more and more intertwined with the multiplayer gaming experience. Personally, I don’t play multiplayer gaming sessions, stories, battles or any online games in general. I have nothing against those who enjoy online gaming, but don’t penalize me, because I don’t.

My first area of concern is that additional single player content is being solely transformed into online or multiplayer content. I’m going to avoid naming games, but if you’re a big gamer, then you already know which publishers and developers have (are) doing this. I shouldn’t have to go online and grind another 4-6 hours or more, on receiving the “real ending” or additional single player content locked behind multiplayer online content. And let’s be honest, most of the online play is geared towards publishers and developers capitalizing ($$$) on additional in-game content purchases. I’m not against publishers and developers making additional revenue, however, I’m against having to wait and install (using additional hard drive space) useless multiplayer content that I’m not interested in. Which of course, is usually tied behind some required game fixes and performance patches. Why can’t game publishers and developers just allow gamers the option of installing multiplayer online content? I mean, just allow those gamers the option of saying yes or no. If not, then provide the general game fixes & patches outside of the multiplayer content.

The second area of concern is [all] the required online license or DRM checks required by games. I’m all for the “first time” authentication of games, however, I’m against the regular or daily check-ins, that’s required for starting a particular game. If I purchase a game and met the original requirements on obtaining the license, I shouldn’t have to routinely check-in for another. And adding insult to injury, certain games when going offline “through their own GUI or storefronts,” can render part of the game content unavailable – even though it’s tied to single player! I’m all for game publishers and developers protecting their IPs, but don’t treat actual game holders, as if you’re monitoring a child’s behavior. If Microsoft got tons sh** on possibly requiring ‘always-online’ with the Xbox One… shouldn’t game publishers and developers get the same sh** as well?

Lastly, I believe gamers, more specifically PC gamers, are getting shafted more and more on how they play (i.e., mods, gfx enhancements, trainers, etc…). I’m not condoning gamers use enhanced mods or trainers within online gaming or multiplayer sessions. Not at all, that’s cheating. However, I’m not for the heavy handed tactics (banning or disabling the game altogether) used to penalize gamers whom use game enhancements in offline gaming or single player content based games. If what game publishers and developers are saying is true; “that enhancements are destroying online gaming.” Why not, as I suggested before, separate both? Or give the option of disabling the online portion during the original game install process. For those who chose online gaming… then yes, by all means, keep the enhancements out. But for those gamers who opted-out the online gaming or multiplayer content, then there should be no need for these tactics.

Thoughts?
 
Hmmm, not an issue for me as I mostly play High A or Indie games now and those mostly focus on single player.

With the proliferation of open world games in AAA game development, I've lost a lot of interest in AAA games in general.

It probably also doesn't help that there are pretty much Zero good AAA RPGs and Zero good AAA strategy games. It still saddens me that Fallout 3 and 4 aren't even 1/100th (very slight exaggeration in my eyes) of the RPG that Fallout 1 and 2 were.

Almost all the really good stuff in those areas are either High A (Wasteland 2, Divinity Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity, Civilization, X-Com, Battletech, etc.) or indie games. Divinity Original Sin 2 is also really good in multiplayer, but it loses nothing when played in single player.

As such, I'm almost completely unaffected by any moves AAA developers make towards focusing more on multiplayer.

Regards,
SB
 
Hmmm, not an issue for me as I mostly play High A or Indie games now and those mostly focus on single player.

With the proliferation of open world games in AAA game development, I've lost a lot of interest in AAA games in general.

It probably also doesn't help that there are pretty much Zero good AAA RPGs and Zero good AAA strategy games. It still saddens me that Fallout 3 and 4 aren't even 1/100th (very slight exaggeration in my eyes) of the RPG that Fallout 1 and 2 were.

Almost all the really good stuff in those areas are either High A (Wasteland 2, Divinity Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity, Civilization, X-Com, Battletech, etc.) or indie games. Divinity Original Sin 2 is also really good in multiplayer, but it loses nothing when played in single player.

As such, I'm almost completely unaffected by any moves AAA developers make towards focusing more on multiplayer.

Regards,
SB

Yeah that's my problem, I'm still into the traditional Triple-A titles. Maybe I should start focusing more into indie horror VR titles, since my Vive hasn't done much for me in quite some time.
 
Yeah that's my problem, I'm still into the traditional Triple-A titles. Maybe I should start focusing more into indie horror VR titles, since my Vive hasn't done much for me in quite some time.

