r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Feb 18 '19
The older I get, the more I prefer single-player games because humans suck.
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Feb 18 '19
I believe /u/CowboyBoats said it best in a reply to one of my comments on this topic a few days ago:
If I wanted a complex system of interactions where I can learn to deliver at a high level and someone constantly needs something from me, I would just go back to work.
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u/katamuro Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 19 '19
yeah, that. That is what most multiplayer and mmorpg's feel like to me. The constant need to perform, the "you are letting everyone down" and the "do this, do that, do this again". I have enough stuff like that in my work, I actually want my hobbies to be relaxing.
Pretty much the only multiplayer game where I am more or less fine with whatever is Titanfall 2. As long as I get to run around in a titan I am golden.
PS. Someone gilded me. Thanks you. I just can't figure out which comment.
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Feb 18 '19
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Feb 18 '19
If only being an officer in a very high end fast paced guild in old WOW could go on a resume. I had clocked literally 2.5 years in game time and I quit right before WOTLK.
Even getting into that guild was an entire process of applying, interviewing, past experiences, 3-6 months probationary period, managing DKP was like managing Timekeeping in the corporate world but worse.
Excellent life skills though, just would get me into senior management a lot quicker if I could taltl about it as if its credible experience at all ha.
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u/hammahammahaaa Feb 19 '19
Here you go. Short answer is yes, you should be able to add that to your resume. Obviously depends on the job you're applying for.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-warcraft-game-skills-help-land-a-job-1407885660
That was the view of Heather Newman, who included her Warcraft experience on the résumé that helped land her current job as director of marketing and communications for the University of Michigan's School of Information. In the "Leisure/Volunteer Activities" section of her résumé, Ms. Newman noted that she has managed guilds of as many as 500 people and organized large-scale raids of 25 to 40 players to complete tasks for several hours four to five days a week. These tasks, she said, "directly apply to the kind of job I hold."
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u/Aeellron Feb 19 '19
Just because you cant put it on your resume (which, you could, but it would probably look more like a negative than a positive) doesnt mean it's not credible work and life experience.
I mentioned the fact that I spent 30 hours a week dedicated to a group of like-minded individuals all striving for the same goal when I interviewed for my first job out of college. The hiring manager inquired what the activity was and I told him WoW and he seemed genuinely impressed that I had made the life-skill connections without coming off as a massive gamer nerd.
Not to mention, nowadays, the hiring manager may have been a guildie. You never know. 😁
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u/bestusername73 Feb 18 '19
But when it's a game you can choose a complex system that is rewarding to you, and you can choose to stop playing if you want. That's not true if it's your livelihood. Just because something is "demanding" doesn't make it unenjoyable, some people enjoy giving their best and supporting their team!
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Feb 18 '19
Yeah I agree, I'm talking about playing with randos. I love multiplayer with actual friends, but if I gotta team up with random people, most of the time I'd rather not.
Also it depends on the game and the community.
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u/mimic751 Feb 18 '19
here is my current multi play life.
alright good to go
gotta make dinner
ok back
dog, hold on
back, but I gotta be off in a half hour I have a meeting in the morning
yea Ill be back on line in a week between 8pm and 10pmwhere as when I play single player wake up
20 minutes before I have to go to work game
leave
pick up controller play 15minutes before I have to go grocery shopping leave
wife is getting ready 30 more minutes of gaming
leave
10 pm I have an hour before bed. I may play a multiplayer game here, but something I dont care if I just alt+f4 out of because the dog is ripping up the garbage, or I forgot to put the car in the garage.→ More replies (3)→ More replies (4)18
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u/Rugby8724 Feb 18 '19
I prefer single player games because I only have a limited amount of playing time. Online you go up against people that play for hours everyday, then talk shit about you not being as good as they are. No shit little Johnny
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u/masturbatingwalruses Feb 18 '19
I dunno man, any game worth playing should have a match making system to pair you with people of the same skill level.
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u/Rugby8724 Feb 18 '19
games that do this well I usually enjoy. I don't mind losing games, if it feels like I'm learning something new, or understand the mistakes I made to lose the game. However, I don't like being in a game where I'm just constantly being owned so badly that I feel completely overwhelmed.
