Single-Player Games or Multiplayer Games

I play both single player games and multiplayer games but I have noticed that I enjoy playing single player games than multiplayer games. The campaign in the game is immersive, making me continue playing.

What enjoys you the most: Single Player games or Multiplayer games? Why?

Single player. People online are dickheads. Just look at me; I'm online posting this right now, and I'm a total arsehole.

I enjoy the best of both. But normally not a fan if games >only< have multiplayer modes.

@RSM-HQ: That's good. At least, you enjoy playing those kind of games.

I enjoy them both about equally myself.

I play multiplayer most of the time lately. BF1 and Overwatch are really great games. When I get around to it I might play some singleplayer.

@narlymech: good thing.

SP

As for me, better multiplayer games, because I like to play with/against my friends. But I don't renounce to play in single-player games)

I prefer multiplayer games. It is just more fun to play with friends or even randoms.

Multiplayer games are repetitive and boring, I don't know how people act like single players are limited but multiplayer games have tons of gameplay value, you pretty much play 2-3 matches and you get bored in multiplayer games.

Some single player games suck but single player games are better.

I do like couch co op games though.

@putaspongeon: Not at all. Single player and multiplayer is great when done well. Multiplayer offers and unscripted experience. They're not as repetitive because in most instances every encounter or interaction online is unique creating a very fun unexpected situation. And those unscripted unique situations is just one of the things that gives multiplayer an edge to replay value. Other things like the increase challenge of playing against humans is a very satisfying reason to enjoy it as well. Or shy away from it. It's the ultimate experience (Strongly agreed Opinion) to enjoy a joyfull co-op sessions or balls to wall competition against other players to test out your wit and skills.

I like games that offer both and do both well. Games like Gears of War, Halo, even Forza Horizon has CO-OP and competitive multiplayer. All great games that do both aspects top notch. I only wish we get more great Single player games that offer Cooperative play. Those are usually the best in my opinion. Would love to see a GTA game with CO-OP campaign. Though GTA is a good example how to make a great Single player game with high replay value.

There was a time when I was heavily into playing games online because it was a new concept to me. But I got my fill of it and finally I just realized it was more frustration than enjoyment. And it just became repetitive. I'll still enjoy playing the occasional game online, but I won't put a ton of time into one game's online liked I used to.

local MP >>> playing online with a team of friends >>> SP >>> >>> >>> Online MP with strangers

I mainly play multiplayer games but that's because i find most single player games a bit boring, plus i like the social side of multiplayer and playing with friends.

Definitely SP... never been a MP gamer.

Bullshit everything is unique in multiplayer, it's the same maps over and over again without any context/story and it's just a bunch of people running around hitting each other.

Multiplayer games don't have an edge in replay value, I for one get bored of multiplayer games after 1-2 matches except the rare occasional game like Rocket League.

"increase challenge", I'm certainly played harder single player games than people on online games, so that's fucking irrelevant.

It's not the ultimate experience, that's purely your opinion and it's not a strong opinion even.

Co-op is fine I suppose, other types like pvp are usually pretty trash and have very little replay value.

GTA doesn't have replay value, people who just play it are fine doing the same thing over and voer again, I knew from a very young age that gta hype was pretty shit when I got bored of the game very quick as my friends would run around and shoot people/drive around and that's about it, that isn't replay value, that's finding enjoyment in watching paint dry for 1000 hours.

@putaspongeon: Good, so you get bored and you have an opinion.

Look man put your bias aside seriously. And understand multplayer has huge replay value when not just tacked on. Its literally the reason some games make billions of dollars and players spend hundreds of hours on. GTA Online for example. Tons of missions to play, tons of sandbox gameplay, tons of user created matches and content. I mean literally GTA ONLINE doubles for Arcade Racer for me with the Hot Wheels style stunt races. There literally is no arcade racer out other than FH3 and MK8 that is more enjoyable. Look at HALO, arguably the best story in First person shooters other than HALF LIFE and highest rated shooter franchise collectively. Tons of CO-OP play through story, and tons of multplayer on top of user created content. Battlefield 4 for example, I put roughly almost a thousand hours on that game online. Its great gameplay and alternate approach to combat via land vehicles, boots on ground, or air superiority is perfect. That game has had a huge supported player base years after its launch.

So I respect your opinion that you don't like multplayer games and think they are repetitive, But I have to disagree and point out there is replay value to those games. Online PC MMOS are full of story and gameplay.