Well, one of Japan's premier porn game makers has actually released a game on Steam that is playable in VR. :p I doubt most of their portfolio will make it to Steam as many Western markets would blow up if you released games featuring some of the genres they like to cater to.

Regards,
SB
 
The big publishers don't want offline experiences anymore. All their focus is on "live services" now where they can reap as much post-sale ongoing transactions as possible.

I don't mind game developers and publishers making additional revenue off online gaming... more power to them. But just don't half-ass or cripple single player content for the sake of online multiplayer gaming. Or hide fixes/patches behind them as well.
 
Well, one of Japan's premier porn game makers has actually released a game on Steam that is playable in VR. :p I doubt most of their portfolio will make it to Steam as many Western markets would blow up if you released games featuring some of the genres they like to cater to.

Regards,
SB

I will have to investigate this... for scientific purposes of course. :mrgreen:
 
Hmmm, not an issue for me as I mostly play High A or Indie games now and those mostly focus on single player.

With the proliferation of open world games in AAA game development, I've lost a lot of interest in AAA games in general.

It probably also doesn't help that there are pretty much Zero good AAA RPGs and Zero good AAA strategy games. It still saddens me that Fallout 3 and 4 aren't even 1/100th (very slight exaggeration in my eyes) of the RPG that Fallout 1 and 2 were.

Almost all the really good stuff in those areas are either High A (Wasteland 2, Divinity Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity, Civilization, X-Com, Battletech, etc.) or indie games. Divinity Original Sin 2 is also really good in multiplayer, but it loses nothing when played in single player.

As such, I'm almost completely unaffected by any moves AAA developers make towards focusing more on multiplayer.

Regards,
SB
What's the difference between High A and AAA? Just curious... I am not used to that kind of score, that is.

As for the single player content, I am not so happy with the industry right now. Games like Age of Empires Definitive Edition need a connection even if you just want to play the campaign mode, which is my favourite mode of the game. Even opening the game requires you to have an internet connection. That makes no sense at all!

It might be because of the fact that I live in an isolated, very mountainous region, so rainy and the connection is usually unstable but I've never been a big fan of multiplayer. Except in games like Call of Juarez, where I was crying with laughter because of the fan, not all games are like that.

The games I like to play online are usually games that can be played coop either online and offline or games like Powerstar Golf, where you can play either offline or online but your online opponents aren't playing in real time, just their shots got recorded.
 
What's the difference between High A and AAA? Just curious... I am not used to that kind of score, that is.

As for the single player content, I am not so happy with the industry right now. Games like Age of Empires Definitive Edition need a connection even if you just want to play the campaign mode, which is my favourite mode of the game. Even opening the game requires you to have an internet connection. That makes no sense at all!

It might be because of the fact that I live in an isolated, very mountainous region, so rainy and the connection is usually unstable but I've never been a big fan of multiplayer. Except in games like Call of Juarez, where I was crying with laughter because of the fan, not all games are like that.

The games I like to play online are usually games that can be played coop either online and offline or games like Powerstar Golf, where you can play either offline or online but your online opponents aren't playing in real time, just their shots got recorded.

AAA generally involved a much higher budget, much higher dev teams, and a large traditional publisher to fund development.

High A are generally well established developers with a budget and dev. team that is generally much higher than that associated with traditional indie development but doesn't generally come close to the amounts that AAA developers get to play with. They are generally either self funded, investment funded, or funded by smaller publishers (like Paradox). However, big publishers are increasingly also funding High A games as a method of trying new IP or reducing the development risk of only funding AAA games.

Basically the gap between AAA development and indie development grew so large that some development houses dropped out of AAA but not so far that they became indie developers. Basically filling that gap between high AAA and low indie.

Regards,
SB
 
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As for the single player content, I am not so happy with the industry right now. Games like Age of Empires Definitive Edition need a connection even if you just want to play the campaign mode, which is my favourite mode of the game. Even opening the game requires you to have an internet connection. That makes no sense at all!

Exactly! Microsoft received so much sh** for the rumored "always online" connection needed for playing the XBO. Yet, many game developers/publishers are doing exactly this, without any negative feedback from gamers and gaming media outlets. Sure one can argue, "shouldn't everyone have an internet connection this day and age," maybe so. However, when your internet provider is having issues (i.e., weather related issues, maintenance outages, etc.) or you're changing services (i.e., downtime), then this becomes a problem. Why should a game rely on an internet connection, when there is no data (i.e., online play, updates, etc.) being passed through? Most of this "always online" connection is just a heavy handed authentication tactic on verifying the user & game license system attachment.
 