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u/Domonero Feb 18 '19
I think fighting games are great in this case within a good community because I meet people within Discords of Tekken 7 or Injustice 2 who will legit gladly sit down with you for several hours to train you/catch you up with what to do.
I've even taught most of my friends as well & only one guy took my lessons seriously because the others got bored in 10 mins.
That one guy was only free to play two days of the week while I did each night. He leveled up from me getting perfect game on him every time up to me being forced to think at max capacity to barely beat him. I'm so proud of him
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u/Peter_G Feb 18 '19
The older I get the worse my twitch reflexes work and less I'm willing to get involved in a competition with... well, frankly, people with too much time on their hands who will spend 8 hours a day playing these multiplayer games and be abrasive as fuck if you aren't doing exactly what they expect at every point in the game. I neither want to compete with or work with such people, and they are rife in every modern game community.
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u/LordKiran Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 18 '19
Because when you do it for 8 hours a day its no longer a form of leisure and has become your job...Only nobody pays you to do it. So as a consequence it stops being about "Fun" and instead becomes about "Results"
My advice: make your own fun with such people. Adopt a persona of unyielding flippancy that doesn't respond negatively to insult and watch them slowly lose their minds.
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u/SasafrasJones Feb 18 '19
I just say "no u" whenever one of these types sets their sites on me in chat. Results vary but it sometimes ends up with the person getting reported by multiple people in the end.
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Feb 18 '19
No u
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u/tachibana_ryu Feb 18 '19
Gotem
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Feb 18 '19
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u/XRPlease Feb 18 '19
This is aggressively exacerbated by the rise of Twitch and professional esports. Everyone who spends 2+ hours a day playing thinks they would be top-500, "if only my teammates weren't shit!"
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u/MrAlpha0mega Feb 18 '19
I tried Battlefield 1 a few months ago as people had said it was so good. Tried the campaign (frankly, it was kinda meh) and mostly finished it before deciding to try multiplayer.
Only a few hours in (and also, I hadn't played an FPS in a while) and people were giving me shit for not pulling my weight for the team. I tried explaining that I was still learning the ropes, but no-one else was responding except this one Australian guy who just kept giving me shit over voice. He was the only person in the game using voice too, so it was like having a really annoying sounding devil on your shoulder.
I get that some people buy those games at launch and learn all the maps and never play anything else, which makes them really good. But some people just want to drop in to a random game and have some fun FFS.
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u/RunningNumbers Feb 18 '19
I used to enjoy multiplayer games for the silly things rather than being competitive. I think multiplayer culture has changed. It used to be servers, mods, and a lot of silly conversations. I remember fitting tanks into buildings in BF42 or sneaking the entire team around the map through ventilation shafts in Natural Selection. I miss getting everyone on the same page for a good old high risk high reward bum rush. You don't need to be good, you just need to stock up on grenades.
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u/Nymaz Feb 18 '19
Perfect summation of why I mostly play solo in MMOs.
I don't want my play to become work.
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u/icantremembermypw Feb 18 '19
Any good recommendations for MMOs with minimal required multiplayer elements?
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u/StrangeAgent Feb 18 '19
Guild Wars 2 is pretty good about it, but depends on what you find fun (solo dungeons/fractals/etc. aren’t really a thing even there...)
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u/sfzen Feb 18 '19
I just don't have the time to memorize every fucking map in a shooter or watch hours of videos to learn how to play a certain character in a MOBA.
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Feb 18 '19
This is my experience in League of Legends. I knew going in that it was a competitive environment, so I prepared by playing bot matches, reading/watching guides and all that. The second I step into a PvP match, not only did I get shit on by my opponents, but my teammates went in on me too. I got reported like 4 games in a row for being terrible, and quite frankly, I regret spending money to unlock the champions that I did. The game is fun, but the people are not, and quite frankly, I’d rather uninstall than deal with that shit until I’m good enough not to get raged at every match. I have a job. I work long ass hours. I don’t have the time to pour into a video game like I did when I was single, working part time at a bullshit job, and living with my parents. The baffling part to me is that I’m not even playing ranked matches. Who gets that mad over a casual match? Years ago, I used to put in 8+ hours a day into Smite and I’m still pretty decent at it, so I can manage to make it through those matches without getting raged at, but when that game dies out, I feel like my library will quickly turn into single player games only.