Maybe you just want story games like KOTOR, Until Dawn, Mass Effect, You know games that give you a reason to go back through a story and play it differently. Nothing wrong with wanting that. But online player interaction for those that enjoy social gaming can be just as rewarding. I for example unlike you can play hours upon hours in certain shooters. And for me its very enjoyable because no match is the same, no outcome is the same. I get a different challenge with each person I play against, especially when playing with friends that communicate.

I like how it's "you have an opinion" but you state your opinion as fact. Nope, multiplayer doesn't have huge replay value when it's not just tacked on, that's call an opinion and it's a wrong opinion since multiplayer games are heavily limited, even when you look at games like overwatch and mobas.

Players spending 100's of hours on a game doesn't mean it has huge replay value, people like baseball as well, baseball is as boring as shit.

GTA is pretty much a grind.

Lol at GTA arcade racing, bullshit. If you want an arcadey racer, get trackmania turbo or distance.

"arguably the best story in first person shooters"
Nope, therefore that argument falls apart.

See, you're mistaking people doing something for it having quality to it, tons of people do boring shit on a daily basis. Halo's multiplayer isn't this super deep thing that can sustain someone realistically for 100 hours, it only does that because people are fine doing something super repetitive for that long because they have poor tastes in games. Also "huge supported player base" = argumentum ad populum.

If tomorrow people got really into watching paint dry and did it for 100+ hours, it wouldn't make watching paint dry any deeper or it wouldn't have any more reply value cuz of stuff like "well it can drip down in a slightly different way and the sun can dry it quicker or slower and tons of other things can happen", even the best multiplayer games are just made up of an arena map where you shoot each other and maybe 16 maps tops and you keep doing the same 3-5 since those are the ones that are popular. You learn where weapons and stuff spawn, you play for a bit, then you get bored.

The popularity of cod multiplayer doesn't mean that cod multiplayer is a quality thing. Multiplayer games are objectively repetitive.

PC MMOs are pretty much single player games that have extra grind and allow for you to team up with others.

Playing multiplayer maps over and over and over again is no different than playing a single player game over and over and over again except it doesn't change up and there are no change ups in gameplay + narrative.

I view multiplayer games in the same light as people who play dmc games over and over again to get an S rank except even that is a step above multiplayer games due to the fact that there is change up of gameplay and stuff like narrative to help it be slightly less monotonous, that said, both are super boring and shouldn't be considered "replay value"

@putaspongeon: @putaspongeon:I didn't state my own opinion as fact. Figured you were educated enough to understand mine is also an opinion. But I guess not. So you like to put words in my mouth to favor your own statement. I got you. Where did I state anything verbatim as fact?

Meta Critic

HALO - 97

HALO 2 - 95

HALO 3 - 94

HALO ODST - 83

HALO REACH - 91

HALO 4 - 87

HALO 5 - 84

Collectively is an overall 90 average.

By all means care to add a fps franchise that has CO-OP Campaign and huge successful Multiplayer that rates this high. Feel free, I don't know maybe you can use COD -_-

I understand your opinion about repetitiveness and some points I can agree with. But you fail to understand that the interactions of playing with online players is random and not repetitive. If you can't understand that good day man, talking to you is like watching paint dry. Pointless.

A game like ARMA 3 which I often work with gives tons of replay value, It's powered by the mod community and given story driven content. Yeah you can replay missions making it so called repetitive according to you, or you can just continue to play new content that is uploaded weekly from community keeping it fresh and a reason to come back whether it be single player or online. I played all kinds of story driven content that consistently update on PC games online. So to each their own. So you don't mistaking my statment for a fact. It's an opinion also on my part bro smh.

Oh yeah Trackmania is a good game but nobody plays it. Kinda pointless for me to play when my friends don't play it. Boring and repetitive in single player. Repetitive as ****. At least I can take my cars in GTA 5 Online and enjoy them through the open world/missions and car meets with friends.

For the record, I like Single player more but I also like Multiplayer. Jack of All Trades.

No, you stated it as a fact, you didn't state it as an opinion, you can't backtrack now.

Halo games get good reviews? So what? I hope you realize that means nothing to our actual argument. Also how does successful multiplayer justify that it has a good single player or that even the multiplayer is good? You are shooting logical fallacies off quicker than a gatling gun. Also randomy =/= more replay value, ai can do everything within the confines of a multiplayer map that single player characters can, heck ai can be made stronger than human players.

You still haven't proven your point, you've failed on multiple levels. People playing a game a long time =/= it has tons of replay value. Also a guy coming and shooting you from behind isn't any deeper gameplay wise than someone throwing a grenade at you while you chase him and then going around the corner.

