1. The games are more grindy, designed to consume time. Not be fun. 2. I'm no longer in high school and my friend group doesn't game with me anymore. 3. The older I'm getting, the more multiplayer just feels like a waste of time unless I'm playing with specific people.
You nailed it. 1. Games like team fortress and l4d never felt like a grind. They were just fun. 2. For me it was my college aged friends 3. Having kids makes playing difficult. I have a limited window when i can play my adult games. I tend to enjoy long story driven single player games.
@@raidthanflbruh, that last point is choice. I have a finite amount of time to spend on personal time things and I don’t want to spend my time raging because some asshole is trying to race to copper while I’m solo q’d and trying to rank up.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve really come to appreciate getting lost in a great single player game with a great story, world, and gameplay. When I don’t want to jump on discord with my friends because I’m so sucked into a game is when gaming is at its best for me. It really feels like consuming art at that point instead of just running matches over and over online. Currently replaying the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time in over a decade and have been completely immersed in its world and lore. Games like that actually allow me to relax and escape for a few hours to another world full of interesting things to discover
I've got Mass Effect back in 2016 but I never played much of it but just the beginning. Been playing that recently with the Xbox 360 version and it's a great game to play, especially the choices. Definitely was missing out myself over the last 8 years. Andromeda on the other hand... Doesn't feel like the same as Mass Effect 1 just from trying out the beginning of its campaign. Feels like a spin off more, with a character provided, rather than full on choices who you want that character to be. I agree, isn't as great.
@@eastbeast1379 I think I loved it so much because the choices you make in every game carry over to its sequel it was really the first game I had ever played to do that so well plus the time and effort it took the developers to not only create the game and the story but have different dialogue for literally every decision you could make
@@ghastlymanemane1334 I agree and the set up and world building in the trilogy is simply top tier. What could be more epic than the threat of a lovecraftian race of sentient organic machine hybrids coming for their scheduled harvesting and extermination of the entire galactic civilization? The stakes feel as high as they could and the milky way is a fascinating galaxy to explore along the way. Andromeda was just boring and flat in comparison. The gameplay was great, but the set up, story, writing, and world building didn't hold a candle to the OT
You had me until you said Mass Effect. Stilted character animations, personalities, and AI. I just can't stand how promising singleplayer games felt they were going to be after HL2 and FEAR, which felt like prototypes for what was to come with AI and physics, devolve into simple theme parks with staff acting out a story that they sometimes take interaction with you. I can't enjoy these games, it's anti-art to me. It's peak consumer product made for easy consumption for the masses.
@@riisky2411 those go fetch 200 of this and that is what we'd call garbage single player games. Obviously a decent multiplayer game will beat a garbage game.
Multiplayer games have become less about friends playing at your home or you playing at friends’ homes and more about being forced to play with ill-tempered tryhards who don’t have your interests in mind.
No, it's because people can't accept losing. Back in 2010 if you lost you didn't blame the game or tell someone that they tried too hard. Someone has to lose. Even losing can be fun if you're not a total effeminate zoomzoom.
Something I've noticed as I've gotten older (currently 24) is that multiplayer games with leaderboards, ranks, and all the bells and whistles are just unappealing to me. Now the only games I really enjoy are single player games, co-op games, or if they are "competitive" multiplayer games, they're games that's more about the adventure and experience rather than trying to earn a score or rank. Escape From Tarkov and Hell Let Loose are the best examples I can choose from. The adrenaline from getting into a gun fight and winning, to being sad that you got face tapped and lose all your loot, or get revenge for your friend from his killer are the factors that wanna keep me playing. And Hell Let Loose is great because it's a game about team work and working together towards a greater goal instead of running around and patting your stats. And if you want advice from a long time gamer who also almost quit gaming because of multiplayer games, stop playing them by yourself. I very rarely play multiplayer games by myself anymore. And when I do, it's because it's a game I enjoy way too much. Game with your friends, and if they don't play those games/don't have any friends, then either find people who also enjoy those games, try to get them to game with you or just play what they play. Games are supposed to be ways for you to enjoy your time with your friends as if you're sitting around a campfire with them. Or to enjoy a new experience that you've never had before.
Your first sentence sums it up quite well. The problem is that when games dare to come without a leaderboard, people immediately start to whinge about it. Everything has to be competitive these days. Why can't people enjoy games anymore without constantly competing with someone else? Why all the effort? You practise for years to master a game and then start all over again with the next game. That's why I love single player. I'm not interested in what others are doing and vice versa...
You're too young to have know the era of games coming out and not having patches and hotfixes. game would come out complete, people were paid to alpha test. now people pay to alpha test. people are stupid and people are the reason game are so bad. people keep giving money to game with horrible monetization or concepts other game devs see this and go where the money is at.
Best game ever made Fallout New Vegas you can play cowboy. Cowboy very popular in China I own pair of cowboy boots, hat, vest, and stirrups I buy from local store. Cowboy have good fashion I like wear them and wife think I sexy when dress as cowboy. They very masculine and I not admit this most people but I wish I was cowboy and Fallout New Vegas let me play as cowboy. Red Dead Redemption very good game too you get play cowboy name Arthur Morgan and you can ride horse and shoot revolver. Had many fun time play these game.
@@benn87breakers was ok till and all till the rankings where raiders easily get lowered ranking because all the abilities you can have and use plus it's easy to eliminate a raider yes a reader can originally two shot you but with all the buffs survivors get and the super souls plus ways to get your super soul activated again a survivor can keep a the dragon balls easily they have to get downed and raider you just stamina break them which is easy like extremely easy just do melee and you got most their stamina gone and people will literally bully the raider it's extremely hard to play as raider and when you do you get bullied before you get a chance to do anything and you lose rank because of it especially when you got high level that all of them can talk to each other in a group chat
I have had the same feeling just like you. Turning 25 last year I just felt like gaming wasn't really scratching that itch anymore, having been quite addicted to league of legends fot the last 6 years. I uninstalled the game and procedes to play all the other singleplayer games I played before and started enjoying gaming again. A thing I noticed about singleplayer games is that they are more forgiving when you don't constantly play, because every time I booted up a game of bf4 I got totally destroyed and didn't want to spend the time relearning everything again. So I'm still just playing singleplayer games. Anyway, good video!
Same here. I turned 24 and played competetive Csgo for 8 years and didn't enjoy CS when I turned 22. Now i dont wanna spend the time relearning it, because i work and have better things to do. Now iam enjoying singleplayer games like RDR2, Dying Light 1&2. I think it comes with the age
Yeah. One good thing about single player games is that you can play them at your own pace. There's no fear of missing out on a limited time reward, no battle pass to complete or rank to achieve before the next season starts.
@@hrthrhs Yes I have and now that I think of it I had a blast playing. I played it a while with a friend and even though I wasn't on top of my game I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
Because they are shells created to generate recurring revenue. They aren't made to be fun any more. If they are fun, people cry in forums until the fun is patched out. "Balance" and "Competitive" have ruined games.
I think competitive games definitely have a place but I think the problem is game studios try to push competitiveness as a core element of the game when it doesn’t need it. If the game is fun a competitive scene will just come naturally but a lot of studios put stupid bs into there games to try and create a competitive experience and they end up losing a lot of the player base because of it and it just leaves the sweaty try hards.
@@mannymushies5241 that is my point. When companies are releasing a game, sequel or new IP, and their promo material is about esports ... It's dead on arrival. Companies don't realize you don't just make an esports hit. You make a great game and if a community grows around it, you can think about focusing on it. But games were better when they were made to just be FUN.
@@phant0mdummy yeah exactly. I mean look how many people play super smash bros melee competitively because Nintendo made it fun and not to build a competitive scene
Since 2015 and that election that broke ppls brains..Covid just transferred the rest of our wealth to the 1% but games have long suffered from political correctness and straight up greed by monetizing every little thing they possibly can. I noticed it in 2010 with madden and their disgusting ultimate team mode but it was the only game I saw taking dlc to the level of selling digital football cards that don’t switch over to other titles. Now, well those fucking hats in team fortress go for thousands.
Downfall of gaming started in the 2010’s if you’ve been gaming for a while. I noticed quality dipping and anti consumer practices. The golden era was 90’s and 2000’s.
my 2 cents as a 35 year old gamer (im practically a fossil compared to some of the people in the comments), the biggest reason why multiplayer doesnt feel the same is that everything is designed as an Esport from the get go, which severally limits creativity and experimentality in game design. This coupled with the fact that there is no community at all in MP games, no more server browsers, its just 9 or 99 randos dropped into a lobby for 15 -20 minutes, and then into the next one, and in between these games you certainly are gonna be dumped to the Store screen instead of a game summary, or a stats page. It's all so clearly a ploy to get you, the player to pull out your credit card more and more. I genuinely feel sad for people too young, or those who know nothing other than the Fortnitifiaction Multiplayer games.
This is it, everything is desgined to be a time and money sink. Also players instead of trying to have fun while playing prefer to win at any cost. So you end up on mix of grindy mechanics and anti fun players.
Even further, you could take it away from Esport and just say the game is not only derivative in terms of taking mechanics from other games and only slightly changing, but you could say the entire ethos of a game is just derivative of another game. Instead of going into an engine and trying to create a fun experience for people that is unique or fiddling with a piece of a random untitled project to try to make something interesting you have yet to see, it all starts with a board meeting, and that board meeting puts the game in a box of "eSport," "casual," "software service," or whatever dogshit buzzword combo that basically means the game will have no soul and will follow a formulaic output that isn't even derivative at that point but just straight up stealing. Even the ones that are "successful" are doing this i.e. Valorant/Riot in general, it doesn't even feel like the gaming industry I grew up in anymore, no one cares about being creative or having fun unless that fun can be quantified to extract value out of the customer in a measurable way.
The push for esports played a big part imo. I'm a bit older but remember how the Starcraft 2 scene developed. Initially, the game was huge, probably the biggest RTS release ever, and tons of people, bad, medium, experts and pros played online and had fun. The noobs got better and beat other noobs, earning that satisfaction of becoming better and winning. A constant stream of new players, or noobs, kept the echosystem healthy and the game thrive. Eventually though, the esport scene got bigger and bigger, and the push towards ultimate competition lead to all the noobs either quit or entered tryhard mode to become as good as possible. Eventually the entire echosystem collapsed and only the hardcore pros were left playing the game, and it happened vary rapidly. I bring this up because it is a very good example of how pretty much every online game evolves over time. How fast it occurs varies, but it is pretty much inevitable. Obviously people leave the game for other reasons, but the push towards ultra competition just makes this process much faster because it takes the fun out of the game. I found though that it's not necessarily about getting older, though that makes it harder to enjoy games. But I think it is this push for esports and competition as well as the lack of variety in the genres that is a big reason. Most people just play fps games, obviously the become boring after a while. I always enjoyed RTS games the most, but I like to play other genres as well. I recently went back to my favorite online game ever, Battle for Middle Earth 2, and its amazing. People still play the game 15 years after it's release, and it has the feeling old games had. It is competitive if you want, very skilled players, but there is also many that just like to chill and play or do custom maps for fun. There is no ladder or ranking system to grind or show how good you are, just for fun and that is a big reason why it's such a good time. Also, the game itself is amazing, we don't get epic games like that anymore and I bet most of the new generation have never even heard of that game which is just sad imo.
this is wrong, ive played since wings of liberty and most of the people still playing play co-op or singleplayer game modes. most of the playerbase is casual, confirmed by blizzard itself
This video resonated on a personal level with me... it's comforting in a sad, depressing way to know how many others have become jaded and jilted by gaming as a whole, the very thing that brought me comfort during the darkest periods of my life.
Indeed, I can resonate with what you’re saying. Sometimes as much as you might love something it can hinder you either in general life or your mental due to the amount of time we dedicate to the hobby itself.