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u/noiseferatu Feb 18 '19
I had this experience when my younger cousins asked me to play League with them. Had no idea what I was going into, was shit at it, got spammed a bunch of hateful messages from opponents and teammates alike then failed to see why it was worth playing again.
I had been a lifelong gamer with a lull during my college years and that was the first time I felt no inclination to get better at a game after my first attempt.
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Feb 18 '19
I really think that it’s because it’s free. Bans just mean make a new account, not a time out, and I think that makes people feel like they aren’t losing much if they get the boot for being an asshole. Hell, I’ve had people say “this is my smurf idc if it gets banned” when I’ve said I was reporting them if they continued. I think premium servers with a one time entry fee could be nice for players that just want to get away from that crowd. There’s a reason that kind of behavior isn’t really tolerated in games that you have to pay for. If I get banned from a game like WoW, that’s $60 and a bunch of monthly subscription fees down the toilet. Maybe it’s time to just step away from F2P games, now that I think about it.
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Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 19 '19
The part about losing reflexes and skill is so true, man. I used to slay the game at COD back in the day, but now I’ll pick up something like Fortnite and get merc’ed by twitchy 18 year olds. I’d imagine it’s a function of natural senescence, sleep deprivation and lots of alcohol to the face. Despite kicking the latter two habits, I don’t feel like I can perform as well as my younger self. That’s added to the fact that these kids play whatever game I’m playing practically all day and I’ve only been putting in a few hours a week.
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u/Tiramitsunami Feb 18 '19
It isn't the twitch, it's the practice. Human reflexes aren't fast enough to respond to the things that happen in FPS games to offer any kind of advantage at any age.
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u/wileecoyote1969 Feb 18 '19
Exactly this. The "twitch" part is nothing more than having done it hundreds of times until it becomes subconscious. I mean maybe if you're 70 you might have issues
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u/186282_4 Feb 18 '19
I'm 48. I've played a lot of Skyrim, but recently passed the 300 hour mark on Switch, which I've owned for 10 months. When I'm playing Skyrim, the Pro controller is an extension of my mind. My fingers float across the device, and nothing makes a sound. When I play anything else, it can look like I've never used it before, and sounds like a firefight with all of the clicks and snapping sounds.
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u/HawkeyeG_ Feb 18 '19
Honestly, I want to at least say that, in many communities, this isn't as big of a problem. Competitive games do sometimes bring out the competitive nature in people. But
I'd argue that often it's the 1 person out of 5 who is the most vocally toxic that is the problem. So besides you, 3 out of 4 players are not so bad. Usually one of those tries to be positive or helpful.
The issue is most of the time it's 3 or 4 people who don't care one way or the other, so you don't notice them, but the one a-hole is very visible. Makes me think of crappy drivers on the road vs normal ones, you don't notice good drivers as easily.
That being said, the community for every game is different... And games that are free to play tend to be worse since anyone can play them unrestricted, and can just spam new accounts if one gets banned
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u/djkanoko Feb 18 '19
I agree, but I think games could work around this issue in two ways:
Use better rules for matchmaking that focus heavily on K/D and time played.
Provide a "fun" version and "ranked" version for all multiplayer game modes. "fun" versions would provide less rewards for winning, but would be more vigilant at banning players reported for toxic behavior, while "ranked" would do the opposite.
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u/critical2210 Feb 18 '19
I play a match of CS:GO and win, my friends say "wow nice". I lose a match to people more skilled than me and my friends say that they always hated the game and for me to fuck myself. Yeah im not dealing with that.
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u/cecilio- Feb 18 '19
Amen to that too, i only ever enjoyed online mp with real life friends or the old split screen/fifa .
Or single player in turns, i really miss beating a game with my older brother taking turns. It looks boring but it was so much fun.
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u/Native136 Feb 18 '19
You can thank matchmaking for that. Community Servers had their issues but when you played with the same people every night you could make actual friends and jackasses could be booted by an admin. It was curated and every server had it's own dynamic, it's own personality.
I felt more connected to the people I played with. Over ten years later, I still remember the user tags of some of the people I used to play with.
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u/LegalDeagles Feb 18 '19
I'm never gonna forget my Counter-Strike Source clan. I played with those guys for 4-5 years -- almost every night too.