Trackmania Turbo not being popular does not justify it as unimportant or lesser, just like you can't say a game being popular as it being full of replay value and a good game.

GTA 5 is pretty much "hey, drive 10 minutes to get to the next side mission which will involve you driving back to the other side of the city again"

Local Multiplayer. I've only had good experiences online when past their prime, with a community that keeps the games alive, like Freelancer and some Bioware/Obsidian RPG.

If you're fortunate enough to have a good circle of friends to play an online game with then it will probably be better than most games' single player experience but if not, then no.

That said, a single player game doesnt carry a lot of the natural restrictions that must be in place to balance an online game to accomodate several players. So you'll tend to see a great deal of features, mechanics and abilities that just wouldnt work with more than one player.

@putaspongeon: The issue I'm seeing with your logic in multiplayer is you didn't factor in player unpredictably. Which can make 'some' encounters very exciting. Yet, at times these are few and far between depending on game and community_

I'm not going to argue on same arenas and stuff being seen as old-hat from a cosmetic point-of-view. But that's not the charm of multiplayer.

Because you've stated as only playing 2/3 matches at average, means you likely battled what is known as "Sheep-fodder" "newb" or the more modern "casul" "scrub" these are terms for new/ bad players that play more predictable than poor programmed A.I. it's unfortunate you never seemed to play people that showed you multiplayer depth but it does exist. And what a clever challenger brings to a match is a thrill difficult to describe in words. It's also quite addictive to seek-out players that test your wit and reflexes.

If you lack the patience to seek out decent players? That's fine, it just means it's a side of gaming not for you. And nothing wrong with that_

Single player. I love getting sucked into a narrative and immersed in worlds. You can do that in mp games to a small extent, but the fast pace, coupled with idiots who either dont play for their teams, or yell over mics, can diminish the effect.

Ai can be just as unpredictable as players, at least in shooters and stuff. The only time I can see human players being better is for games like rocket league since I've yet to see many ai do high leveled aerials, though I bet they could have the devs wanted since ai can do the necessary predictions that most humans (almost all) can't do on the fly and resort more to experience and feel.

See, ai can be superior to human players in shooters, heck mods even prove this as true. I get horribly bored of shooters but I've seen people playing at the top level of all types of games from shooters to fighters to hack and slash to everything else. Also I can assure you I played veterans since most matchmaking things are actually quite fucked, especially on lower population games.

I enjoy couch co op, for example edf, crawl, and rocket league. I also like doing online rocket league (if and only if voice chat is involved)

But yeah, it's just that you're saying unpredictably and skill is what divides it but that's just because ai is usually built for training for multiplayer while the reality is that ai can be built to utterly wreck if the devs really wanted.

But overall I like games like yakuza 0, shadowrun: dragonfall, disgaea 5, etc etc. The only single player game I see benefiting much from being multiplayer that isn't is arkham games since that series would be as fun as shit if you could play with people even online with friends and go around the city with them.

I enjoy stuff that isn't alone, for example I'm an actor and that usually involves more than just monologues alone, also although I haven't done it, I'm a fan of tabletop rpg and I own a copy of tabletop simulator on pc (one of my favorite games)

I think most of my dislike for online is slow 1st person shooters or shooters that give you too little health. I'm fairly fond of xonotic and the doom multiplayer seems like a much more fun experience than battlefield like games. I also enjoy games like trine 1-3 with multiplayer, however stuff like battlefield and cod are just boring. I prefer single player rpgs though more outside of tabletop rpg.

I prefer single player. Multiplayer makes me rage a lot. Co-op is fun though.

@putaspongeon: I'm not trying to bad mouth single player experiences, and will agree Shooters in particular have far more limited options for multiplayer. So programming an A.I. to rival a decent player is well within a developers hands.

But in games such as Fighting games, Racers, or even Action ARPGs, what a human can do over programmed A.I. is very noticeable. You'll never see max difficulty on Street Fighter, Tekken, or even games like Dark Souls and For Honor hold a candle in strategy to a decent player.

Why do you think so many are in dread over them bringing back Invaders to a Boss battle in The Ringed City (Servant of Filianore). Like Monk and Glass before, it really buffs up the difficulty having a decent player enter the fray.

As for games like Makai Senki Disgaea. . . Well I rarely drop a subject to be in geek-mode but that series is something I adore, as I grew up on it. And was the original reason I bought a Playstation 2. You Ser have fine taste in Stratagy RPGs!