Maybe it’s just the fact that we’re all older now and have more responsibilities but online gaming now feels more like a part time job than just playing a video game. The shift in business model has made most online games too damn grindy and exploitative. I know I sound more like “old man yells at cloud”.. but games were far better when they were simple.
So fu*king true, I wish I had a voice to say it out loud. Competitive and ranking is very tiresome for many. I always stick with Dirty bomb or killing floor.
Why don’t y’all play against bots? What is with the need to make the game miserable for all the lower level players so you can feel good about yourself?
@@AntiSoraXVI it’s not that we trying to make the lower level miserable we just don’t want to play against tryhards 24/7 if we grinding for things or just in general plus the lower players will never know if they getting better if they ain’t playing against people better than them
@@BrentenDaVinci you realize that, to every lower level player, YOU are the tryhard? They’re not getting better by losing to you for the same reason you’re not getting any better than the “tryhards” you’re complaining about. Again I recommend playing against bots whenever possible
The main problem with multiplayer gaming these days is its become a second job. People have lives outside of video games. People have jobs, IRL friends, families to take care of. Focusing on grinding some video game takes so much out of your life these days. Devs intentionally make timegated tedious grinds in order to encourge people to pay microtransactions to progress faster. Multiplayer games like deep rock galactic where you just simply join and chill with friends are a rare site now. And imo pay to progress faster is paying to win since you do get a time advantage over other players. In terms of competitive games content creators populating the META is what ruined those which cause many communities to become hostile towards new players.
For me the biggest problem is what I will call "Participation Ribbon" ideology. Not everyone should be able to unlock everything. Higher skill players should be able to unlock things lower skilled players cannot. Just because you "participate" does not mean you earned the same rewards. On top of that, less and less is earned through permanent difficult static challenges. (Best example of how to properly have a good difficult static challenge is Halo 3 Recon armor). Now unlocks all seem to come from time grinds/just paying money to unlock it. Challenges are rarely ever skill based. Usually everyone is able to do them if they spend enough time. This is where the Participation Ribbon ideology has ruined any incentive to actually get better. Sure getting better might make the grind a bit faster but if you all end up with the same reward it feels like you are not being rewarded for getting better. All this along with SBMM in casual modes makes games feel like they don't respect your time and don't reward you for actually getting better.
i know this is an old comment and slightly unrelated but i'm still angry about what they did with the habusa and recon armor in halo mcc. Like on one hand: i like the idea of it being more accessible because it means more options.. however they already added a bunch of new custom armors for that and continue to do so, so having the handful of legendary armors available for everyone isn't really adding a lot to the customization. On the other hand though because it's so common it's not special anymore it's just yet another set of armor. Where as back in halo 3, it realistically was nothing more then cosmetic/a piece of armor, but if you saw someone wearing that then you knew they were the shit / this mf had clearly played the game a decent bit and was likely either very good at the game, spent countless hours trying and failing, or got carried. Either way it was rare enough to be like "oh shit this guy has x armor" but not so rare that it was an impossible thing to achieve. It just required some practice, or some game knowledge (depending on which armor we're talking about since a lot of them were just go find x skull)
Playing a video game alone is how I know if I really like the game. Friends distract me personally from the issues I have with some games. So I always play games single player then invite friends, once I determine that game is up to par. Generally, times have been bad for multiplayer games in recent years.
didn't expect this video to be so relatable. used to be obsessed with multiplayer pc games when i was younger since i had friends to play with and i didn't take the game as seriously. now that i'm much older, i found my self mostly moving away from multiplayer games and i've been playing through my switch games which has personally made gaming alot more fun since there's no stress and no worries about having to play with randoms if you aren't at the top of your game.
One of the big reasons I disconnected from MP games over the years was due to the stress it causes. I still jump on from time to time like Halo Infinite and I did a match of CS recently and I enjoy my time with it but walked away with way higher anxiety than before. I need to get back into my switch, I'm waiting for the switch 2 though.
11:38 that line, gets me, like literally, that's the one big reason for me to think about when I'm about to play a game, like I'm gonna pause for a minute before I'm about to play a game. And that kinda tears me up a bit.
Perhaps you feel that way because you're not taking care of your life in a way you deep down know you should. The times in life where I'm procrastinating something for example, study, I have that pause moment when thinking about which game to play as I feel like it's a waste of time. But then the times in life where I know I'm doing pretty well (exercising, studying, involving myself in relationships as I know I should for example) then gaming feels like a well earned reward. Some of these examples I gave may not apply to you. Perhaps try this (I do) every 3rd time you feel like booting up a game, instead do something else - spend 30 mins cleaning your room or going for a jog, reading some study notes, replying to people's messages you've let go, research something you've been meaning to, book that dentist appointment haha.
@@hrthrhs Bruv, excatly! So yah, life balance is just the key, especailly when this kind of scenario is creeping into your life when adulting and that little thing is called "Responsibility". So if you didn't fullfill it you'll feel guilty when you about to start a gaming session.
I´ve always played singleplayer games only, I just didn´t find the thought of playing something without a story to unveil very amusing, but I think I should´ve tried more to understand why everyone likes it. The fun of discovering a new world with its own lore is just much more exciting to me.
I prefer single player games also. With the Multiplayer ones it's the being dragged about by your team mates and you have to conform to them. ie - If they don't want to stealth in Ghost Recon, or wanting to go left rather than right. Charging off without telling the rest of the team and while you cover the rear you turn about and they're 200m off in another direction. LOL.
For me, I have rarely enjoyed online multiplayer games mostly due to their community. Sure, competitiveness is part of it but the anger you find in these games is at another level. It is not new, and imo the problem is the same as what we find on social media: people have the feeling they can do everything (and in a way they unfortunately can). That alone ruined it for me. What I truly missed is the era of coop games, you are not "online" but can play and have a good experience with your friends.
Yeah that's fair, I do think there is a level of "newness" but not because it's actually new but new to this community. I believe a lot of it stems down to gaming becoming more and more competitive and with that people are going to naturally care a bit too much like sports or what not.
Age and time is the main issue imo, but there's not much that can be done as all of that comes naturally. The moment you create an incentive to win in games that involve going up against other real people, competition is going to naturally develop. With that competition comes the increase of difficulty as people have to put as much time as they can to keep up and improve, and the older you are, the less likely you're able to do that. So you're basically chalked on top of playing against 4-6 versions of your younger self at their peak without even trying. There's a point where you just gotta put the towel in, but doing that is the equivalent of selling those action figures you've held onto since your childhood. You don't want to do it since it's such a huge part of your life.
I'd just rather sit down and enjoy a story or new world in the time I set aside for games rather than playing a grindy shooter that feels meaningless 🤷♂️
Let's just think about it. When Black Ops 2 released. You and your friends hop on , win or lose , have genuine fun. Now everyone is just tryhard sweating it. Call me a noob but tryharding games and skill based match making ruined everything. You can't even play any cod titles without sweating your ass. This has even seeped into MINECRAFT! Sorely depending on grinding and PvP.
It’s cool to finally relate with someone who feels the same way ! We almost had the same path , my first big online game was Halo 3 in 2007-2008 , then I went to Modern warfare 2 , Black ops 2 and CSGO , until I realized I just didn’t have the same feeling anymore. I miss the time when it was “goofy” and we were just happy to make new friends everyday online. It was my escape and I was laughing in every session lobby , with people I didn’t even know! And now .. I don’t know , it feels empty , it feels different. The games are kind of a market and an online store , more than anything. Could be my age , but now I mostly play old games like Skyrim and Tony hawks underground.. stuff like that ! I’m not sad or anything , I honestly just feel lucky that I was part of such a great era 🎮🫡
Yeah the last game to truly bring me into that sense of playing and meeting people was destiny. I was lucky enough to meet a load of cool people with one of them becoming a good friend now even though he lives across the country. We even did a trip to New York together 😂.
Back in the day games sold by being 'the best game possible' (think original Xbox / early 360 days). Then shareholders got involved and it became about 'monthly active users', microtransactions, and extracting as much money from our wallets as possible.
Think about how many games now have daily login bonuses, things you have to do in the cash shop, incentives to keep coming back and complete checklists of objectives like chores almost.
I started gaming around 1983 and at 50 I still love gaming for the escape factor. I deal with people everyday so do I want to deal with people in my "safe" space? Hell no! I play games to relax not compete.
As someone trying to get out of gaming addiction this video came along at a great time. It's nice to hear someone be fair and balanced on this topic for a change.
Nice video. 2 years ago I was bored about games and grind. Now I play games casually for fun and less times to games. Sometimes the life is giving us more fun than games then it is okay not to play games or movies. Just enjoy the moment. Progress in real life game is also a great game.
that's the way it should be! I saw something a while ago which said something like "we use to use the interenet to escape real life, no we use real life to escape the interent". Which I think is a fitting idea for this exact comment!
Extremely relatable video. During my high school days I used to get so obsessed with getting better in games like Counter Strike or Smash bros and played with my friends. Nowadays I barely play multiplayer at all and am just happy for a couple hours a week getting lost in a solid single player world. Gaming for me nowadays is for relaxing and not getting stressed.
This is an off topic comment, but your video gave me so much basis for my project about the psychology behind video games, that I’ve been able to turn a short script into a dozen page breakdown of different gaming phenomenons. This video is a gem, and I’m truly grateful that you made it ❤
7:38 ngl, Escape From Tarkov helped me to learn to NOT get mad. as ironic as that is. I realized since it's always high stakes either you're always gonna be mad or become "it is what it is, oh well i'll build a new kit." and believe it or not, it's made me grow more as a person, transitioning from not getting mad at deaths in Tarkov to not getting mad when someone cuts you off in traffic, or other random annoying stuff that happens through the day. getting mad doesn't help me make a kit faster, build a gun faster, or even play better. REMEMBER EVER TIME YOU DIE IN A VIDEO GAME THATS THE DESIGN THATS WHAT MAKES IT FUN love yall have a good day and God bless yall
Starting gaming online around the first gears of war, then moved on when halo 3 released. Played the hell out of halo for the quite a long time after that. Off and on with my brother since then. Need a week or two every time to get back to a level that we once were. I'm 35 now, and that just feels like a job. I don't want to be a streamer, and who wants to practice just to spend time with your brother. It was fun back then; rather just find a fun co-op shooter, or something else nowadays.
I'm 28,when I was younger I was great on league of legends, cod bo2 and paladins. Lately I have found myself playing almost primarilly story games but there's just one online game that I have been playing religiously for years and I don't think I will ever stop.. That game is called osu,it's a rythm game that you can play solo (there are score leaderboards tho) or on online lobies. While the game IS very highly competitive I've also had some of my greatest memories with it and I can't find myself stopping playing it anytime soon (I currently have 16days 0hours 52minutes of ACTUAL gameplay time on it)
Ive been telling people for YEARS. That they need to try single player games to not get ultra bored of playing the same old multiplayer games. Ive loved singleplayer games ever since i was a kid and considering i didnt get internet until many many years later than all my friends. Got me to really love and try new types of games. Before i thought games like Persona, Yakuza and japanese games in general would not interets me. But upon trying u find a whole new world of games. If i didnt try new i would not have found my favorite franchise Metal Gear Solid. LONG LIVE SINGLEPLAYER GAMES
Skill based matchmaking really kills your sense of progression. You get better at games, but you rarely get a feeling you're actually better. If anything, you might feel you're worse because you start playing better and better players who can beat you.
Great points about community in online games. The past several years I've bounced around between Rocket League, Fortnite, and World of Warcraft: Classic. The online game I'm enjoying the most, is always the one where I've found the best community.
The push for eSports and the general "Fornitification" of gaming is part of why I game way less than I used to. I hate that Fortnite has essentially created the "battlepass + celebrity collab" model that every game uses now. Singleplayer games and indie games are the only things keeping me in the hobby. Multiplayer games are just not for me anymore.