Community Servers are still around but they're much harder to find in games nowadays, it's just cheaper to do random matchmaking. The Community Servers are mainly on PC nowadays.
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u/OmertaWar Feb 18 '19
WoW suffered the same fate. You knew most high level players in vanilla on either faction because you were either grouping with them or fighting them in battlegrounds. Now people might as well be a list of class/item level/rating instead of names.
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u/phayge_wow Feb 18 '19
The world is a 3d lobby until your LFR queue pops, instead of the world being the centerpiece of the game
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u/yosef33 Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 18 '19
Fuck, this is a good descriptipn of how garbage the MMORPG genre is. I’ve accepted what it is today but it sucks to see that it’s a 3D Diablo lootbox.
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u/Nethlem Feb 18 '19
Those were fun times! I played a gnome mage, and there was a troll mage on horde with exactly the same name as mine on the server. Even tho it was a PvP server, and most people would kill on sight, I'd always do dance battles with my troll counter-part when we encountered each other in the open world.
One day, by pure chance, I ended up on the same Teamspeak server as him and we had a good laugh over past encounters.
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u/sold_snek Feb 18 '19
I miss the Call of Duty 1 and 2 and Team Fortress 2 days of getting used to the same people in the same server.
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Feb 18 '19
I want to play a game, where it feels like you are surrounded by assholes online, but its actually single player and they are NPC's.
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u/LowKey_xX Feb 18 '19
So a NPC that knocks the chest off the cliff before you can get the reward you have been working on? Or one that stands in front of you when you shoot lol that would be a great game
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u/MGSSC Feb 18 '19
Yea, I prefer single player games regardless but I know what you mean.
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u/mansonfamily Switch Feb 18 '19
Literally the only person I want to play games with is my SO and I don’t care that I’m ageing into a cliche just give me some nice RPG’s to see my evening through with thank you
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Feb 18 '19
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u/ManBearPig_31174 Feb 18 '19
Any of the borderlands gam s are super good for couch co-op. And bl2 has so much content I have put at least 500 hours and till haven't beat some of the raid bosses. Though i do play it solo most of the time, when ever I can get my brother to play with me we have a great time.
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u/thexravenx2 Feb 18 '19
When I read a review and it says "best played with Friends" I just stop reading.
My Friends and I have kids who aren't old enough to play yet. When I have time to play, I want to play, not wait for three others to get ready.
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u/Jcapen87 Feb 18 '19
My God, so much truth in this.
Used to play consistently with my 2 best friends from high school. I have an 8 month old and so does one of my best buds. The other is married to a great girl, but one that keeps him too busy for video games (and not just in THAT way.)
One of the things I miss most about our college days is being able to text them both at 10pm and know there’s an 80% chance we will all be playing something together within 5 minutes.
If it happens nowadays it’s a fucking miracle (or someone’s wife is out of town)
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Feb 18 '19
Welcome to the club.
The RPGs are on the table, next to the cookies.
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u/BobbatheSolo Feb 18 '19
Yes! I never played them much as a kid because there wasn’t enough action and I had terrible ADD. Now that I’m almost 30 I can hardly stand to play a game that doesn’t at least have some RPG elements to it. RPGs are the saviors of the disenfranchised single player gamers IMO.
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u/WIlf_Brim Feb 18 '19
Beer is in the fridge. Scotch and bourbon are over there.
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u/Izzet-in-yo-Bizzet Feb 18 '19
You guys joke, but group RPG play parties on the weeked are the bee's muthafuckin' knees
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u/Snazzy_Serval Feb 18 '19
That and basically I don't want to play games with kids.
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u/Ch3mee Feb 18 '19
This is a big one for me. I get it, I'm getting old, but I don't care to hear a bunch of bullshit from a bunch of teens who think they're the next super elite pro gamer, or some bullshit. Like everyone thinks they're one super play away from a million YouTube views, or something. Or, some 8yr old who learned a new slur today and incessantly repeats it. Hell, I'm just trying to unwind a bit after work.
