Multiplayer Update

Hoenkoper · Oct 17, 2012

Dovahkiin said: ↑

Sorry but Im not going to buy the game.
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Ok.

Bamul · Oct 17, 2012

Actually, CD Projekt is one of the very few developers who have my full support, due to their awesomeness. Also, I do not classify free updates as DLC. To me, they are two completely different things. A free update from the likes of CD Projekt RED is something that enriches the experience and supports the game a long time after its release, whilst paid DLC = milking money from gamers. Sorry, I forget that not everyone looks at it this way, but that is what I meant.

Cerberus, that is so true that it's sad.

VanillaToshi · Oct 17, 2012

Dovahkiin said: ↑

Sorry but Im not going to buy the game.
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Because there's no multiplayer? Pathetic.

majnu · Oct 17, 2012

I think this is an excellent article and very relevant to this thread.

Originally Posted by Penny Arcade article
We play alone together: Why conventional wisdom about single-player games is wrong

Ben Kuchera / Wed, Oct 10, 2012

Things sound dire for single-player games, with almost everything going online, social, and in some cases mobile. It’s the wave of the future! GamesIndustry recently ran a story with a few choice quotes from Blizzard’s Rob Pardo under the scary headline “Single player games are dying.”

Pardo was asked if big budget, single-player games are an endangered species. “I don’t see there being a great business model for it these days. It’s really sad, there’s just a lot of elements out there that conspire to make those games difficult to make now,” he said. “Between pirating or the ability for people to rent games, it’s hard for publishers to pour millions and millions of dollars into a game and not necessarily see the return they need to make those budgets realistic.”

What’s interesting is that, once you start digging into the data, it turns out that single-player campaigns do just as much to sell many series that are known primarily as multiplayer games. The power of single-player can’t be overestimated.

How many people never go online
It’s hard to review a game like StarCraft 2 before the community really digs into the multiplayer aspect of the game; it takes awhile for people to find the strategies, weaknesses, and balancing quirks of online games of that scope. When the game was released many people broke their reviews up, and talked only about the single-player aspect of the game. The comments were interesting, with some people claiming “no one” would play StarCraft 2 for the story.

I caught up with Blizzard to ask. It turns out around half of the people who buy the game only play the campaign. “It could be that half the people are only really interested in the campaign and continuing the story. It may mean that we could do a better job at encouraging people to play multiplayer, that it’s not just for pro-players who have 300 apm,” Blizzard’s Bob Colayco told the Penny Arcade Report. “Our matchmaking system has been hailed as one of the biggest strengths of StarCraft II by the community so you’re always going to get a fair match. But maybe it’s hard to put that on a bullet list because it doesn’t sound all that sexy or marketing friendly; just ends up being something that’s great for the game.”

The first information shared about the next StarCraft 2 game, Heart of the Swarm, featured single-player content for this reason. It’s important to get that 50% of players excited about the game and ready to play. Blizzard is very much aware of how many players purchase StarCraft titles for the story.

Blizzard is in good company. I was chatting with a representative from Epic Games who told me that over 50% of the people who buy Gears of War titles never go online. For the majority of Gears of War players, the series is made up of strictly single-player games. These are just two companies that were willing to go on the record with solid numbers; many other developers have games that are known for online gaming but feature a massive, if not majority, player base that never go online.

There are exceptions to this, of course. A representative from Deep Silver told me around 25 percent of Dead Island never went online, although that changes depending on the system: on the PC 40% of players never went online.

There are also games where multiplayer hurt performance instead of helping. “The multiplayer mode of Spec Ops: The Line was never a focus of the development,” lead designer Cory Davis said in an in-depth look at the game at Polygon, “But the publisher was determined to have it anyway. It was literally a check box that the financial predictions said we needed, and 2K was relentless in making sure that it happened — even at the detriment of the overall project and the perception of the game.”