Yeah that's fair, I think Fortnite as a game has done a really good job of doing microtransactions and battle passes correctly, My issue with a lot of it is the attempts to copy it's formula but in turn fail because they aren't as interesting and cost the same amount to buy. I'm diving into more indie games but singleplayer games is the home of gaming for me.
Im having less fun in competitive multiplayer games these days cause i just cant justify playing a single game 6h a day in order to be good at it and have fun in it. Or climb in rank in it or whatever. When i was younger i legit had nothing better to do, now my perspective on things changed and i would rather play 2-3 games a day, have fun with friends in them and then shut off.
Same exact thing happened to me. I stopped playing games that changed my mood in a negative way and I stopped playing games that demanded my attention for hours on end without being able to pause.
The thing that keeps me playing CS after thousands of hours is the drive to improve. I really enjoy seeing myself get better at things. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t do something unless I’m going to go all out and get good. I enjoyed learning to play the guitar, trumpet, and piano as a kid. It felt so good to land my first tre flip, then felt even better when I could land them just about every time I tried. Same with Counter Strike. I’m not trying to go pro at CS but there is always something you can improve. Even pros with more than 10,000 hours are improving.
I’m not sure if other people go through this aswell but something I noticed in myself on the point of wasting time. Was when I was a kid playing things like Assassins Creed III there were those huge battles in the game. And as a kid I used to stay and fight making sure I defeated every NPC to help “win the battle” instead of running through the objectives to complete the mission. As I got older I realized staying and fighting didn’t make a difference, they were just NPC’s. I feel like realizing that killed some of the fun for me.
I quit playing any pvp game after spending 5 months in the hospital after a really bad motorcycle accident. Very mild brain damage from swelling damaged my eyes and I can't see thing like I used to do. I played 3k hours of war thunder and played warzone pretty regularly. I don't miss iether remotely. The accident happened may 31st 2023
I considered that me getting older was killing my love for video games (I’m 33) but I still get excited playing older games. However, the communities I formed around certain games as a kid are gone and I’ve accepted that. Tekken Tag Tournament, Budokai 3, Street Fighter 4, and Blops 2 were peak gaming for me.
The multiplayer genre has changed from a fun focused and open ended experience where wild and unpredictable people would interact with each other in interesting ways given the variety of unique situations they were placed in, to an incredibly stressed, restrictive, and isolating environment where you are punished for having fun and treated like an enemy for trying to enjoy what is a different version of the same game but with considerably less fun and social interactions than what used to be there before as well as entire chunks of the game being held ransom in the cash stores like a petty crook stealing from your house and then sending you an ultimatum with a timer where your property will be destroyed if you refuse to pay up. Remember when live services were supposed to add more to an existing game as opposed to gatekeeping basic features as a form of retaliation for you not buying loot boxes? I do, and that’s why I enjoy live services that are actually fun. So why did they change their games to punish their players by doing this? Ego. It makes them feel powerful to control millions of people across the world and mess with them. When you realize that’s why games have been in such a terrible slump for years, it starts to make sense as to why they keep coming up with new terrible ways of messing with you. A bad attitude is something no patch or update can fix. It’s systemic. Frankly, the only reason I think indie games like fall guys and lethal company are popular isn’t even because they’re particularly good but because they actually try to make people interact in that fun way in interesting places like I mentioned. If triple A multiplayer games did their job properly, then no one would have these discussions or questions in the first place.
Yeah that's one of the big reasons I walked away, I'm enjoying playing from time to time but I would be lying if I said my anxiety levels didn't go up after a whole ranked cs game.
There’s certainly a place for games that make your anxiety go crazy like horror and action games, but the anxiety I feel when I play something like Wolfenstein The New Order and Silent Hill PT vs CSGO are completely different. Those two games use their anxious settings and gameplay systems as a thrill, CSGO uses it as a punishment for enjoying the game. They will literally stop you from earning rewards and XP if you play more often in an attempt to bribe you into buying their crappy microsoft paint looking skins. If I play any version of CSGO, it’s the older one, because achievement hunting is still pretty fun.
CoD 4 was my first real foray into online gaming and to this day it’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing a multiplayer game. Haven’t been able to find quite that same satisfaction since the original MW3.
@@Exiled7 I fell off on CoD right around the time Advanced Warfare came out. Franchise fatigue had set in lol. I really just took a break from gaming in general and focused my attention on work and chasing women lol.
I would agree a little. I think Advanced Warfare came around to early. If it released as a game later than it did I wouldn't be surprised if it got recieved well. The issue the game had was it was too different in one hit from what people knew.
It’s amazing to me that so many young ppl are giving up video games I remember in my time (I’ve been gaming since 1982) that so many kids and teenagers would skip school or not go to work just to play Atari or Nintendo or just go to the arcades to hang out instead of going to school. Now is definately not like that it almost seems most young kids would rather go to school than play games nowadays my have times changed.
I would disagree to an extent. From everything I see, I would say you still have plenty if not more kids today who play if you look at the raw numbers however you are seeing more of a trend since the hyper-maculinty self-improvement world became more mainstream over the last couple of years.
Around 15 minutes when you're talking about now vs then the biggest thing I've noticed is when I was younger and you died to someone better youd most times compliment there skill and add them as friends. Nowadays if people get rolled it's go outside, touch grass etc
yeah, it's weird. It's basically considered that if someone is good at a game it means they don't have a life, It's an easy cope so that you don't have to accept you aren't as good as another player.
Thank you for the video, I really liked it. It was very interesting getting a younger person's view on growing up with games. I grew up during the nineties in the country, so I naturally played a lot of singleplayer games (Fallout 1&2, Baldur's Gate 1&2, Half Life 1, Quake 1&2, Shogun total war, Dune 1&2, Walker, Lord of the Realm 2, Hexen, Heretic, Warcraft 2, Silver etc etc), that was mostly what gaming was until the turn of the century CS, Quake 3, Warcraft 3, Battlefield 1942 and Unreal tournament. A majority of the games for the PC, Amiga 500+ and Nintendo 8bit was for singleplayer. This combined with a love of fantasy and sci fi books meant that gaming for me was more of a personal experience. Multiplayer later on was mainly a way to enjoy specialist titles like Battlefield, Insurgency mod, Empires mod, Project Reality mod for Battlefield 2, etc etc. So I have to disagree with the statement that games are mainly about communities. I enjoy that aspect, but good singleplayer games are a personal experience for me. Like Freespace 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Disco Elysium, Ground Control 1, Total war games, Hearts of iron, Sekiro etc etc. But yes the "book circle" aspect of gaming, discussing and sharing experience is important, but I would never say that it is the biggest experience. It would be like saying that the biggest aspect of reading Crime and Punishment is the sharing of it with others, and that is not something I agree with. For me it is the enjoment I gain from the experience.
That's fair, I do believe gaming is both an incredibly personal experience with the likes of what you mentioned and what I did in the video around Skyrim and how I'm prepping for an eventual playthrough for when everything becomes a bit much. I believe community is the biggest aspect because as much as we may love doing something for me at least one of the most amazing parts is discussing it with someone who's got that same level of love for the thing or introducing it and seeing them absolutely love the experience. After a previous comment, I would find it an interesting thing to maybe host a "book club" like thing in the discord around playing one game each month and we can all jump in and talk about it.
It feels like the skill gap sucks, like I have to invest so many hours just to have decent fun while there are so many people trying to be sweats as if its a international leagues competition instead of trying to have fun. Even when i try, it feels more a chore or even like a job
All of your points you bring up are totally valid and from what I read online add up too. As a predominantly multiplayer gamer, here's my perspective. Multiplayer games right now suck depending on the game in question or genre. I love Online FPS games but a lot of them right now aren't doing too well for a lot of reasons. They are all prone to a ton of problems, predatory monetization, lack of content on launch, lack of content post launch, server issues, netcode issues, cheating, predatory matchmaking, poor progression systems, gameplay balance, toxicity etc. There's a lot of variables to make the potential good core experience sour. These are issues that'd stop me from playing multiplayer games in the future rather than lets say a lack of effort to compete or improve as that's part of the drive. You may not be getting an experience a single player game provide but if the game has depth you'll always be improving at something to use against other players potentially doing the same thing. Maybe a bad comparison but its like a roguelike singleplayer game. It's gameplay focused, no run is the same, and if you fail you can refine your execution or strategy. In contrast, single player games have a more streamlined focus, make a good game and hope it sells instead of making a good game and trying to extract as much money as possible for as long as possible while doing the minimal effort(AKA a lot of live service games that are multiplayer). Of course they can have problems too, Cyberpunk being everyone's favorite example but with good reason. Last bit I can add going from my first point is some multiplayer games being PvE focused are usually really really good because it has a lot less to worry about and often made by developers who put fun first. Popular example is Deep Rock Galactic. The game itself is good and focuses on a completely player first approach which keeps a happy player base. No fuss no drama, just a simply good game. Suppose Lethal Company being a newer example also fits the bill. I'm sure others would have more examples of this being executed well but it's not area of experience. TLDR for this would be multiplayer games(sometimes depending on genre) aren't made to the same quality as singleplayer games on average and have way less respect for the players time and experience. Hope this was coherent, there's so much that can be said on this topic. Edit: I forgot MMO's are a thing that can be pretty rough sometimes.
We all forget MMOs are a thing 😂. Great examples of a load of options. I know I need to play some more goofy fun sort of multiplayer games as they are the sort I’ve probably played the least over the last decade.
I recently turned 22 years old and upon entering the adult life and having a full-time job, it is really a pain in the ass that most games nowadays require you to grind upon hours to progress if you really want to get good and get the good stuff. It is really frustrating. that’s why games like call of duty, which is really grinding by itself, I only play for like 30 minutes and that’s it for the day. Shit, this issue is the very reason I stopped gaming and barely do it nowadays. I’ve grown fond of single player games and cooperative games instead of competitive games. One good example of non-competitive yet cooperative game is Squad, since there is no progression system at all and teamwork is the most important aspect of the gameplay
As an adult gamer I kinda grow past beyond competition, and just play if the game gives me fun times. if not I'm not simply wasting my time on it. Industry these days is using competition as a way to monetize their game in the way who has paid the most money wins. So I really don't care about winning due I know I won't have enough money to win the competition so why bother trying to become best unless you are really a tournament player. In that way, I like single-player games more, if they have a good story to be told. I usually wreck people in Star Craft who are casually playing it, but being won by those who takes the game more seriously than I do.
That's the problem with games nowadays, there always a rank or a competitive focused mode with 5v5. I stick with games like dirty bomb which NEEDS a remaster and recognition in the game community.
I think multiplayer games in the past were simply more designed around casual fun rather than competitiveness. I mean of course, you always had sweaty tryhards, but there was plenty of game modes in there for casual audiences too that just aren't really being made in today's games anymore. And a lot of these fun game modes were also community created, which is another reason why today's multiplayer games don't feel as good anymore. They just don't have much support or tools for community content anymore. And of course there's also the grinding aspect. Many of today's multiplayer games are simply designed around grinding for some specific things which are only put in there to prey on people that suffer from FOMO. And the grind towards those things is usually not fun either. I mean, back in the day I'd just hop in and play some CS 1.6 matches simply because it was a fun game, not to grind for skins or for a meaningless competitive rank. CSGO and now CS2 was designed to be all about the competitive aspect and useless cosmetics.
I think multiplayer games in the past were simply more designed around casual fun rather than competitiveness and grinding. I mean of course, you always had sweaty tryhards, but there was plenty of game modes in there for casual audiences too that just aren't really being made in today's games anymore. And a lot of these fun game modes were also community created, which is another reason why today's multiplayer games don't feel as good anymore. They just don't have much support or tools for community content anymore.
