The Plague of Multiplayer

Since the start of gaming, back in around 1973, one thing has always been on a player’s mind: the idea that a game is more fun with a friend. In more ways than one, the theory is true.

Pong, the first multiplayer game.

But, alas, there were those games that had no multiplayer. Now there are games which have multiplayer that’s not worth mentioning. Yet, even so, game companies today still push it, and even proceed to use that old “better with a friend” to never even have singleplayer there. It has gotten to the point that more games have only multiplayer, and games that still have a campaign proceed to give us mediocracy and an overall bad time—unless you play multiplayer.

It’s not so much a bad thing as it is strange. Looking in the local Gamestop, I wondered “What happened to the good old single-player games that had a lot of replay value?” In utter confusion, I even asked the clerk the same question. He merely shrugged, just as confused as I was. These days, the only games some people care about are the ones which you can play on short notice, beat on short notice, and sell on short notice. Of course, the companies cash on this, and give us those. They may still care somewhat for the fans, but that concern is so little that we get horrible campaigns. There are people out there—those horrible people—whio have, in fact, never even TOUCHED single player mode and only play multiplayer for the kicks. And while I would like to say that’s wrong, who can blame them when these days we get games with faulty AIs, boring design, repetitive cutscenes, and overall bad storyline? You can have a game with amazing design, great weapons, generally good soundtrack and cool SFX, and yet still have people playing multiplayer because it’s still boring.

How did it get to this?Just where did multiplayer start, anyway?

The answer is, simply, the beginning. When Pong was first conceived, it had multiplayer. In fact, it was fun. Far more fun, by the way, than getting your butt handed to you by the CPU. Later, Contra, Final Fight, and Double Dragon came out.  The idea of a cooperation based game made everyone flock to the arcades and the television.

Did anyone ever beat this boss solo?

When Street Fighter came out, people became more and more  into multiplayer gaming. Secret moves and learning how to overcome the opponent encouraged the stratagem of gaming. Them it’s sequel, II Turbo, finished the job, making a game that was BRUTAL on single player, but more fun, and rather sadistic, on multiplayer. The entire idea of a fighting game is the multiplayer, so should we even be counting that?

Good times...

Then the blasted, evil, sexy device known as the Nintendo 64 came out. It had freaking four controllers. That was magic unknown to man at the time, and the game companies used it in excess. While some games MPs were fun, other games had ones that were best left forgotten…

On a side note, however, singleplayer gives us long hours of gameplay, speedrunning, backtracking, devilishly evil bosses, down right dirty level deathtraps, multiple endings. Looking at the history behind it, it would actually seem that people have shifted to multiplayer for the simple fact that people no longer have an attention span for these things. Let me ask you all a good question: Would YOU, being an adult of, say, 25-35, who has a job and more than likely has kids, have the time for single player? At all? No?

I didn’t think so.

The sad thing is that no matter how hard we try, companies are going to believe that MP is superior, and SP is for lonely people with time. Is that a bad thing? No, actually. But is that detrimental to us people who a) don’t have friends or siblings b) have parents who would rather not have us using the internet or b) would much rather have a solo game? Yes.

I bet there are still characters running into walls...

It’s unfortunately to see this plague, which started out as a mere pathogen known as the atarius pongus, has spread to almost the entire gaming industry. Now, had it been the metrodvanius virus, it would be the same thing. Having too much of the same type of something is bound to get complaints. But the problem if that it’s going into overdrive, with multiplayer only games (Evolve, Destiny, and Overwatch for example), games that are getting rid of iconic campaign modes( STREET FIGHTER V), and games that just stink when played alone (The latest Homefront game). It’s even gotten to the point that some companies, to our dismay, are scared to release great series due to this very reason. And when they do, we horrifically find out that they had been infected years ago (Federation Force).

Why even show gameplay? You know Multiplayer was better.

Overall, this plague cannot be fought. This plague is something of a marvel, something that represents the craziness of life itself. We might as well embrace it, otherwise, we’ll all just be G1ers clutching ancient, broken tech that can’t even play on today’s televisions.

Probably won't be seeing a mainstrean game like this anytime soon...

- Don’t waste your time reading my post, you’ll just get crushed anyway. Plus it’s by a Muslim.

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