While the multiplayer game mode may have allowed 2K Games to check off that the game had the possibility for an online community, it didn’t fit with the rest of the game. Multiplayer also added significant cost to the budget of the project. While Spec-Ops The Line had sales that were sometimes described as disappointing, the game had to sell more copies to make up the added cost of multiplayer mode that didn’t help sales.

“No one is playing it, and I don’t even feel like it’s part of the overall package — it’s another game rammed onto the disk like a cancerous growth, threatening to destroy the best things about the experience that the team at Yager put their heart and souls into creating,” Davis said.

Publishers need to stop assuming that multiplayer is going to add sales, and start thinking of the time and money they can save by not including a multiplayer mode. XCOM: Enemy Unknown features a limited, but fun, multiplayer mode that didn’t likely cost much to implement; it uses existing characters and settings but allows players to pit their forces against each other. Dishonored shipped as a single-player game, and thus has to sell fewer copies to make its budget back. Skyrim shipped without online play and did incredibly well.

The perception that multiplayer is mandatory is a large reason behind budgets that seem to be creeping up, and there is enough anecdotal evidence to say that it’s not necessary for many games. It’s time to stop thinking about phantom profits that may come in with tacked-on multiplayer modes, and start banking on the guaranteed savings that comes from releasing single-player only games.

Indies have been proving this for years; Torchlight shipped without multiplayer and went on to be a hit, allowing Runic Games to create a more ambitious sequel that did include co-op and online play. FTL is another hit that rejected feature creep and sold itself on the merits of the single-player game.

These success stories prove the power of single-player games. By avoiding feature creep, delivering on a solid, core experience, and keeping gamers happy with what is offered instead of trying to cram more into the game, many indie developers have found success. At a time when a game can sell a million copies or more and still be in the red, that approach has to be attractive to the larger group of players.

While publishers may be entranced by the idea of selling games as services instead of products, the truth is that many of your favorite online franchises cater to a mostly offline audience, even if online players make up a vocal minority of players. Big budget single-player campaigns aren’t going anywhere, and evidence of successful single-player games will only become more compelling as publishers search for ways to slash budgets and plump margins.

It’s not that multiplayer is bad, it’s that it should be placed in games where it fits. The idea that single-player games are endangered is just silly, based on existing data. When it comes to games that offer both extensive campaigns and multiplayer options, more of us like to play alone than is usually reported. And we vote with our wallets.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/edit...ventional-wisdom-about-single-player-games-is
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It's a tough one...... With Gear(s) I only cared about SP because the script was excellent and it had an exceptional campaign. The same was for Bioshock, Singularity, Alan Wake etc.

There definitely is a market for campaign only games, but if we the consumer want value for money then developers need to find a way to ensure re-play value and enough longevity from Day 1 without adding on DLC tat for a price.

The problem is that whilst multiplayer isn't a bad thing the market is saturated with the same/similar game modes and other developers can make them better and have established a long history of success and thus a loyal fan base.

Developers who want to dip into MP have to nail it and make it perfect from the get go or make something totally original. I think that is why Nazi zombies for example was a massive hit and DayZ and games like Binary Domain, Crysis 2, Homefront weren't popular online.

Games based on single player imo are strengthened by co-op. Not only does it make the game sociable but adds to "achievements" and extends the games life.

VanillaToshi · Oct 17, 2012

For the majority of Gears of War players, the series is made up of strictly single-player games.

I hated the Gears of War multiplayer.

Also I can't tell if you meant DayZ wasn't popular online? Because it's getting more pupular everyday.

Co-Op has to be done right. The Co-Op on BF3 was pretty fucking terrible to be honest but the Co-Op on a game like Conflict:Vietnam was awesome.

majnu · Oct 17, 2012

Nazi zombies and DayZ were massive hits because they were unique. Games like Binary Domain, Crysis 2, Homefront weren't popular online because the market is already saturated with similar games which can do the same thing better.