You should've mentioned Death Stranding's implementation of online multiplayer, in a game set in an apocalyptic setting having other players help eachother traverse the scary and treacherous world easier by making structures, making signs and warnings, donating materials and everyone coming together to make highways, the best way to travel in that game without ever seeing another player in your game world is an awesome idea. I would like more games to have such unique takes on multiplayer aspect of a game rather than the usual team based rounds of shooting or battle royale. Gaming is a creative art form, doing the same thing again and again is only fun for a while, you won't remember those kind of games. This is a big reason why indie developer who despite having WAY WAY less resources come up with some of the most enjoyable and memorable unique games.
It isn't aging. When you started playing games for the first time you stsrt to learn. After playing a ton if games over the years you start to see the system in the game and get bored mire easily because you played a game like it. That and game developers getting greedy by filling the game with boring unsatisfying quests like slay one million spiders. And then after its done you just get a check mark on it and nothing else.
It wasn’t always super insanely competitive when you just wanted to have fun, plus now there’s pay to win, and on top of that less time to play with your friends cuz we’re all getting older.
Hot take: but i never undestand why people loved competitive play so much, it makes the game into an agonizing, sweaty funless grey bloat. This is exactly what happent to Rainbow Six siegue and what is happening on Dead by Daylight. People just do not care not enjoy playing just for the sake of it, for fun, for innocence. It gross me out.
I would say the answer to your point is that people don't start of playing any of these games with the mindset of "I love competitive games". Normally you just try out a game your friends are playing or you play something that the content creator you like has started picking up. That leads to a level of connection with the game and building a sense of identity around the game. The likes of Rainbow for example, which I loved and still think is a good game deals with the issue of sunk cost. When you become so good you get that high of being insane at the game but if you take a week or two weeks off you lose a little bit of your edge and in turn, don't want to give it up and it's all just a massive feedback loop to keep people hooked. You also have the fact that many of the games are fun even if they are infuriating at points. It's why boss fights have to be hard in single-player games as there's no point to them otherwise.
@@Exiled7 Well, in that case i must have a brain defency or something, because i played Siege since White Noise and i always struggled, only sometimes i managed to get a kill or carry a match (i had over 1000 hours when i stopped playing) Honestly, i feel that DbD is just slightly less agonizing, since at least there are some usefull tools like Lightborn and Mad Grip that saves a lot of games. Either that, or i am just slowy retiring back to singleplayer games without me realizing.
I enjoy single player games nowadays cause my friends are always busy with their lives to play together and plus, I hate dealing with sweats and tryhards. Even microtransactions has killed my mode.
Skyrim, rdr2, and cyberpunk 2077 truly have brought me a join that no other game has brought me in a long time and that’s coming from someone who got sucked into the live service ftp shooters while also owning almost 2k games on steam.
Yeah, I came to this conclusion/realization 2-3 months ago. I decided that if I were to game, the only games I would play are single-player, regular co-op/couch co-op, and multiplayer games where I can create a premade team with individuals I personally trust. Playing with random people introduces too much unpredictability and variance in my enjoyment of the game. The people I play multiplayer games with have to be people I know in real life, so if they pull something, they’re held accountable (seriously or jokingly) face to face. The problem is that even if someone is banned for toxicity or trolling, they don’t face real-life accountability or consequences. A lot of the time, they feel more inclined to act this way because there are no real repercussions. They can soft int, create new accounts, or switch to different games and continue committing the same offenses. Meanwhile, you’ve already gone through the ordeal, and it keeps piling up as long as you continue queuing with random people in multiplayer games, whether it's on your team, squad, or guild. If you’ve finally had enough, just follow what I mentioned in the first sentence and you’ll have a better experience.
As I'm getting older, I have less and less patience for games that require grinding or wasting my time to fill up a number to do a challenge and finally getting the thing I want. I came to the point of thinking "What am I even doing here? Do I even like doing this, or am I doing it out of obligation?" Since then, I play against bots more than against people, amd mostly play single player or coop games where I actually enjoy the game I am playing.
Been on a grind of trying to find all single player games form the last 10-15 yrs I never played. Absolutely best think I did with my life was quit r6 and all mp games overall.
I can relate to this on so many levels, my first multiplayer game that i spent the most playing was gta 4 multiplayer, while it didn't have many things to do, it was fun goofing around with friends and try completing co-op missions, and cod black ops 2 it was fun because of the rewards you get after reaching a certain rank, the feeling of achieving something or earning something rare for just having fun was enough for me, but nowadays seeing games becoming more expensive and having multiplayer as a standalone with loot boxes and micro transactions it's clear that these companies care about money more than it's fanbase
As someone in their late thirties I'll say that this video didn't resonate with me at all because all of your touchstones are aimed at someone 15 years my junior lol. But I definitely agree, The best way to play any game is with the people you are close to, whether that's board games, magic, Pokemon, destiny or fortnite. The important part of gaming is just having a good time, especially with the people you value most 🙂
I feel like just like how you said it's an adulting problem since we're growing up with video games but, I also think over the years gaming has just gotten way more competitive even "casual" in most modern games have varying amounts of skill based matchmaking. Making it more competitive compared to those that would just get on for fun or just to socialize in game like rp
Ok, I was not expecting this one to hit so hard given how rarely I do multiplayer. But this was right in the feels... and cerebral as well. So sprawling, yet structured. From industry BS, to facing growing up, the societal and psychological, the importance of a good community. Be it either my childhood friends, your discord or the #WeWantNFS comment sections last fall... good stuff. Miss my flatmate/then best friend's then already last gen Xbox 360 splitscreen actions just barely scraping by on rent and uni project deadlines... the dayz with the boyz. Weirdly my most multiplayer obsession was a mobile gacha game... Bleach Brave Souls. But then again, not just a game, IP is offically licenced of my fav show, so already a lore & character deep well of common interest for the guild chat... getting excited for each other's pulls, trying to predict the upcoming updates. I know there is still a stigma around mobile gaming, but by the looks of it, I often found a well made gacha game can be better than the live-service slop of AAA. Was great to see, you had fun with the presentation too... the "I Just lied", the wholesome MatPat shout out. And pulling out "And this is generally just an issue of adulting" freaking ADULTING, with a straight face and have it land impactfully as a professional analysis, mad respect on that one.
Thank you! I've always tried to make these videos a mixture of informative and pushing my thoughts through it and keeping it as relatible to me. One big issue I've had with youtube for a while now is that people are disconnecting more and more from the YOU in youtube. People want to watch content from real people, with that it means I'll probably be saying things that relate to people and also result in people heavily disagring with me as not everyone is going to have a similar look on games based of how they grew up with them or started with them. Yeah I tried to tthink a lot more on the final product in the script process, So i'm glad it came out the way it did!
Nah, it’s that the games we like, what we play with our friends, and the games our friends push down that I low key want to love but it’s better with friends
I’m more into single player games. Hell even back in the day when I used to be obsessed with playing World of Warcraft, which had and probably still has thousands of other players I’d spend most of my time alone finishing quests and exploring the world. The small bit of other player interaction I had was finding groups for dungeons, but they didn’t talk to me at all, and PvP, which I grew to despise after constantly losing. Now I play cozy game titles like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons and I’m enjoying them a lot more.
The other major factor for me is the move towards live services and the fact that it takes so much time that we dont have to "keep up" with a game. They are designed to mpush you to play for hours every day and as adults, thats not possible.
There’s not enough variety. I miss when more newer IP’s offered multiplayer even if they were only 7/10 rated games like the bond games. Now you have fewer to pick from and they all are the same battle pass seasonal formula
Multiplayer games are depressing, and it seems it's the only thing there is to play anymore. The people are toxic, there are cheaters in every community, and it gets even MORE depressing. It really sucks, and I'm starting to regret even buying a PS5 just to be depressed, and sit at the PS Menu. I'm gonna be 25 in June, and I can't imagine how I'll feel about it then.
hearing you talk about single player games reminds me. Me and my homies in like 3-4th grade. before we had online. we would call each other on the HOUSE PHONE (yes house phones) and just chill on there and play thru GTA San Andreas together.. idk how we did it.. but that was our online until about when the 360 came out lol
This is GREAT! Not the video, but to get a pick into the generation of my little bro. Black Ops 2 squeakers being today’s teenagers/young adults. Grind Diamond camo? Well guess what cod is today! A GRIND! The developers of yesterday studied filthy casuals and made the horrible days of today. But the squeakers of today don’t have the reference to say NO to Microtransactions or 60 IQ game design.
lack of them releasing more than anything. If were talking shooters, last one was the finals a couple months ago - before that, halo, two years prior. it's nuts how few are coming out now
indeed, I think a lot of it has to do with the returns. The fact that new fps titles are costing more and more but getting worse and worse play bases probably is forcing companies to rethink.
Idk I love and play multiplayer games more now in my 30’s then I did when I was younger. I’m to busy to get buried in a story. I like hopping on some multiplayer fps with my buddies every weekend
See this is the other side of the coin. I know a lot of people with the same sort of thoughts on why they play games but that part you mentioned about playing with your buddies is truly were that comes into enjoying it. If they didn't jump on with you and you just played by yourself I'm assuming you wouldn't enjoy it anywere near as much.
I think you hit the nail on the head about FN being a more casual FPS, vs the alternatives such as CoD and Halo and Titanfall. What's funny is Halo in the days of 3 was more attractive to casual and non-sweatie players. I think the decision for FPS games to focus on Esports significantly helped create the vacuum for FN to fill.
Feels like as the style, mechanics, and price improves/increases, the creativity and passion go down as well. Games with potential stop being updated, games that should be multiplayer are single-player and vice versa. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they're doing this on purpose
It’s hilarious because when people on social media find out I am a gamer they always ask what my handle on Xbox is. I haven’t played a online game since 2014. I only play campaigns or local LAN parties with friends. Modern gaming just sucks. I do want to play helldivers 2 though.
Same thing here. Battlefront 1 EA was the last online multiplayer game from a AAA company I touched. Never played anything multiplayer besides co op titles, indie titles, and fromsoft.
Halo 2 was my first online game I ever played and it was magic, that era from 2004-2012 was really a golden era in gaming and now a lot of stuff just don’t be hitting like back in the 6th and 7th gen.
In the past if you had friends to stack on a game you’d win. Because everyone was so casual that even slight dedication and a couple friends was the biggest advantage. Now everyone knows the meta, everyone STUDIES the game, and everyone practices the game. The advantage of playing a game semi regularly and having friends was no longer an advantage but is now MUST to even survive in online multiplayer games. You can have a 5 stack, play daily, and still get destroyed by another team. This didn’t used to be the case and it’s sad. Either learn every angle and prefire or suffer constant losing.
I’m 25 and my peak gaming experience was OG Mw3 and bo 2. I miss grinding for titles and for gun cameos. Like the MSR gold! Also everyone is just toxic and loud now lol
Not the only reason but a main one especially for multiplayer: INCENTIVE! Now that the best items are purchased instead of being unlocked, what’s the point of grinding for useless rewards?
It’s funny, for me I used to adore playing online with my friends from around the world… nowadays as we’ve all grown up, got jobs, started families, it happens once every two or so months. But when it happens it feels amazing. But in the meantime I’ve finally started breaking through my catalogue of single player story driven games. And it’s been fantastic! Just because it’s not the same, doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed in other ways ❤️🎮
1. The games are more grindy, designed to consume time. Not be fun.
2. I'm no longer in high school and my friend group doesn't game with me anymore.
3. The older I'm getting, the more multiplayer just feels like a waste of time unless I'm playing with specific people.
Wasn't it always grindy or no? Like it should still be fun regardless of the mirotransctions
@@assassin8636 yeah but you didn't have to live in the game to get stuff. ...now it's finish work to get back to work(in game)
You nailed it.