Though (back on subject) keep in mind the Disgaea series has dipped into Online modes before but it's purely computer A.I. attacking each other over a randomised encounter. The reason Disgaea would never have a competitive mode is because the mode would be broken due to what you can achieve with grinding/ post-game items/ and further upgrades_

It used to be MP for me but now I play SP for their stories. I think it's mostly because I'm older now and don't really want to associate myself with the CoD crowd.

I'm still not a fan of when banner saga had it's separate multiplayer versus game using the battle system which is more or less what it'd kind of be except flashier attacks and combos and stuff.

@putaspongeon: Never played the Banner Saga, so have no opinion on the game.

However; as stated with Makai Senki Disgaea, depends how the game is built, and its core focus.

I do enjoy many games multiplayer, both coop and competitive. Yet, it's not an essential feature I crave for every game I play to have. Not all games are designed for it, and it only hindered the potential of many projects when they forced it in.

A good example was when Resident Evil 5 added a Versus mode DLC no one wanted, what a pile of shit

I personally would say single player mode. This is due to the fact that multi player online doesn't have a story mode, so basically you don't get to know what the game is about and the origins of the characters etc. I do sometimes like to do multiplayer but it gets boring after about 3 months.

Hope this helps.

I find myself playing single-player games far more.

Multiplayer games usually require close-to-release purchases and can feel a little meaningless after a while.

I enjoy playing both type of games, mainly switching to single-player game depending on the type of teammates I'm having in multiplayer game.

@crazyduck: this is exactly what I think and do, lol :D

Multiplayer is cancer

I like Single player more. I find MP is just too repetitive.

I doubt there is anything better than a good mp game of fps. But this is they don't cheat. And the reason I like that so much must be because I'm so good if the people don't cheat.

But lately I've found the sp games and I doubt I would miss a game such as Mad Max even if COD would work correctly. Some games are just awesome in sp.

Single Player hands down

@brenobnfm: Only if you are having sick players :)

Single player for a few reasons.

I think I've talked about this before but I sometimes get stressed out having some games that have really fun multiplayer online but because they are online, that means that eventually, sometime they will end. It is almost like renting the game, if it is an online-only game. EA discontinued a lot of the online components in some of their older FIFA, Madden, and other sports games and some were relatively recent like FIFA 11 or 13, IIRC. That kinda sux if I had those games and I wanted to play them online but then the response is, well, "get the new one and play online". But then you are always stuck in that time crunch of trying to get in enough time for a game's online in order to justify having spent the $60 if you only care about the multiplayer.

I hate online-only games, but I have two: Diablo 3 and Overwatch. Now, I have put in over 100 hours into each of these games and I have thus gotten more hours per dollars spent on both of them. But for games that are online-only, it really sucks if someone just buys the game at or near the end of the game's life cycle (obviously not informed that the company was soon going to discontinue its online) and thus wasting some money on a product that is now rendered useless.

Single player is the best because guess what, I can still play Mario from the 80s. I can still load up Final Fantasy 6 or Red Dead Redemption. I don't have to worry about not being able to play the single player because they don't need to be online to be played. They are pretty much there to stay (until my PS3 goes, then I guess I can't play RDR).

Also, like everyone else pointed out, online gaming attracts the nastiest, toxic of gamers. Played quickplay the other day in Overwatch and I have 6 hours into Genji (so obviously I'm starting out with him) and we lose a round and I get hate from both my team and the enemy team that "wow that genji sux" "You suck, genji" and I was like "well duh, this is quickplay, not competitive and I only have 6 hours with Genji". Anyways, I digress. Single player will always be the best, but online does have its moments.

I am to old now for muiltiplayer games as you get older you slow down, that's why I like single player games now and you can set the level you want, but the greedy games makers just wont make them anymore. greedy ar.......

Why do you lock old threads if there's still discussion value, staff?

Anyway, single player mostly, but I play a ton of Max Payne 3 multiplayer and played L4D2 more than almost any single player game.

I like both, but my favorite gaming memories are of multiplayer experiences with friends.

I'd rank my preference as:

Local multiplayer with friends > online multiplayer with friends > a great single player game > online multiplayer with strangers

I always been into singleplayer gaming for the most part but in the mid 00's about up to 2012 I got deep into MP games like MOHAA, BF2, CS:S, and F.E.A.R. combat for me this era in MP gaming was it's peak. I couldn't care less about the multiplayer games of today singleplayer games is the prime rib steak while MP is the left over fries in Arby's dumpster.

Single player or coop for me.

I played a bit of multiplayer recently and I forgot how fun it can be.

I'm thinking of getting back into it, but alot of the mp stuff these days looks God-awful so I'll probably have to choose wisely. L4D2 sounds like the kind of thing I might be into.