VanillaToshi · Oct 17, 2012

majnu said: ↑

Nazi zombies and DayZ were massive hits because they were unique. Games like Binary Domain, Crysis 2, Homefront weren't popular online because the market is already saturated with similar games which can do the same thing better.
Click to expand...

Nazi zombies is terrible but I agree with what you have said though.

I'm rather looking forward to GTA5 and trying out it's multiplayer. GTA4 wasn't great compared to the other GTA games but I love annoying everyone online because they all suck and they get ridiculously angry when you kill them, even though they have the option to turn friendly fire off before they find a game, it's all I do in my spare time other than play Metro of course.
It gets even better if it's someone flying a chopper because if you manage to shoot the pilot out or blow them up they get so angry you'd think they will have a heart attack. It's because they're not used to people being able to kill them unless you're in a chopper.

^sorry about off topic just thought i'd share one of my great loves. Trolling GTA players.

Oh and I just remembered where I was going with that up there. The multiplayer on GTA is still popular because it's one of the only games where you can basically do what you want for example free run, steal cars and have crazy high speed shoot outs or just run from alley to alley dodging faggot clan members who you kill over and over but don't seem to realise they just aren't good enough :') Any game similar to GTA like Saints Row just isn't the same. GTA 4 has realism and arcade style gameplay but it combines to make something pretty awesome IMO.

Cheaptricks · Oct 17, 2012

Teddy Picker said: ↑

Our local god has spoken!
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I'm rotflop2::laugh:

TheJollyRedRanger · Oct 17, 2012

majnu said: ↑

I think this is an excellent article and very relevant to this thread.

It's a tough one...... With Gear(s) I only cared about SP because the script was excellent and it had an exceptional campaign. The same was for Bioshock, Singularity, Alan Wake etc.

There definitely is a market for campaign only games, but if we the consumer want value for money then developers need to find a way to ensure re-play value and enough longevity from Day 1 without adding on DLC tat for a price.

The problem is that whilst multiplayer isn't a bad thing the market is saturated with the same/similar game modes and other developers can make them better and have established a long history of success and thus a loyal fan base.

Developers who want to dip into MP have to nail it and make it perfect from the get go or make something totally original. I think that is why Nazi zombies for example was a massive hit and DayZ and games like Binary Domain, Crysis 2, Homefront weren't popular online.

Games based on single player imo are strengthened by co-op. Not only does it make the game sociable but adds to "achievements" and extends the games life.
Click to expand...

Thats why I'm all for Co-op with other people I think that would be fun!

Dyp100 · Oct 18, 2012

cerberus said: ↑

And that's the end of it, Derp100.
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Well, that's not very nice, making fun of my user name like that. (Not like I haven't heard that one, though.)

Either way, you're juding 4A by other developers. Not good sign of you putting your trust into them. While some people don't agree that DLC can be free developers like CD Projekt, as was pointed out, is doing rather well.

Either way, at this point I don't care I just wanna see new footage.

Mr_Timma · Oct 18, 2012

majnu said: ↑

Nazi zombies and DayZ were massive hits because they were unique. Games like Binary Domain, Crysis 2, Homefront weren't popular online because the market is already saturated with similar games which can do the same thing better.
Click to expand...

Yeah btu you see crysis 2 wasnt a new "game" the series had been around longer than those titles, so the majoirty of crysis fans bought the game btu myself did not like it very much Mp wise crysis 1 ftw

majnu · Oct 18, 2012

Crysis came out later on the consoles as an Arcade title. The first Crysis game I played was Crysis 2 on the XBOX 360.

But now I have a PC and part of the Master Race :lol:

TheStalker · Oct 18, 2012

majnu said: ↑

Crysis came out later on the consoles as an Arcade title. The first Crysis game I played was Crysis 2 on the XBOX 360.

But now I have a PC and part of the Master Race :lol:
Click to expand...

Yeah crysis 1 was dumbed down gamplay wise on tge consoles. I mean no super speed really

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