1. Games like team fortress and l4d never felt like a grind. They were just fun.
2. For me it was my college aged friends
3. Having kids makes playing difficult. I have a limited window when i can play my adult games. I tend to enjoy long story driven single player games.
@@caliginousmoira8565how much time did it take to unlock Vader back when battlefield launched? Like 40 hours lol an actual full work week.
@@raidthanflbruh, that last point is choice. I have a finite amount of time to spend on personal time things and I don’t want to spend my time raging because some asshole is trying to race to copper while I’m solo q’d and trying to rank up.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve really come to appreciate getting lost in a great single player game with a great story, world, and gameplay. When I don’t want to jump on discord with my friends because I’m so sucked into a game is when gaming is at its best for me. It really feels like consuming art at that point instead of just running matches over and over online. Currently replaying the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time in over a decade and have been completely immersed in its world and lore. Games like that actually allow me to relax and escape for a few hours to another world full of interesting things to discover
The mass effect trilogy is the game for you bro excluding andromeda that shits ass
I've got Mass Effect back in 2016 but I never played much of it but just the beginning. Been playing that recently with the Xbox 360 version and it's a great game to play, especially the choices. Definitely was missing out myself over the last 8 years.
Andromeda on the other hand... Doesn't feel like the same as Mass Effect 1 just from trying out the beginning of its campaign. Feels like a spin off more, with a character provided, rather than full on choices who you want that character to be. I agree, isn't as great.
@@eastbeast1379 I think I loved it so much because the choices you make in every game carry over to its sequel it was really the first game I had ever played to do that so well plus the time and effort it took the developers to not only create the game and the story but have different dialogue for literally every decision you could make
@@ghastlymanemane1334 I agree and the set up and world building in the trilogy is simply top tier. What could be more epic than the threat of a lovecraftian race of sentient organic machine hybrids coming for their scheduled harvesting and extermination of the entire galactic civilization? The stakes feel as high as they could and the milky way is a fascinating galaxy to explore along the way. Andromeda was just boring and flat in comparison. The gameplay was great, but the set up, story, writing, and world building didn't hold a candle to the OT
You had me until you said Mass Effect. Stilted character animations, personalities, and AI. I just can't stand how promising singleplayer games felt they were going to be after HL2 and FEAR, which felt like prototypes for what was to come with AI and physics, devolve into simple theme parks with staff acting out a story that they sometimes take interaction with you.
I can't enjoy these games, it's anti-art to me. It's peak consumer product made for easy consumption for the masses.
less fun and rewarding.
Exactly, back then we actually could EARN everything. Now it’s become a microtransaction casino.
Devs also don’t have to put in nearly as much effort either
Multiplayer is definitely more fun and rewarding then these new single player go fetch 200 of this and that games.
@@riisky2411 those go fetch 200 of this and that is what we'd call garbage single player games.
Obviously a decent multiplayer game will beat a garbage game.
@@justthere845 even the good single player games have a ton of fluff. They all start to feel like a chore to play.
Multiplayer games have become less about friends playing at your home or you playing at friends’ homes and more about being forced to play with ill-tempered tryhards who don’t have your interests in mind.
TBH I like games for their campaings not multiplayer
No, it's because people can't accept losing. Back in 2010 if you lost you didn't blame the game or tell someone that they tried too hard. Someone has to lose. Even losing can be fun if you're not a total effeminate zoomzoom.
Something I've noticed as I've gotten older (currently 24) is that multiplayer games with leaderboards, ranks, and all the bells and whistles are just unappealing to me. Now the only games I really enjoy are single player games, co-op games, or if they are "competitive" multiplayer games, they're games that's more about the adventure and experience rather than trying to earn a score or rank. Escape From Tarkov and Hell Let Loose are the best examples I can choose from. The adrenaline from getting into a gun fight and winning, to being sad that you got face tapped and lose all your loot, or get revenge for your friend from his killer are the factors that wanna keep me playing. And Hell Let Loose is great because it's a game about team work and working together towards a greater goal instead of running around and patting your stats.
And if you want advice from a long time gamer who also almost quit gaming because of multiplayer games, stop playing them by yourself. I very rarely play multiplayer games by myself anymore. And when I do, it's because it's a game I enjoy way too much. Game with your friends, and if they don't play those games/don't have any friends, then either find people who also enjoy those games, try to get them to game with you or just play what they play. Games are supposed to be ways for you to enjoy your time with your friends as if you're sitting around a campfire with them. Or to enjoy a new experience that you've never had before.
Agreed.
Your first sentence sums it up quite well. The problem is that when games dare to come without a leaderboard, people immediately start to whinge about it. Everything has to be competitive these days. Why can't people enjoy games anymore without constantly competing with someone else? Why all the effort? You practise for years to master a game and then start all over again with the next game. That's why I love single player. I'm not interested in what others are doing and vice versa...
You're too young to have know the era of games coming out and not having patches and hotfixes. game would come out complete, people were paid to alpha test. now people pay to alpha test. people are stupid and people are the reason game are so bad. people keep giving money to game with horrible monetization or concepts other game devs see this and go where the money is at.
Best game ever made Fallout New Vegas you can play cowboy. Cowboy very popular in China I own pair of cowboy boots, hat, vest, and stirrups I buy from local store. Cowboy have good fashion I like wear them and wife think I sexy when dress as cowboy. They very masculine and I not admit this most people but I wish I was cowboy and Fallout New Vegas let me play as cowboy. Red Dead Redemption very good game too you get play cowboy name Arthur Morgan and you can ride horse and shoot revolver. Had many fun time play these game.
@@benn87breakers was ok till and all till the rankings where raiders easily get lowered ranking because all the abilities you can have and use plus it's easy to eliminate a raider yes a reader can originally two shot you but with all the buffs survivors get and the super souls plus ways to get your super soul activated again a survivor can keep a the dragon balls easily they have to get downed and raider you just stamina break them which is easy like extremely easy just do melee and you got most their stamina gone and people will literally bully the raider it's extremely hard to play as raider and when you do you get bullied before you get a chance to do anything and you lose rank because of it especially when you got high level that all of them can talk to each other in a group chat
I have had the same feeling just like you. Turning 25 last year I just felt like gaming wasn't really scratching that itch anymore, having been quite addicted to league of legends fot the last 6 years. I uninstalled the game and procedes to play all the other singleplayer games I played before and started enjoying gaming again. A thing I noticed about singleplayer games is that they are more forgiving when you don't constantly play, because every time I booted up a game of bf4 I got totally destroyed and didn't want to spend the time relearning everything again. So I'm still just playing singleplayer games. Anyway, good video!
completely understandable. I feel i'm lucky that I've retained enough to be decent but like you I like the forgiving nature of single player titles.
Same here. I turned 24 and played competetive Csgo for 8 years and didn't enjoy CS when I turned 22. Now i dont wanna spend the time relearning it, because i work and have better things to do. Now iam enjoying singleplayer games like RDR2, Dying Light 1&2. I think it comes with the age
Yeah. One good thing about single player games is that you can play them at your own pace. There's no fear of missing out on a limited time reward, no battle pass to complete or rank to achieve before the next season starts.
Try some of the other Battlefields - BatV is more forgiving for example. Vehicles are more straight forward.
@@hrthrhs Yes I have and now that I think of it I had a blast playing. I played it a while with a friend and even though I wasn't on top of my game I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
Because they are shells created to generate recurring revenue. They aren't made to be fun any more.
If they are fun, people cry in forums until the fun is patched out. "Balance" and "Competitive" have ruined games.
I think competitive games definitely have a place but I think the problem is game studios try to push competitiveness as a core element of the game when it doesn’t need it.
If the game is fun a competitive scene will just come naturally but a lot of studios put stupid bs into there games to try and create a competitive experience and they end up losing a lot of the player base because of it and it just leaves the sweaty try hards.
@@mannymushies5241 that is my point.
When companies are releasing a game, sequel or new IP, and their promo material is about esports ... It's dead on arrival.
Companies don't realize you don't just make an esports hit. You make a great game and if a community grows around it, you can think about focusing on it.
But games were better when they were made to just be FUN.
@@phant0mdummy yeah exactly. I mean look how many people play super smash bros melee competitively because Nintendo made it fun and not to build a competitive scene
@@mannymushies5241 Nintendo doesn't even support the competitive scene and it still flourishes 😂
@@phant0mdummy yeah exactly 😂
Imo ever since the covid-19 everything went downhill, not just the games, but life overall. Good video tho
Since 2015 and that election that broke ppls brains..Covid just transferred the rest of our wealth to the 1% but games have long suffered from political correctness and straight up greed by monetizing every little thing they possibly can. I noticed it in 2010 with madden and their disgusting ultimate team mode but it was the only game I saw taking dlc to the level of selling digital football cards that don’t switch over to other titles. Now, well those fucking hats in team fortress go for thousands.
I'd say it's been like that since ~2010.
@@georgeoldsterd8994nah. 2010 to 2016 was prime gaming
Downfall of gaming started in the 2010’s if you’ve been gaming for a while. I noticed quality dipping and anti consumer practices. The golden era was 90’s and 2000’s.
2007-2015@@georgeoldsterd8994
my 2 cents as a 35 year old gamer (im practically a fossil compared to some of the people in the comments), the biggest reason why multiplayer doesnt feel the same is that everything is designed as an Esport from the get go, which severally limits creativity and experimentality in game design.
This coupled with the fact that there is no community at all in MP games, no more server browsers, its just 9 or 99 randos dropped into a lobby for 15 -20 minutes, and then into the next one, and in between these games you certainly are gonna be dumped to the Store screen instead of a game summary, or a stats page.
It's all so clearly a ploy to get you, the player to pull out your credit card more and more. I genuinely feel sad for people too young, or those who know nothing other than the Fortnitifiaction Multiplayer games.
This is it, everything is desgined to be a time and money sink. Also players instead of trying to have fun while playing prefer to win at any cost.
So you end up on mix of grindy mechanics and anti fun players.
Even further, you could take it away from Esport and just say the game is not only derivative in terms of taking mechanics from other games and only slightly changing, but you could say the entire ethos of a game is just derivative of another game. Instead of going into an engine and trying to create a fun experience for people that is unique or fiddling with a piece of a random untitled project to try to make something interesting you have yet to see, it all starts with a board meeting, and that board meeting puts the game in a box of "eSport," "casual," "software service," or whatever dogshit buzzword combo that basically means the game will have no soul and will follow a formulaic output that isn't even derivative at that point but just straight up stealing.
Even the ones that are "successful" are doing this i.e. Valorant/Riot in general, it doesn't even feel like the gaming industry I grew up in anymore, no one cares about being creative or having fun unless that fun can be quantified to extract value out of the customer in a measurable way.
Based old gamer I agree with everything you said and I feel like multiplayer games now feel less sociable then they were before
I never liked multiplayer that much
The push for esports played a big part imo. I'm a bit older but remember how the Starcraft 2 scene developed. Initially, the game was huge, probably the biggest RTS release ever, and tons of people, bad, medium, experts and pros played online and had fun. The noobs got better and beat other noobs, earning that satisfaction of becoming better and winning. A constant stream of new players, or noobs, kept the echosystem healthy and the game thrive. Eventually though, the esport scene got bigger and bigger, and the push towards ultimate competition lead to all the noobs either quit or entered tryhard mode to become as good as possible. Eventually the entire echosystem collapsed and only the hardcore pros were left playing the game, and it happened vary rapidly.
I bring this up because it is a very good example of how pretty much every online game evolves over time. How fast it occurs varies, but it is pretty much inevitable. Obviously people leave the game for other reasons, but the push towards ultra competition just makes this process much faster because it takes the fun out of the game.
I found though that it's not necessarily about getting older, though that makes it harder to enjoy games. But I think it is this push for esports and competition as well as the lack of variety in the genres that is a big reason. Most people just play fps games, obviously the become boring after a while. I always enjoyed RTS games the most, but I like to play other genres as well.