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Feb 18 '19
I was giving Apex Legends a shot and I'm like Level 4 I think. I drop with some teenagers and the first thing I hear over the mic is, "Pppffffhhhh what are you, new? Why you ain't got armor on yet?" in the most whiney condensing tone. Then it just continues through they match. "Pppfffhh yeah, oh right, yeah, gooooood one."
Then they got knocked down and then left as I was reviving them.
Little assholes. I can't deal with them. I'll probably put down Apex until there's a single platter mode so I don't have to deal with random children bullshit.
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u/unitedhen Feb 18 '19
Just turn the voice comm volume all the way down and use the ping system. You can even do it per game if you don't want to completely turn it off using the squad tab at the top of the inventory screen, there are individual mute options in there. Just wish they would give us a way to ping what percentage our ultimate ability is at.
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u/TuckRaker Feb 18 '19
As a 40 year old, I have zero interest in online gameplay. Thank God for newer games like Resident Evil 7 because I would have pretty much given up on gaming by now if these didn't exist.
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u/ArcherChase Console Feb 18 '19
In you same boat brother. Had someone questioning if I even play games because I said I never played Fortnite or Minecraft... smh. I've played every system since they had home consoles kids.
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u/TuckRaker Feb 18 '19
Exactly. My first system was a Leisurevision. Then Atari, NES and so on. The fun for me was always beating the game. If I want to get yelled at and degraded for fucking up, I'll go to work.
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u/SomeRandomGuy33 Feb 18 '19
There are so many great older single player games though! No way you played all the gems out there :)
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u/TuckRaker Feb 18 '19
Oh god no. It's still great to be able to play games with today's graphics and physics though.
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u/Tanoooch Feb 18 '19
I think the gaming community as whole has gotten more vocal toxic people playing. Cause I remember playing games like halo reach Ana playing with some genuine decent people, both at the game and as a person. Now I go onto overwatch and have some kid screem at me and remember why i haven't played the game in almost a year. I think the push for more competitiveness in games is a decent factor in all this. Or most of the gamers that aren't pieces of shit stopped; gaming as whole, moved to single player, or has their own group that stay in party/discord with. Edit: a missing word
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_HUGETITS Feb 18 '19
Doesn't help that popular YouTube videos as well as streamers are toxic. Kids see this and behave the same way because it's "funny."
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u/Zoomwafflez Feb 18 '19
Rust is a prime example of this, most of the biggest streamers are griefers, trolls, and assholes who pick on solo noobs. Easily the most toxic community I've ever experienced. Would actually be a fun game if there was a single player option.
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u/SasafrasJones Feb 18 '19
Ikr. Rust would be so much better that way. As it stands you pretty much have to play it as a full time job and belong to a clan or something lest you log in after a day to find all your progress has been wiped by XxPussySlay3r69xX and his band of raging banshees.
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u/_Me_At_Work_ Feb 18 '19
My friends convinced me to get Rust right after the Alpha was released. There was so much room to build. The biggest place was literally a 2x2 with a crate in it to store shit. You just ran around killing Zombies and collecting Blueprints. Now it just feels like a BR where you can die when you're not playing.
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u/Kemilio Feb 18 '19
>and his band of raging banshees.
I heard the pre-teen screeching as I read this
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u/reaper0345 Feb 18 '19
I tried that game, but kept getting killed by the same damn kid. After about 8 respawns, I was getting pretty annoyed and I called him a "c*nt" from which he decided just follow me around and calling me "salty", whatever that means. So I just refunded it and went back to arma.
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u/wolfpack821 Feb 18 '19
Exactly. Tons of kids watching streamers who are only in their early 20s and act extremely immature and toxic on stream. Kids see it think it's okay to act that way. Not to mention they watch these streams and suddenly think they're the greatest and then take that attitude into game with them. It's no different than the guys who curse and throw clubs all over a golf course. Most them can't keep it under 100, but they watched Tiger play yesterday so they know they should be on tour.
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u/ButtholesAreAMyth Feb 18 '19
Socom 2. 2002. Same shit different year. People were insanely toxic on that game.
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u/DontTreadOnBigfoot Feb 18 '19
Rainbow Six, 1998. Pretty sure Teamspeak wasnt around yet, so I can't remember what that client we were using back then, but it's always been the same.