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AAA generally involved a much higher budget, much higher dev teams, and a large traditional publisher to fund development.

High A are generally well established developers with a budget and dev. team that is generally much higher than that associated with traditional indie development but doesn't generally come close to the amounts that AAA developers get to play with. They are generally either self funded, investment funded, or funded by smaller publishers (like Paradox). However, big publishers are increasingly also funding High A games as a method of trying new IP or reducing the development risk of only funding AAA games.

Basically the gap between AAA development and indie development grew so large that some development houses dropped out of AAA but not so far that they became indie developers. Basically filling that gap between high AAA and low indie.

Regards,
SB

Yeah, a good example would be comparing the development cost/resources of Witcher 3 to CDPR's latest effort with Cyberpunk 2077; I wonder how much financial risk they are in with this game and opening another division (including basis recently made up from studio Strange New Things) to help with it along with quite a large growth in employment over last year.
I must admit quite concerned the level of commitment by CDPR and this game needs to be a hit for them IMO.

Separately even High A is $10m-$30m these days it seems.
For reference Witcher 2 dev cost was $10.3m
Goes to show it is an insane situation when CDPR is seen as a high A studio with Witcher 3 when that cost $81m with dev/marketing, makes one realise just how large the AAA publishers are in comparison and how they fuel the growing cost of game development with expectations generally.
 
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This isn't much of an issue on Steam in my experience since you can go offline but I've been playing a friend's Xbox lately and you can't even play any of your games if you're not online, even games with no multiplayer or online features whatsover. Lol.
 
This isn't much of an issue on Steam in my experience since you can go offline but I've been playing a friend's Xbox lately and you can't even play any of your games if you're not online, even games with no multiplayer or online features whatsover. Lol.

Not entirely true. For some games you just need to switch network type settings then you can play offline.
 
Not sure how MS expects me to know that but thanks I'll check it out next time.

Yeah, its not friendly at all and really doesnt work well when its partially connected (on the rare back end system issues). I cant even remember what it is, which is frustrating when I'm having internet issues I cant even kook up what I need to do. I dont know if unplugging the network cable is enough to get it to flip over itself.

There's some real trouble trying to play a game from a subscription service when you're not network connected. They shoukd at least allow for a few day grace period before needing absolute connection.

But as you and others pointed out, so many games force somekind of server connection even for purely single player only experiences. Even the TellTaleGames seem to need this now.
 
This isn't much of an issue on Steam in my experience since you can go offline but I've been playing a friend's Xbox lately and you can't even play any of your games if you're not online, even games with no multiplayer or online features whatsover. Lol.

Um, this isn't entirely true. Games purchased off Steam like Far Cry 5, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Battlefield Hardline, as well as many others, require that additional storefront platforms such as Uplay and Origin to be installed, before running the game. Which within itself, adds additional layer of unwanted install's (i.e., platform updates, unnecessary GUI overlays, EAC <---FUCK THIS!, mod disablements, etc...) and license checks, in the name of online and multiplayer gaming. Sure, one can go offline on both platforms, however, you can't completely disable all the required, but unnecessary BS, tied to these intertwined storefront platforms.
 
There's some real trouble trying to play a game from a subscription service when you're not network connected. They shoukd at least allow for a few day grace period before needing absolute connection.

But as you and others pointed out, so many games force somekind of server connection even for purely single player only experiences. Even the TellTaleGames seem to need this now.

Which I find ridiculous. If gamers and the gaming media were so fired-up and ready to torch Microsoft over the leak documents outlining "always online," then everyone who felt outrage over that, should be holding game publishers & developers to the same exact standards. It's not just a few cases, or a few games doing this, but it seems from my perspective, many game publishers & developers are following suit with these tactics.
 
I'm also not feeling this but this may be helped that I game as much as PS4 as I do PC so I've enjoyed fantastic single player experiences like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us (which I recently replayed) and Uncharted.

Focussing exclusively on PC, as somebody who plays only single player campaigns, games like GTA, The Witcher 3, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed (not played Origins) and Shadow of War (and Shadow of Mordor) all feel well grounded single player games with any online aspect entirely skippable. Plus pretty much everything Bethesda have released in the last decade. And the Tomb Raider reboots. And Total War, Wasteland 2 and the XCOM franchise.

I'm struggling to keep up! :yes:
 
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