I recently went back to my favorite online game ever, Battle for Middle Earth 2, and its amazing. People still play the game 15 years after it's release, and it has the feeling old games had. It is competitive if you want, very skilled players, but there is also many that just like to chill and play or do custom maps for fun. There is no ladder or ranking system to grind or show how good you are, just for fun and that is a big reason why it's such a good time. Also, the game itself is amazing, we don't get epic games like that anymore and I bet most of the new generation have never even heard of that game which is just sad imo.
Indeed, it's interesting considering esports and orgs themselves aren't actually profitable.
Esports aka anti-fun.
this is wrong, ive played since wings of liberty and most of the people still playing play co-op or singleplayer game modes. most of the playerbase is casual, confirmed by blizzard itself
I always liked games for their campaings not multiplayer
This video resonated on a personal level with me... it's comforting in a sad, depressing way to know how many others have become jaded and jilted by gaming as a whole, the very thing that brought me comfort during the darkest periods of my life.
Indeed, I can resonate with what you’re saying. Sometimes as much as you might love something it can hinder you either in general life or your mental due to the amount of time we dedicate to the hobby itself.
I always liked games for their campaings not multiplayer you multiplayer yandere
Maybe it’s just the fact that we’re all older now and have more responsibilities but online gaming now feels more like a part time job than just playing a video game. The shift in business model has made most online games too damn grindy and exploitative. I know I sound more like “old man yells at cloud”.. but games were far better when they were simple.
Yeah I can agree, if you want to get good at any or even enjoy some you have to be committing so much time it can feel like a job
nonsense
Skill based matchmaking destroyed casual gaming
So fu*king true, I wish I had a voice to say it out loud. Competitive and ranking is very tiresome for many. I always stick with Dirty bomb or killing floor.
Facts like every game doesn’t have to be competitive
Why don’t y’all play against bots? What is with the need to make the game miserable for all the lower level players so you can feel good about yourself?
@@AntiSoraXVI it’s not that we trying to make the lower level miserable we just don’t want to play against tryhards 24/7 if we grinding for things or just in general plus the lower players will never know if they getting better if they ain’t playing against people better than them
@@BrentenDaVinci you realize that, to every lower level player, YOU are the tryhard? They’re not getting better by losing to you for the same reason you’re not getting any better than the “tryhards” you’re complaining about.
Again I recommend playing against bots whenever possible
The main problem with multiplayer gaming these days is its become a second job. People have lives outside of video games. People have jobs, IRL friends, families to take care of. Focusing on grinding some video game takes so much out of your life these days. Devs intentionally make timegated tedious grinds in order to encourge people to pay microtransactions to progress faster. Multiplayer games like deep rock galactic where you just simply join and chill with friends are a rare site now. And imo pay to progress faster is paying to win since you do get a time advantage over other players. In terms of competitive games content creators populating the META is what ruined those which cause many communities to become hostile towards new players.
I always liked games for their campaings not multiplayer
For me the biggest problem is what I will call "Participation Ribbon" ideology.
Not everyone should be able to unlock everything. Higher skill players should be able to unlock things lower skilled players cannot. Just because you "participate" does not mean you earned the same rewards.
On top of that, less and less is earned through permanent difficult static challenges. (Best example of how to properly have a good difficult static challenge is Halo 3 Recon armor).
Now unlocks all seem to come from time grinds/just paying money to unlock it. Challenges are rarely ever skill based. Usually everyone is able to do them if they spend enough time. This is where the Participation Ribbon ideology has ruined any incentive to actually get better. Sure getting better might make the grind a bit faster but if you all end up with the same reward it feels like you are not being rewarded for getting better.
All this along with SBMM in casual modes makes games feel like they don't respect your time and don't reward you for actually getting better.
i know this is an old comment and slightly unrelated but i'm still angry about what they did with the habusa and recon armor in halo mcc.
Like on one hand: i like the idea of it being more accessible because it means more options.. however they already added a bunch of new custom armors for that and continue to do so, so having the handful of legendary armors available for everyone isn't really adding a lot to the customization.
On the other hand though because it's so common it's not special anymore it's just yet another set of armor. Where as back in halo 3, it realistically was nothing more then cosmetic/a piece of armor, but if you saw someone wearing that then you knew they were the shit / this mf had clearly played the game a decent bit and was likely either very good at the game, spent countless hours trying and failing, or got carried. Either way it was rare enough to be like "oh shit this guy has x armor" but not so rare that it was an impossible thing to achieve. It just required some practice, or some game knowledge (depending on which armor we're talking about since a lot of them were just go find x skull)
Playing a video game alone is how I know if I really like the game. Friends distract me personally from the issues I have with some games. So I always play games single player then invite friends, once I determine that game is up to par. Generally, times have been bad for multiplayer games in recent years.
didn't expect this video to be so relatable. used to be obsessed with multiplayer pc games
when i was younger since i had friends to play with and i didn't take the game as
seriously.
now that i'm much older, i found my self mostly moving away from multiplayer games
and i've been playing through my switch games which has personally made gaming alot more
fun since there's no stress and no worries about having to play with randoms if you aren't at
the top of your game.
One of the big reasons I disconnected from MP games over the years was due to the stress it causes. I still jump on from time to time like Halo Infinite and I did a match of CS recently and I enjoy my time with it but walked away with way higher anxiety than before.
I need to get back into my switch, I'm waiting for the switch 2 though.
11:38 that line, gets me, like literally, that's the one big reason for me to think about when I'm about to play a game, like I'm gonna pause for a minute before I'm about to play a game. And that kinda tears me up a bit.
Perhaps you feel that way because you're not taking care of your life in a way you deep down know you should. The times in life where I'm procrastinating something for example, study, I have that pause moment when thinking about which game to play as I feel like it's a waste of time. But then the times in life where I know I'm doing pretty well (exercising, studying, involving myself in relationships as I know I should for example) then gaming feels like a well earned reward. Some of these examples I gave may not apply to you.
Perhaps try this (I do) every 3rd time you feel like booting up a game, instead do something else - spend 30 mins cleaning your room or going for a jog, reading some study notes, replying to people's messages you've let go, research something you've been meaning to, book that dentist appointment haha.
@@hrthrhs Bruv, excatly! So yah, life balance is just the key, especailly when this kind of scenario is creeping into your life when adulting and that little thing is called "Responsibility". So if you didn't fullfill it you'll feel guilty when you about to start a gaming session.
@@HoLeeFvk6945 Yeah man, took me a while to realise that.
All the best man and happy gaming.
I´ve always played singleplayer games only, I just didn´t find the thought of playing something without a story to unveil very amusing, but I think I should´ve tried more to understand why everyone likes it. The fun of discovering a new world with its own lore is just much more exciting to me.
That's fair
That's it for me too. I just want to immerse myself in a world and explore it. Other players just get in the way.
I prefer single player games also. With the Multiplayer ones it's the being dragged about by your team mates and you have to conform to them. ie - If they don't want to stealth in Ghost Recon, or wanting to go left rather than right. Charging off without telling the rest of the team and while you cover the rear you turn about and they're 200m off in another direction. LOL.
For me, I have rarely enjoyed online multiplayer games mostly due to their community. Sure, competitiveness is part of it but the anger you find in these games is at another level. It is not new, and imo the problem is the same as what we find on social media: people have the feeling they can do everything (and in a way they unfortunately can). That alone ruined it for me. What I truly missed is the era of coop games, you are not "online" but can play and have a good experience with your friends.
Yeah that's fair, I do think there is a level of "newness" but not because it's actually new but new to this community. I believe a lot of it stems down to gaming becoming more and more competitive and with that people are going to naturally care a bit too much like sports or what not.
Black ops 2 and halo 3 were also the first big online games I played with friends. Really miss those days
Age and time is the main issue imo, but there's not much that can be done as all of that comes naturally. The moment you create an incentive to win in games that involve going up against other real people, competition is going to naturally develop. With that competition comes the increase of difficulty as people have to put as much time as they can to keep up and improve, and the older you are, the less likely you're able to do that. So you're basically chalked on top of playing against 4-6 versions of your younger self at their peak without even trying. There's a point where you just gotta put the towel in, but doing that is the equivalent of selling those action figures you've held onto since your childhood. You don't want to do it since it's such a huge part of your life.
As both a gamer & indie game dev working on my own solo project what I miss on multiplayer stuff is couch co-op
I'd just rather sit down and enjoy a story or new world in the time I set aside for games rather than playing a grindy shooter that feels meaningless 🤷♂️
Let's just think about it. When Black Ops 2 released. You and your friends hop on , win or lose , have genuine fun. Now everyone is just tryhard sweating it. Call me a noob but tryharding games and skill based match making ruined everything. You can't even play any cod titles without sweating your ass. This has even seeped into MINECRAFT! Sorely depending on grinding and PvP.
It’s cool to finally relate with someone who feels the same way ! We almost had the same path , my first big online game was Halo 3 in 2007-2008 , then I went to Modern warfare 2 , Black ops 2 and CSGO , until I realized I just didn’t have the same feeling anymore.
I miss the time when it was “goofy” and we were just happy to make new friends everyday online. It was my escape and I was laughing in every session lobby , with people I didn’t even know!
And now .. I don’t know , it feels empty , it feels different. The games are kind of a market and an online store , more than anything.
Could be my age , but now I mostly play old games like Skyrim and Tony hawks underground.. stuff like that !
I’m not sad or anything , I honestly just feel lucky that I was part of such a great era 🎮🫡
Yeah the last game to truly bring me into that sense of playing and meeting people was destiny. I was lucky enough to meet a load of cool people with one of them becoming a good friend now even though he lives across the country. We even did a trip to New York together 😂.
Back in the day games sold by being 'the best game possible' (think original Xbox / early 360 days). Then shareholders got involved and it became about 'monthly active users', microtransactions, and extracting as much money from our wallets as possible.
Think about how many games now have daily login bonuses, things you have to do in the cash shop, incentives to keep coming back and complete checklists of objectives like chores almost.
I started gaming around 1983 and at 50 I still love gaming for the escape factor. I deal with people everyday so do I want to deal with people in my "safe" space? Hell no! I play games to relax not compete.
Well said, I work with someone who's around 50 and he said more or less the same as what you said lol and I totally get it to
I haven’t subbed to an actual RUclips channel in years, but this was super interesting and definitely deserved a sub.
In my case I prefer split screen over online, I get a lot of my good times now through there, but every now and then I come around for online
I would love to see more modern games make specifically for split screen, One of my favourite times recently with games was it takes two.
@@Exiled7 100% agreed.
Split screen needs a comeback
Modern online games look like mobile games, shity uis, ads, microtrasactions and unpolished
I always liked games for their campaings not multiplayer
As someone trying to get out of gaming addiction this video came along at a great time.
It's nice to hear someone be fair and balanced on this topic for a change.
Nice video. 2 years ago I was bored about games and grind. Now I play games casually for fun and less times to games. Sometimes the life is giving us more fun than games then it is okay not to play games or movies. Just enjoy the moment. Progress in real life game is also a great game.
that's the way it should be! I saw something a while ago which said something like "we use to use the interenet to escape real life, no we use real life to escape the interent". Which I think is a fitting idea for this exact comment!
@@Exiled7 Nice thought. 🤠👍
Extremely relatable video. During my high school days I used to get so obsessed with getting better in games like Counter Strike or Smash bros and played with my friends. Nowadays I barely play multiplayer at all and am just happy for a couple hours a week getting lost in a solid single player world. Gaming for me nowadays is for relaxing and not getting stressed.
Honestly I feel like you've hit the nail on the head and it's helped me change my view of gaming for the better. ❤ Thank you.
Glad to hear it helped!