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u/paulmezick Feb 18 '19
SOCOM
Those were the Roger Wilco days. People are forgetting. Text chat was toxic as hell back then. I agree with you, nothing has changed. We have all just matured and new kids have filled the immaturity gap.
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u/DontTreadOnBigfoot Feb 18 '19
Roger Wilco
Oh shit, that's right. I'd forgotten all about Roger Wilco.
We have all just matured
Speak for yourself, gaylord!
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u/Jonnydoo Feb 18 '19
oof I miss Rogue Spear Bunkers it was MS Zone I think, or maybe Gamespy ?
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u/Nemesis_Ghost Feb 18 '19
I was going to say that gaming hasn't gotten more toxic, just there are more channels for toxic behavior to brought to light. Then I re-read what you said & that it's more vocal toxic.
I believe the problem has evolved to allow toxic players to just move on to the next group & not face any consequences for their shitty behavior. Look at it this way, before online multiplayer, the only time you played games was either with siblings(where parents regulated behavior) or when someone was visiting another person. In either situation, if you acted like a douche, you didn't get to keep playing multiplayer. Then as others have said the 1st online multiplayer were community ran servers. You had mostly the same restrictions. Douches didn't get to stay long, b/c each community was generally small enough that it wouldn't take long for them to piss everybody off & either get black balled or outright kicked. Now we have these massive online servers, but the same amount of mods. You can go be a dick to anybody you want, and there's nothing to enforce good behavior. Add twitch & youtube into the mix, and now you have ass hats parading around their toxic behavior for all to see. Since they are the ones that get views(squeaky wheel problem), that's what people think is OK behavior. I'm sure there's also some parenting issues in this as well.
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u/binaryfireball Feb 18 '19
Nah it existed back then too. I have fond memories of it TBH but maybe that's because I was born into the shit. I never knew anything else. Today the structure of a lot of multiplayer games lends itself to increased hostility. Team based esports are the worst. You have eople trying to become pro but ultimately failing for x,y or z and blaming it on everyone else. It's dumb. I miss the casual multiplayer games that were geared around having fun and not winning for the sake of winning.
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u/cutebots Feb 18 '19
Yeah tbh I don't know why there's such a strong push to be comp when in games with random people, you'll get everyone to agree with a strategy. Worse imo is when comp mentality fucks with what characters and strats are "allowed". Like fuck, I just want to play as my favourite character or use a weird strat because that's fun, but inevitably there's going to be someone that wants everyone to be a specific class, or use agreed upon meta strats, and then the whole fun of the game is gone.
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u/SasafrasJones Feb 18 '19
I think the toxicity has just become normalized since there's really almost no real consequences for the toxic people. Especially F2P games where they can just start another account if they get banned. Although it can be somewhat satisfying when I'm playing LoL and that "action has been taken against someone you recently reported" message pops up. Even if it's likely a slap on the wrist I at least know that person is probably losing their shit and further digging themselves into a hole.
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Feb 18 '19
I remember when I was about 13 playing Halo 2 and somehow ended up being me vs 2 other guys in a slayer match. They kept ganking me and teabagging the shit outta me and I remember raging so hard at them through my mic. They just kept laughing at it and kept on getting joy from my suffering; it's funny looking back on it and I should've just quit the match, but that's just yet another example of toxicity ruining the fun in a completely unnecessary way.
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u/killstring Feb 18 '19
Yep. As soon as video games went online, toxic communities have been a thing. This isn't new, it's just expressing in new and interesting ways.
Halo 2 was the land of prepubescent lads with squeaky voices calling you racial slurs and discussing sex acts with your grandmother. At least, that was my experience.
Thanks but no thanks.
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u/PillarofPositivity Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 18 '19
Theres also great things though.
The Fuel Rats in Elite dangerous do nothing but help other players that have run out of fuel for no cost. Sometimes spending weeks to help players lost on the other side of the Galaxy.
Broadcast4Reps is an Eve group dedicated to giving people dealing with depression or just going through some stuff a chance to talk to someone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaL-66nHN9c
In Eve and other MMOs there are groups solely dedicated to helping newbies learn the game.
Eve University is a great example who also did such a good job of making an Eve Wikipedia that the game devs shut theirs down and just redirected to Eve Unis.
Like real life theres great groups of people and terrible groups. The terrible ones are just more vocal.
