Single Player And Multiplayer Begin To Merge Thread

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Single Player And Multiplayer Begin To Merge (Forums : General Banter : Single Player And Multiplayer Begin To Merge)	Locked
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MarutiaOrtia	Jul 17 2014 Anchor
Games traditionally feature both single player and multiplayer as separate entities. With the rise to prominence of PSN and Xbox Live, the two modes have been competing with each other. Underwhelming multiplayer in strong single player experiences and lacking single player gameplay in exciting multiplayer focused games were all too common in recent years. At last year's E3, there was a clear tide shift in the game industry as the two modes began to harmonize. Destiny, The Division and Watch Dogs offered glimpses into games that acted like MMOs with players in huge connected worlds and raids, but all with the polish and mechanics of a top-tier AAA action game. While The Division may not end up hitting until 2015, expect to see more and more games that are both announced and released featuring this melding of single player and multiplayer. It's another way to effectively make games "always-online." Do you think that this is the future of games development?
figalot	Jul 17 2014 Anchor
I think I understand you. I think a game that did it well is the dark souls series, you can summon online friends to help you as well be invaded and killed by a random player at any time. Not only did it work really well but it also made sense in context of the storyline. I like it a lot especially because so far games that have used it have, for the most part, done it pretty intuitively. The only major I have had with it in games is the lack of something that consistently checks the players ping. It really sucks to be invaded by a laggy player who hits you from 3+ metres away because of lag. I would prefer the player be kicked from my game rather than die because it is essentially an unfair fight. Something I fear is games tac-ing it on just to add it as a feature where it doesn't really make sense. I would be pretty sceptical of developers doing this in order to use it as a sort of DRM, not only does it not make sense, there are better and easier ways to enforce it.
chrismobox	Jul 17 2014 Anchor
I think it will be the future until it changes again. This could be considered "macro-emergent" gameplay (is that a thing?). Normally, emergent gameplay occurs within a game. However, because of the troubles with pirating in the industry - and in an attempt to correct it - going "always online," in some form, has become a solution. As a result, it has become its own emergent style/genre of gaming. You can thank/curse the pirates if you wish, but I'll thank (you may curse) the ones who saw the potential and ran with it.
hugo1005	Jul 30 2014 Anchor
There are a number of ways to look at this. 1. It has existed for ages, its called drop in/drop out co-op and games like Left 4 Dead 2 have had it for years. Though you may argue that this is really not dynamic at all your playing the same thing weather it is with friends or not 2. What you are looking for is to enhance multiplayer with more than just team death matches by making it the story. Titanfall tried to do that and it didn't work because they didn't focus on it at all, it as just a way to claim to have a campaign So really what we are looking for is multiplayer where the game mode is quite complex and is actually something like a city siege with 3 or 4 hundred players / AI. So if this is more what we are looking for than co-op then have a look at it this way, for this example i am going to take cristophis from the clone wars movie and show how titan fall could have had a proper multiplayer campaign, using a squad system for friends to play together. Cristophis From above: The battle on the ground : You can see in these pictures the strong atmosphere that has been built. Now assume the objective is to capture the command tower at the bottom of the map and your troops are marching in to secure it. Each squad would comprise of one player in a titan and four pilots on the ground around it. There would be hundreds of ai sceptres and grunts along with the 5-6 squads of players advancing on a defending Ai or team. This sort of setting would be ideal for this style of gameplay as it captures a story feeling of being part of something bigger as well as suiting both titans and players very well, Titans have lots of large open space on this large map and players have lots of iterating crystalline shapes and rubble as cover and areas for wall running etc. Opinions? Hugo1005 ADDITION: Just thought of this, what if to bridge a gap between multiplayer and single player if there were private and team objectives so that you have some solo objectives as well as team objectives to complete in a multiplayer map. Edited by: hugo1005

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MarutiaOrtia

Jul 17 2014 Anchor

Games traditionally feature both single player and multiplayer as separate entities. With the rise to prominence of PSN and Xbox Live, the two modes have been competing with each other. Underwhelming multiplayer in strong single player experiences and lacking single player gameplay in exciting multiplayer focused games were all too common in recent years.

At last year's E3, there was a clear tide shift in the game industry as the two modes began to harmonize. Destiny, The Division and Watch Dogs offered glimpses into games that acted like MMOs with players in huge connected worlds and raids, but all with the polish and mechanics of a top-tier AAA action game.

While The Division may not end up hitting until 2015, expect to see more and more games that are both announced and released featuring this melding of single player and multiplayer. It's another way to effectively make games "always-online." Do you think that this is the future of games development?

figalot

Jul 17 2014 Anchor

I think I understand you.

I think a game that did it well is the dark souls series, you can summon online friends to help you as well be invaded and killed by a random player at any time. Not only did it work really well but it also made sense in context of the storyline.

I like it a lot especially because so far games that have used it have, for the most part, done it pretty intuitively. The only major I have had with it in games is the lack of something that consistently checks the players ping. It really sucks to be invaded by a laggy player who hits you from 3+ metres away because of lag. I would prefer the player be kicked from my game rather than die because it is essentially an unfair fight.

Something I fear is games tac-ing it on just to add it as a feature where it doesn't really make sense. I would be pretty sceptical of developers doing this in order to use it as a sort of DRM, not only does it not make sense, there are better and easier ways to enforce it.

chrismobox

Jul 17 2014 Anchor

I think it will be the future until it changes again.

This could be considered "macro-emergent" gameplay (is that a thing?). Normally, emergent gameplay occurs within a game. However, because of the troubles with pirating in the industry - and in an attempt to correct it - going "always online," in some form, has become a solution. As a result, it has become its own emergent style/genre of gaming.

You can thank/curse the pirates if you wish, but I'll thank (you may curse) the ones who saw the potential and ran with it.

hugo1005

Jul 30 2014 Anchor

There are a number of ways to look at this.
1. It has existed for ages, its called drop in/drop out co-op and games like Left 4 Dead 2 have had it for years.
Though you may argue that this is really not dynamic at all your playing the same thing weather it is with friends or not
2. What you are looking for is to enhance multiplayer with more than just team death matches by making it the story.
Titanfall tried to do that and it didn't work because they didn't focus on it at all, it as just a way to claim to have a campaign
So really what we are looking for is multiplayer where the game mode is quite complex and is actually something like a city siege with 3 or 4 hundred players / AI.

So if this is more what we are looking for than co-op then have a look at it this way, for this example i am going to take cristophis from the clone wars movie and show how titan fall could have had a proper multiplayer campaign, using a squad system for friends to play together.

Cristophis From above:

The battle on the ground :

You can see in these pictures the strong atmosphere that has been built. Now assume the objective is to capture the command tower at the bottom of the map and your troops are marching in to secure it. Each squad would comprise of one player in a titan and four pilots on the ground around it. There would be hundreds of ai sceptres and grunts along with the 5-6 squads of players advancing on a defending Ai or team. This sort of setting would be ideal for this style of gameplay as it captures a story feeling of being part of something bigger as well as suiting both titans and players very well, Titans have lots of large open space on this large map and players have lots of iterating crystalline shapes and rubble as cover and areas for wall running etc.

Opinions?
Hugo1005

ADDITION:
Just thought of this, what if to bridge a gap between multiplayer and single player if there were private and team objectives so that you have some solo objectives as well as team objectives to complete in a multiplayer map.

Edited by: hugo1005