This is an off topic comment, but your video gave me so much basis for my project about the psychology behind video games, that I’ve been able to turn a short script into a dozen page breakdown of different gaming phenomenons. This video is a gem, and I’m truly grateful that you made it ❤
7:38 ngl, Escape From Tarkov helped me to learn to NOT get mad. as ironic as that is. I realized since it's always high stakes either you're always gonna be mad or become "it is what it is, oh well i'll build a new kit." and believe it or not, it's made me grow more as a person, transitioning from not getting mad at deaths in Tarkov to not getting mad when someone cuts you off in traffic, or other random annoying stuff that happens through the day. getting mad doesn't help me make a kit faster, build a gun faster, or even play better. REMEMBER EVER TIME YOU DIE IN A VIDEO GAME THATS THE DESIGN THATS WHAT MAKES IT FUN love yall have a good day and God bless yall
Starting gaming online around the first gears of war, then moved on when halo 3 released. Played the hell out of halo for the quite a long time after that. Off and on with my brother since then. Need a week or two every time to get back to a level that we once were. I'm 35 now, and that just feels like a job. I don't want to be a streamer, and who wants to practice just to spend time with your brother. It was fun back then; rather just find a fun co-op shooter, or something else nowadays.
I'm 28,when I was younger I was great on league of legends, cod bo2 and paladins.
Lately I have found myself playing almost primarilly story games but there's just one online game that I have been playing religiously for years and I don't think I will ever stop..
That game is called osu,it's a rythm game that you can play solo (there are score leaderboards tho) or on online lobies.
While the game IS very highly competitive I've also had some of my greatest memories with it and I can't find myself stopping playing it anytime soon (I currently have 16days 0hours 52minutes of ACTUAL gameplay time on it)
Ive been telling people for YEARS. That they need to try single player games to not get ultra bored of playing the same old multiplayer games. Ive loved singleplayer games ever since i was a kid and considering i didnt get internet until many many years later than all my friends. Got me to really love and try new types of games. Before i thought games like Persona, Yakuza and japanese games in general would not interets me. But upon trying u find a whole new world of games. If i didnt try new i would not have found my favorite franchise Metal Gear Solid. LONG LIVE SINGLEPLAYER GAMES
RIP Club Penguin. You are truly missed
Skill based matchmaking really kills your sense of progression. You get better at games, but you rarely get a feeling you're actually better. If anything, you might feel you're worse because you start playing better and better players who can beat you.
bro 5:43 threw me off like crazy, I’m actually from thousand oaks which is in ventura county so seeing our squad cars in gta completely threw me off
Great points about community in online games. The past several years I've bounced around between Rocket League, Fortnite, and World of Warcraft: Classic. The online game I'm enjoying the most, is always the one where I've found the best community.
I didn't realize I'd relate to almost nothing in this video because I've never really had friends. I thought it would be about game design.
The push for eSports and the general "Fornitification" of gaming is part of why I game way less than I used to. I hate that Fortnite has essentially created the "battlepass + celebrity collab" model that every game uses now.
Singleplayer games and indie games are the only things keeping me in the hobby. Multiplayer games are just not for me anymore.
same
Yeah that's fair, I think Fortnite as a game has done a really good job of doing microtransactions and battle passes correctly, My issue with a lot of it is the attempts to copy it's formula but in turn fail because they aren't as interesting and cost the same amount to buy.
I'm diving into more indie games but singleplayer games is the home of gaming for me.
@@Exiled7 same its more fun too no stress and relax and just love to explore
Im having less fun in competitive multiplayer games these days cause i just cant justify playing a single game 6h a day in order to be good at it and have fun in it. Or climb in rank in it or whatever. When i was younger i legit had nothing better to do, now my perspective on things changed and i would rather play 2-3 games a day, have fun with friends in them and then shut off.
Same exact thing happened to me. I stopped playing games that changed my mood in a negative way and I stopped playing games that demanded my attention for hours on end without being able to pause.
The thing that keeps me playing CS after thousands of hours is the drive to improve. I really enjoy seeing myself get better at things. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t do something unless I’m going to go all out and get good. I enjoyed learning to play the guitar, trumpet, and piano as a kid. It felt so good to land my first tre flip, then felt even better when I could land them just about every time I tried. Same with Counter Strike. I’m not trying to go pro at CS but there is always something you can improve. Even pros with more than 10,000 hours are improving.
I’m not sure if other people go through this aswell but something I noticed in myself on the point of wasting time. Was when I was a kid playing things like Assassins Creed III there were those huge battles in the game. And as a kid I used to stay and fight making sure I defeated every NPC to help “win the battle” instead of running through the objectives to complete the mission. As I got older I realized staying and fighting didn’t make a difference, they were just NPC’s. I feel like realizing that killed some of the fun for me.
I quit playing any pvp game after spending 5 months in the hospital after a really bad motorcycle accident. Very mild brain damage from swelling damaged my eyes and I can't see thing like I used to do. I played 3k hours of war thunder and played warzone pretty regularly. I don't miss iether remotely. The accident happened may 31st 2023
Hope you’re doing okay:)
@@TommysEdgeclips physically sure, mentally no
I considered that me getting older was killing my love for video games (I’m 33) but I still get excited playing older games. However, the communities I formed around certain games as a kid are gone and I’ve accepted that. Tekken Tag Tournament, Budokai 3, Street Fighter 4, and Blops 2 were peak gaming for me.
The multiplayer genre has changed from a fun focused and open ended experience where wild and unpredictable people would interact with each other in interesting ways given the variety of unique situations they were placed in, to an incredibly stressed, restrictive, and isolating environment where you are punished for having fun and treated like an enemy for trying to enjoy what is a different version of the same game but with considerably less fun and social interactions than what used to be there before as well as entire chunks of the game being held ransom in the cash stores like a petty crook stealing from your house and then sending you an ultimatum with a timer where your property will be destroyed if you refuse to pay up. Remember when live services were supposed to add more to an existing game as opposed to gatekeeping basic features as a form of retaliation for you not buying loot boxes? I do, and that’s why I enjoy live services that are actually fun. So why did they change their games to punish their players by doing this? Ego. It makes them feel powerful to control millions of people across the world and mess with them. When you realize that’s why games have been in such a terrible slump for years, it starts to make sense as to why they keep coming up with new terrible ways of messing with you. A bad attitude is something no patch or update can fix. It’s systemic. Frankly, the only reason I think indie games like fall guys and lethal company are popular isn’t even because they’re particularly good but because they actually try to make people interact in that fun way in interesting places like I mentioned. If triple A multiplayer games did their job properly, then no one would have these discussions or questions in the first place.
Yeah that's one of the big reasons I walked away, I'm enjoying playing from time to time but I would be lying if I said my anxiety levels didn't go up after a whole ranked cs game.
There’s certainly a place for games that make your anxiety go crazy like horror and action games, but the anxiety I feel when I play something like Wolfenstein The New Order and Silent Hill PT vs CSGO are completely different. Those two games use their anxious settings and gameplay systems as a thrill, CSGO uses it as a punishment for enjoying the game. They will literally stop you from earning rewards and XP if you play more often in an attempt to bribe you into buying their crappy microsoft paint looking skins. If I play any version of CSGO, it’s the older one, because achievement hunting is still pretty fun.
CoD 4 was my first real foray into online gaming and to this day it’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing a multiplayer game. Haven’t been able to find quite that same satisfaction since the original MW3.
Yeah bo4 was an underrated cod. I loved it but I played for the first 3 weeks, got my first job and then I stopped playing for like half a year 😅.
@@Exiled7 I fell off on CoD right around the time Advanced Warfare came out. Franchise fatigue had set in lol. I really just took a break from gaming in general and focused my attention on work and chasing women lol.
I would agree a little. I think Advanced Warfare came around to early. If it released as a game later than it did I wouldn't be surprised if it got recieved well. The issue the game had was it was too different in one hit from what people knew.
It’s amazing to me that so many young ppl are giving up video games I remember in my time (I’ve been gaming since 1982) that so many kids and teenagers would skip school or not go to work just to play Atari or Nintendo or just go to the arcades to hang out instead of going to school. Now is definately not like that it almost seems most young kids would rather go to school than play games nowadays my have times changed.
I would disagree to an extent. From everything I see, I would say you still have plenty if not more kids today who play if you look at the raw numbers however you are seeing more of a trend since the hyper-maculinty self-improvement world became more mainstream over the last couple of years.
Underrated channel, keep up the good work
Around 15 minutes when you're talking about now vs then the biggest thing I've noticed is when I was younger and you died to someone better youd most times compliment there skill and add them as friends. Nowadays if people get rolled it's go outside, touch grass etc
yeah, it's weird. It's basically considered that if someone is good at a game it means they don't have a life, It's an easy cope so that you don't have to accept you aren't as good as another player.
Thank you for the video, I really liked it. It was very interesting getting a younger person's view on growing up with games. I grew up during the nineties in the country, so I naturally played a lot of singleplayer games (Fallout 1&2, Baldur's Gate 1&2, Half Life 1, Quake 1&2, Shogun total war, Dune 1&2, Walker, Lord of the Realm 2, Hexen, Heretic, Warcraft 2, Silver etc etc), that was mostly what gaming was until the turn of the century CS, Quake 3, Warcraft 3, Battlefield 1942 and Unreal tournament. A majority of the games for the PC, Amiga 500+ and Nintendo 8bit was for singleplayer. This combined with a love of fantasy and sci fi books meant that gaming for me was more of a personal experience. Multiplayer later on was mainly a way to enjoy specialist titles like Battlefield, Insurgency mod, Empires mod, Project Reality mod for Battlefield 2, etc etc.
So I have to disagree with the statement that games are mainly about communities. I enjoy that aspect, but good singleplayer games are a personal experience for me. Like Freespace 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Disco Elysium, Ground Control 1, Total war games, Hearts of iron, Sekiro etc etc. But yes the "book circle" aspect of gaming, discussing and sharing experience is important, but I would never say that it is the biggest experience. It would be like saying that the biggest aspect of reading Crime and Punishment is the sharing of it with others, and that is not something I agree with. For me it is the enjoment I gain from the experience.
That's fair, I do believe gaming is both an incredibly personal experience with the likes of what you mentioned and what I did in the video around Skyrim and how I'm prepping for an eventual playthrough for when everything becomes a bit much.
I believe community is the biggest aspect because as much as we may love doing something for me at least one of the most amazing parts is discussing it with someone who's got that same level of love for the thing or introducing it and seeing them absolutely love the experience.
After a previous comment, I would find it an interesting thing to maybe host a "book club" like thing in the discord around playing one game each month and we can all jump in and talk about it.
It feels like the skill gap sucks, like I have to invest so many hours just to have decent fun while there are so many people trying to be sweats as if its a international leagues competition instead of trying to have fun. Even when i try, it feels more a chore or even like a job
All of your points you bring up are totally valid and from what I read online add up too. As a predominantly multiplayer gamer, here's my perspective. Multiplayer games right now suck depending on the game in question or genre. I love Online FPS games but a lot of them right now aren't doing too well for a lot of reasons. They are all prone to a ton of problems, predatory monetization, lack of content on launch, lack of content post launch, server issues, netcode issues, cheating, predatory matchmaking, poor progression systems, gameplay balance, toxicity etc. There's a lot of variables to make the potential good core experience sour. These are issues that'd stop me from playing multiplayer games in the future rather than lets say a lack of effort to compete or improve as that's part of the drive. You may not be getting an experience a single player game provide but if the game has depth you'll always be improving at something to use against other players potentially doing the same thing. Maybe a bad comparison but its like a roguelike singleplayer game. It's gameplay focused, no run is the same, and if you fail you can refine your execution or strategy.