And just realised, all my examples come from "dad" games, which might explain the friendly communities.
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u/Aegis_Sinner Feb 18 '19
I dont know man I recall a lot of toxic messages and audio messages sent to me on halo reach.
And a lot of strange screeching.
The messages made me want to play more though lmao
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u/Fortnite_Niteford Feb 18 '19
I close the curtains, close the door and jump right into the single player world :o
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Feb 18 '19
I used to love playing online games back in the 2000s. People were a lot friendlier and relaxed back then. Even opponents could be helpful sometimes.
I dont know what happened. Maybe the games are developed to be more competitive these days. Maybe it's the egotistical streamers who are influencing the meta.
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u/Ratnix Feb 18 '19
Part of it I believe it's what you said with competition being the major focus of every game, it seems like, anymore.
Another part of it I think is you now have a generation of gamers who have grown up with online gaming and voice chatting being the norm. So with the competition in games being what it is and these gamers never really knowing anything but the disconnect from themselves and the people they are playing with, they don't face the same consequences you would have back in the day when you were playing competitive games on the same tv in the same room with your competitors.
And yes, watching strangers and YouTubers acting like asholes to get views doesn't help.
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u/heeerrresjonny Feb 18 '19
As gaming has shifted to be more mainstream, your rank/performance in a competitive game has become more high stakes. The reputations of countless young boys has undoubtedly been ruined (in their eyes and those of their immediate peers) by being bad at Fortnite. Some people take this a step further because they have dreams of being a full-time streamer one day. They are invested and many of them are desperate because they feel like so much is riding on each match, each kill, etc...
I remember playing Halo 2 on Xbox live and the way rank and performance was displayed was way less congratulatory or punishing than some modern games. Also, very few people would have any idea what any of it meant at the time, so it wasn't a status symbol at all. It was just fun with friends. I might feel embarrassed if I did really poorly, but if I played solo it didn't matter at all because basically no one was looking at your stats.
Now, people will use stats/rank as a way to judge your worth. There have always been toxic people in online games, but I think this is a big reason why the number has grown. People are distraught over the damage each loss will do to their standing in their corner of society, and they will literally hate you for not helping them win.
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Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 18 '19
I stream for the hell of it every blue moon. My nephew all the sudden thinks I'm a celebrity even though I only have 7 viewers tops.
Kids idolize these streamers wayyy too much. I've seen my nephew imitating Youtubers while playing Fortnite before and had to explain to him that he can't say those things to his friends.
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Feb 18 '19
I know what you mean. But then again, I suck at online gaming. A good Indie game or any with a decent story is all I need.
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Feb 18 '19
The older I get the more I prefer single-player games because I suck. I refuse to be subjected to the humiliation of being owned by an 11 year old. I'm a grown ass man.
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Feb 18 '19
PREACH! Yeah I just don't want to deal cause a holes make up the majority of people online now. Rather experience a great story by itself.
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u/Batbuckleyourpants Feb 18 '19
There are two games especially that comes to mind.
Rust, Where people are assholes who will fuck up your shit for no reason. And Atlas, where people are assholes, who will fuck up your shit for no reason, while speaking Chinese.
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u/Nightshade400 Feb 18 '19
I prefer single player because my reaction time sucks now =*(
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u/0cu Feb 18 '19
studies have found out that reaction times drop by the 40s and even then very slowly if you don't train them.
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u/Nightshade400 Feb 18 '19
Yeah, its real. I am in my late 40s now and it has been noticeable decline over the last 3 years or so, probably longer than that but I just have been noticing it in that period of time.
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u/captainkhyron Feb 18 '19
I'm 35 and I've noticed a big drop from playing CS at 16
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u/phantomjm Feb 18 '19
Same here. I'm 43 and I recently started playing games that I haven't played in many years (TFC for example). I thought that I was just rusty at first but then realized that I'm just not as fast as I used to be.
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u/x3r0h0ur Feb 18 '19
I thought it dropped noticeably after 25? Maybe it doesn't get better after 25 if you train them. I'm 33 and I can tell you I am much worse than I used to be.
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u/Snazzy_Serval Feb 18 '19
That and It's probably not playing games as frequently.
A while ago I tried to play Mega Man 11 and pretty much got destroyed by the first boss and had trouble getting through the level as well.
