Online Game Trend?

Just out of curiosity, with all the clamor over online gaming these days, do you think in the near future we could be seeing a shift in how games are developed? Do you think that, eventually, single-player gaming might be scrapped entirely and gaming might go entirely multiplayer?

I certainly hope not. I don't play much in the way of multiplayer, and it would suck if the gaming industry got rid of single-player gaming.

I think that what we're seeing now with the amazing amount of multiplayer games is just an example of gaming going full circle. I seem to remember there being tons of games with 2 player capability back in the '80s. Then the fad sort of died off and single player games were popular. Then online co-op came out and WHAMMO! Here we go again.

But in the event that I'm wrong, I remind myself that surely todays devs wouldn't ostracise a large part of their consumer base by getting rid of single player entirely.

If you can get your game to be massively popular by multiplayer means, the ability to sell the game becomes far easier. Single player games are fine and all, and they have their place, but I can't help but think "Man, how awesome would this game be if I could share it with a friend or group of people?"

Sometimes, the experience needs to be single player for reasons of development and vision, but when a multiplayer element is done, and done well, the game can escalate into amazing popularity and reverence fairly easily.

Think about 007 Goldeneye 64. Back when that came out, the single player was just awesome, but when you played deathmatch with your buddies, that was something altogether new and fun. Would Goldenye have been awesome without any multiplayer element? Sure, but it wouldn't have set itself apart from other single player shooters that were coming out at the time.

From a purely industrial level, multiplayer video games have the capacity to also be the most profitable as well. Would games like Diablo 2 still be popular today if we couldn't share the experience with each other or gloat to each other about our achievements in the game? I would argue no. And this is the obvious transition that Blizzard saw and capitalized upon immediately with WoW. Other publishers have had at least moderate success with other mmorpg's, but WoW is the most popular for a reason. If you have millions of players telling you that they want something within the game that they pay a lot of money for, and the publisher listens, this leads to more popularity and a more fine-tuned game. While this may alienate some of the first adopters of the game that have come to become completely familiar with a certain element that was changed, in the end, the company is going to listen to the masses and not the lesser "elite."

To say that single player games don't have a point or inherent value within them in the video game market is ludicrous, but as internet connections get better and people become more sociable about video games, it simply nurtures a positive multiplayer environment and that's what publishers and developers are going to capitalize on if it's profitable.

it might happen because online gaming is really popular because it adds a whole new aspect to a game because as people have said before, you can gather up a group of friends and play a game that will be different each time you go at it.

but I doubt multiplayer will replace single player altogther

why?

because there is still a crowd that would rather play a good single player than have a good multiplayer

I think it is likely that a lot of traditionally singleplayer franchises and genres are going to get multiplayer tacked on to them, but I don't think online gaming is ever going to completely replace singleplayer.rragnaar

I very much agree, it cannot TOTALLY replace single player....