Have Gamers Lost Their Souls?

Those of you that have read previous articles of mine may already know what I’m about say. Being an avid gaming enthusiast, I’m open hearted to almost all genres of gaming. Typically most hardcore gamers are more open to unique experiences you would find in titles like Heavy Rain. It seems many gamers have become shallow over the years. The casual gamers typically fall into the category people who immediately ask if a game has “online” or not when they visit their retailer and make their gaming related purchases. It’s become increasingly disturbing to see gamers losing faith in single player experiences. Anyone who associates with my gaming habits knows its single player over multiplayer any day. There is no problem with preferring a multiplayer experience if that is your gaming niche; though I find many of them to be shallow and short-lived. At the end of the day it is the single player experience that will make or break a title for me.

Many of the best games I’ve ever played didn’t feature anything more than a campaign. Take note of God of War and Super Mario 64, they acquired HUGE success without the presence of a multiplayer mode. Regardless we don’t see as many single player only titles topping sales charts. Both titles mentioned above provided everything else necessary beyond just a particular game mode; they had a soul and a place within my heart. Any gamer knows online multiplayers don’t last forever; which is why we see many Call of Duty alliterations every few years. The sweet online multiplayers that were once enjoyable become bitter if you savor them too long.

The mainstream obsession with online multiplayer is the reason developers are able to pitch consumers a title with a 4 hour campaign and…you guessed it multiplayer, I won’t mention that title though most of you already know what it is. Given that you have better taste in gaming you aren’t prone to the misjudgment of purchasing “smash and grab” titles. Sadly there are millions of others that aren’t on the same wavelength as you; saturated games plague their living rooms. Gaming is expanding to a variety of crowds which can be a double edged sword because most of these new gamers become victims of their own interests.

There are many ways gaming industry has been reminiscent of the current music industry of today. Online multiplayer is the auto-tune of gaming, don’t think so, let me explain… Those of you who generally know anything about the music artist T-pain typically would know that his career spiked to the top of the billboards when his “auto-tuney” lyrics tore their way through mainstream. What happened after was pretty much expected with many music artists (especially the ones whose lifeblood in the industry are hit singles) started singing and even rapping in auto-tune. It became somewhat acceptable but then quality of music deteriorated. This new gimmick that was pioneered by T-pain expanded it has even been seen in advertisements because of its catchy tone. Now take a step back from the music biz for a second and imagine playing God of War with deathmatch; yeah I’ll pass.

Maybe the fact that I’ve seen what 99% of online multiplayers have to offer mainly notably FPS(s) that the constant alliteration of WWII shooters don’t seem to impress me anymore. Even the “Modernest” Warfare couldn’t dupe me into prestige once; does this make me egotistical since I haven’t found anything significant in those titles while others would lunge at my throat for the thought of not being “WOWED!” by these titles?

If you agree with Gamers losing faith in the single player experience then who should we blame publishers, developers, or gamers themselves? Please leave your feedback in the comments below.

Tags: 360, casual, gamers, gaming, general, have, ironstar, lost, ps3, soul?

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Comment by ElijahDTF on March 11, 2010 at 3:59pm: i like the occasional FPS but god damn every other game that comes out is an FPS...its like all the same shit over and over... why buy Call of duty 4, call of duty WaW. call of duty MW2, its the SAME SHIT

Comment by Antonio on March 11, 2010 at 12:26pm: I agree with Lopez. When it comes to online...I only buy Shooter games for the multiplayer action. Reason being A.I. is not on par with human reflexes and responses. What single player action gets me in a war game is repeated cut scenes that I don't really care about. If they could tell the story as I play then I wouldn't have a problem with it. But when it comes to Action/Adventure or RPG then I don't mind the story telling then. I don't believe gamers have gotten shallow...we just know what we want. MAG was cool...but its old to me now. I bought that game knowing the graphics aren't going to get any better. But next time I can't let it slide. I have bought alot of games and gotten burnt. So some of us stick to reliable developers and game titles.

Comment by Rodrigo Lopez on March 10, 2010 at 11:57pm: its the developers and gamers fault because the developers got lazy and just added a multiplayer with a crappy 7 hour campaign and the gamers for allowing this garbage to continue.

Comment by Mitchell Gwatida on March 10, 2010 at 7:38pm: When it comes to games its the story that drives me to play it. Ive played some pretty bad games(Bullet Witch) just because i wanted to see how it ended. I dont think i would ever buy a game thats sole for multiplayer like MAG and Section 8.

Comment by Yungrottz on March 10, 2010 at 6:40pm: when games with good story/campaigns keep winning GOTY they'll get the point

Comment by dirtyd89 on March 10, 2010 at 1:01pm: To a certain extent that might be the case.
Though even as a hardcore gamer you gotta admit paying $60 for a single player game is a little bit too much.
Multiplayer and co op should give more life to a game.
I always find it good to keep a multiplayer game like Call of Duty on hand while playing a single player game that way I can bounce back in forth.
Times are tough and we all can't just afford to blow $60 every time without some type of value behind it.
Multiplayer and co op give value to games and more replayability.
I don't think single player games or multiplayer games should die but what I do think is that there needs to be a balance between the two when making games.

Naughty Dog are a perfect example of a dev who takes their time with their games while trying to add value at the same time.
ex.) Uncharted 2
Uncharted 2 has an amazing single player campaign.
Fun and unique online multiplayer experience.
Addictive Co Op experience that you can play with friends.

If devs would just balance between single player, multiplayer, and co op while working equally on each mechanic can result in a better experience overall while making different types of demographics happy and more willing to pick up those types of games.
(Problem is most devs don't take the time to balance each experience so that game in the end might not do well overall if those devs didn't take the time to create the best possible game they could create. While me may sometimes laugh at Sony/Nintendo for taking a long time making their exclusive games but in the end those games come out better because those devs took their time to make a quality game and experience.)

Comment by spencer on March 10, 2010 at 1:05am: play your psp or ps2 for single player man

Comment by Jin Zhou on March 9, 2010 at 11:24pm: yep, im a man who likes his campaigns...its all about the story and all the good stuff......multiplayer is just something to keep me busy after im done with the campaigns....

Comment by BRUTAL on March 9, 2010 at 10:45pm: A super strong single player campaign is always the first port of call for proper gamers. If said game happens to have a decent multiplayer component it's a bonus, not a necessity. Not to me anyway.GoWIII = case in point. Good article man.

Comment by zakoogaroo on March 9, 2010 at 10:41pm: CAMPAIGN FTW!!!!!!!!!

I've beaten mgs4 like over 20 times

god of war one and two almost 10 times

and uncharted 2 a couple tims etc....

ITS ALL ABOUT CAMPAIGN

the only multiplayer game I've actually played is killzone 2

thats because im not big on fps , but kz2 is an fps done rite (imo)

and sumtimes uncharted 2 if my friends wan't to play

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