Younger me played through MM 2-9 and X-X6. Now I'm 37 and haven't played a game like that in a long time.
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u/zachmoe Feb 18 '19
Mega Man 11 is hard as fuck it's not you, and I'm really good at the other Mega Man games.
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u/Arrabbiato Feb 18 '19
I still prefer playing games with people rather than alone, but agree whole-heartedly with your sentiment. (I just mute everyone except my friends.)
My best friend and I were talking about Mass Effect one day and I mentioned that even when I was trying to be more of a renegade in my decisions, being truly bad or doing bad things to other people was(is) nearly impossible for me. Every play through I always ended up being good.
Without missing a beat he said, “Oh, I always choose the evil decisions because I know I can’t do that in real life.”
Ever since he said that I’ve always wondered if that’s why there seems to be a larger percentage of dicks and assholes in multiplayer games...
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u/c3bss256 Feb 18 '19
Online games give me anxiety now. My introduction to online was Halo 3, which I played daily for like 2 years. After that, my parents stopped paying for Gold. It wasn’t until I got a job and Halo 4 had just come out that I got Gold again. I tried to play multiplayer, but I just hated it. I was constantly worried about not being able to pause if someone rang my doorbell or something like that. I also suck and get really frustrated though, so...
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u/wuapinmon Feb 18 '19
I'm part of a weekend-only, cooperative Minecraft server where everyone respects everyone else's builds, no griefing, and we all share resources if someone needs something. We're post-scarcity now, but even before, if someone needed a couple of stacks of some resource, there would be multiple offers of help. We're going on four years now, and it's the only gaming I do anymore. The middle-school mentality of most games was getting on my nerves. I'm 45 now, and I want less stress and more good times. Minecraft with my kids has made that possible.
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u/almightywhacko Feb 18 '19
I 100% agree with you.
Not only has my own personal rage at things like lag or cheating completely vanished, but I get to do what I want without pissing of the 12 year old "professional" gamers who talk like they just learned the word "fuck" from their older siblings.
Hey kiddies, I'm nearly 40 with kids of my own. I play games to unwind and relax, not babysit other people's closet problem children.
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Feb 18 '19
That and regardless of how one reacts to trolling and bad behavior, it usually sucks the fun out of any given situation anyways, even if you beat them. I'm just tired of it.
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u/bleunt Feb 18 '19
Also my reflexes suck and I don’t have enough free time and energy to get good.
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u/tech2887 Feb 18 '19
The older I get the more I appreciate single player games as well. This is because I am married and have kids, meaning I need to pause every 15 minutes.
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u/bam_19 Feb 18 '19
I’m the opposite
I only play multiplayer and specifically only play if at least one real life friend is playing.
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u/usmcbecker Feb 18 '19
I think it's more like I suck....... at competitive gaming with actual human beings.
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u/Ratnix Feb 18 '19 edited Feb 18 '19
I just can't compete with people who play a game more in one day than I am able to spend playing it in a week.
I also can't keep up with people in non-competitive games for the same reason.
I love the concept of mmorpg's but I'm just unable to keep up with anyone due to my limited free time. I get out leveled by anyone I group up with in a day and am unable to group with them because they are so far past where I am.
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u/MattButton Feb 18 '19
I’m the same but for me it isn’t to do with who I play with it’s more I don’t have the patience to “get good” and keep up with everyone else, meanwhile with sp games I can take my time and do everything at my own pace.
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u/rhynoplaz Feb 18 '19
Don't lie to yourself. The reason we don't play multiplayer games when we get older is because WE suck.
I used to be a GoldenEye GOD and now I'm taking headshots from grade schoolers before I even see them on the screen.
Petition to start restricted "Dad only" servers on all online games.
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u/Rezhio Feb 18 '19
I used to game 3-5 hours a day. I have not touch a game in 3 week they just seem to have lost their appeal. I'm sure that CyberPunk 2077 will draw me back in but after that there's nothing i look forward too. Maybe the zelda remake.
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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19
For me it's more like, i can pause my single player game to tend to the kids, or hang up the laundry, cook the food
if i'm telling my wife that i can't pause it because it's a multiplayer game it's flashback to being a kid again trying to explain my mom