In contrast, single player games have a more streamlined focus, make a good game and hope it sells instead of making a good game and trying to extract as much money as possible for as long as possible while doing the minimal effort(AKA a lot of live service games that are multiplayer). Of course they can have problems too, Cyberpunk being everyone's favorite example but with good reason. Last bit I can add going from my first point is some multiplayer games being PvE focused are usually really really good because it has a lot less to worry about and often made by developers who put fun first. Popular example is Deep Rock Galactic. The game itself is good and focuses on a completely player first approach which keeps a happy player base. No fuss no drama, just a simply good game. Suppose Lethal Company being a newer example also fits the bill. I'm sure others would have more examples of this being executed well but it's not area of experience. TLDR for this would be multiplayer games(sometimes depending on genre) aren't made to the same quality as singleplayer games on average and have way less respect for the players time and experience. Hope this was coherent, there's so much that can be said on this topic.
Edit: I forgot MMO's are a thing that can be pretty rough sometimes.
We all forget MMOs are a thing 😂.
Great examples of a load of options. I know I need to play some more goofy fun sort of multiplayer games as they are the sort I’ve probably played the least over the last decade.
could agree more mp games are a cash grab this days with bugs and i hate sbmm so mutch
I recently turned 22 years old and upon entering the adult life and having a full-time job, it is really a pain in the ass that most games nowadays require you to grind upon hours to progress if you really want to get good and get the good stuff. It is really frustrating. that’s why games like call of duty, which is really grinding by itself, I only play for like 30 minutes and that’s it for the day. Shit, this issue is the very reason I stopped gaming and barely do it nowadays. I’ve grown fond of single player games and cooperative games instead of competitive games. One good example of non-competitive yet cooperative game is Squad, since there is no progression system at all and teamwork is the most important aspect of the gameplay
As an adult gamer I kinda grow past beyond competition, and just play if the game gives me fun times. if not I'm not simply wasting my time on it. Industry these days is using competition as a way to monetize their game in the way who has paid the most money wins. So I really don't care about winning due I know I won't have enough money to win the competition so why bother trying to become best unless you are really a tournament player. In that way, I like single-player games more, if they have a good story to be told. I usually wreck people in Star Craft who are casually playing it, but being won by those who takes the game more seriously than I do.
That's the problem with games nowadays, there always a rank or a competitive focused mode with 5v5. I stick with games like dirty bomb which NEEDS a remaster and recognition in the game community.
I think multiplayer games in the past were simply more designed around casual fun rather than competitiveness. I mean of course, you always had sweaty tryhards, but there was plenty of game modes in there for casual audiences too that just aren't really being made in today's games anymore. And a lot of these fun game modes were also community created, which is another reason why today's multiplayer games don't feel as good anymore. They just don't have much support or tools for community content anymore.
And of course there's also the grinding aspect. Many of today's multiplayer games are simply designed around grinding for some specific things which are only put in there to prey on people that suffer from FOMO. And the grind towards those things is usually not fun either. I mean, back in the day I'd just hop in and play some CS 1.6 matches simply because it was a fun game, not to grind for skins or for a meaningless competitive rank. CSGO and now CS2 was designed to be all about the competitive aspect and useless cosmetics.
I think multiplayer games in the past were simply more designed around casual fun rather than competitiveness and grinding. I mean of course, you always had sweaty tryhards, but there was plenty of game modes in there for casual audiences too that just aren't really being made in today's games anymore. And a lot of these fun game modes were also community created, which is another reason why today's multiplayer games don't feel as good anymore. They just don't have much support or tools for community content anymore.
You should've mentioned Death Stranding's implementation of online multiplayer, in a game set in an apocalyptic setting having other players help eachother traverse the scary and treacherous world easier by making structures, making signs and warnings, donating materials and everyone coming together to make highways, the best way to travel in that game without ever seeing another player in your game world is an awesome idea.
I would like more games to have such unique takes on multiplayer aspect of a game rather than the usual team based rounds of shooting or battle royale.
Gaming is a creative art form, doing the same thing again and again is only fun for a while, you won't remember those kind of games. This is a big reason why indie developer who despite having WAY WAY less resources come up with some of the most enjoyable and memorable unique games.
Great video, all you said was praticly my experience, and now at almost 27 yo this is sad and hard to accept.
It isn't aging.
When you started playing games for the first time you stsrt to learn.
After playing a ton if games over the years you start to see the system in the game and get bored mire easily because you played a game like it.
That and game developers getting greedy by filling the game with boring unsatisfying quests like slay one million spiders.
And then after its done you just get a check mark on it and nothing else.
It wasn’t always super insanely competitive when you just wanted to have fun, plus now there’s pay to win, and on top of that less time to play with your friends cuz we’re all getting older.
Hot take: but i never undestand why people loved competitive play so much, it makes the game into an agonizing, sweaty funless grey bloat. This is exactly what happent to Rainbow Six siegue and what is happening on Dead by Daylight. People just do not care not enjoy playing just for the sake of it, for fun, for innocence. It gross me out.
I would say the answer to your point is that people don't start of playing any of these games with the mindset of "I love competitive games". Normally you just try out a game your friends are playing or you play something that the content creator you like has started picking up. That leads to a level of connection with the game and building a sense of identity around the game. The likes of Rainbow for example, which I loved and still think is a good game deals with the issue of sunk cost. When you become so good you get that high of being insane at the game but if you take a week or two weeks off you lose a little bit of your edge and in turn, don't want to give it up and it's all just a massive feedback loop to keep people hooked.
You also have the fact that many of the games are fun even if they are infuriating at points. It's why boss fights have to be hard in single-player games as there's no point to them otherwise.
@@Exiled7 Well, in that case i must have a brain defency or something, because i played Siege since White Noise and i always struggled, only sometimes i managed to get a kill or carry a match (i had over 1000 hours when i stopped playing)
Honestly, i feel that DbD is just slightly less agonizing, since at least there are some usefull tools like Lightborn and Mad Grip that saves a lot of games.
Either that, or i am just slowy retiring back to singleplayer games without me realizing.
might be the last one, Many of us do slowly go back into single players as it allows you not to deal with the stress on multiplayer
@@Exiled7 Hot take: i wish cooperative games were more popular and more appealing that classic pvp games.
I enjoy single player games nowadays cause my friends are always busy with their lives to play together and plus, I hate dealing with sweats and tryhards. Even microtransactions has killed my mode.
Skyrim, rdr2, and cyberpunk 2077 truly have brought me a join that no other game has brought me in a long time and that’s coming from someone who got sucked into the live service ftp shooters while also owning almost 2k games on steam.
Yeah, I came to this conclusion/realization 2-3 months ago. I decided that if I were to game, the only games I would play are single-player, regular co-op/couch co-op, and multiplayer games where I can create a premade team with individuals I personally trust. Playing with random people introduces too much unpredictability and variance in my enjoyment of the game. The people I play multiplayer games with have to be people I know in real life, so if they pull something, they’re held accountable (seriously or jokingly) face to face. The problem is that even if someone is banned for toxicity or trolling, they don’t face real-life accountability or consequences. A lot of the time, they feel more inclined to act this way because there are no real repercussions. They can soft int, create new accounts, or switch to different games and continue committing the same offenses. Meanwhile, you’ve already gone through the ordeal, and it keeps piling up as long as you continue queuing with random people in multiplayer games, whether it's on your team, squad, or guild. If you’ve finally had enough, just follow what I mentioned in the first sentence and you’ll have a better experience.
As I'm getting older, I have less and less patience for games that require grinding or wasting my time to fill up a number to do a challenge and finally getting the thing I want.
I came to the point of thinking "What am I even doing here? Do I even like doing this, or am I doing it out of obligation?" Since then, I play against bots more than against people, amd mostly play single player or coop games where I actually enjoy the game I am playing.
Been on a grind of trying to find all single player games form the last 10-15 yrs I never played. Absolutely best think I did with my life was quit r6 and all mp games overall.
I can relate to this on so many levels, my first multiplayer game that i spent the most playing was gta 4 multiplayer, while it didn't have many things to do, it was fun goofing around with friends and try completing co-op missions, and cod black ops 2 it was fun because of the rewards you get after reaching a certain rank, the feeling of achieving something or earning something rare for just having fun was enough for me, but nowadays seeing games becoming more expensive and having multiplayer as a standalone with loot boxes and micro transactions it's clear that these companies care about money more than it's fanbase
Unfortunate making this video and then Helldivers 2 releases...
still doesn’t change the overall message
As someone in their late thirties I'll say that this video didn't resonate with me at all because all of your touchstones are aimed at someone 15 years my junior lol.
But I definitely agree, The best way to play any game is with the people you are close to, whether that's board games, magic, Pokemon, destiny or fortnite.
The important part of gaming is just having a good time, especially with the people you value most 🙂
I feel like just like how you said it's an adulting problem since we're growing up with video games but, I also think over the years gaming has just gotten way more competitive even "casual" in most modern games have varying amounts of skill based matchmaking. Making it more competitive compared to those that would just get on for fun or just to socialize in game like rp
Ok, I was not expecting this one to hit so hard given how rarely I do multiplayer.
But this was right in the feels... and cerebral as well. So sprawling, yet structured. From industry BS, to facing growing up, the societal and psychological, the importance of a good community.
Be it either my childhood friends, your discord or the #WeWantNFS comment sections last fall... good stuff.
Miss my flatmate/then best friend's then already last gen Xbox 360 splitscreen actions just barely scraping by on rent and uni project deadlines... the dayz with the boyz.
Weirdly my most multiplayer obsession was a mobile gacha game... Bleach Brave Souls. But then again, not just a game, IP is offically licenced of my fav show, so already a lore & character deep well of common interest for the guild chat... getting excited for each other's pulls, trying to predict the upcoming updates. I know there is still a stigma around mobile gaming, but by the looks of it, I often found a well made gacha game can be better than the live-service slop of AAA.
Was great to see, you had fun with the presentation too... the "I Just lied", the wholesome MatPat shout out. And pulling out "And this is generally just an issue of adulting" freaking ADULTING, with a straight face and have it land impactfully as a professional analysis, mad respect on that one.
Thank you! I've always tried to make these videos a mixture of informative and pushing my thoughts through it and keeping it as relatible to me. One big issue I've had with youtube for a while now is that people are disconnecting more and more from the YOU in youtube. People want to watch content from real people, with that it means I'll probably be saying things that relate to people and also result in people heavily disagring with me as not everyone is going to have a similar look on games based of how they grew up with them or started with them.
Yeah I tried to tthink a lot more on the final product in the script process, So i'm glad it came out the way it did!
@@Exiled7 A follower of the ancient masters, I see.
And indeed, we are in dire need of putting the human soul back into humanity.
Ranked competetive games ruined the mental of gamers
Nah, it’s that the games we like, what we play with our friends, and the games our friends push down that I low key want to love but it’s better with friends
GTA 4 online holds a special place in my heart. Literally nothing to it but it was one of my favorite online game to play with my friends
I’m more into single player games. Hell even back in the day when I used to be obsessed with playing World of Warcraft, which had and probably still has thousands of other players I’d spend most of my time alone finishing quests and exploring the world. The small bit of other player interaction I had was finding groups for dungeons, but they didn’t talk to me at all, and PvP, which I grew to despise after constantly losing. Now I play cozy game titles like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons and I’m enjoying them a lot more.
The other major factor for me is the move towards live services and the fact that it takes so much time that we dont have to "keep up" with a game. They are designed to mpush you to play for hours every day and as adults, thats not possible.
There’s not enough variety. I miss when more newer IP’s offered multiplayer even if they were only 7/10 rated games like the bond games. Now you have fewer to pick from and they all are the same battle pass seasonal formula
Multiplayer games are depressing, and it seems it's the only thing there is to play anymore. The people are toxic, there are cheaters in every community, and it gets even MORE depressing. It really sucks, and I'm starting to regret even buying a PS5 just to be depressed, and sit at the PS Menu.
I'm gonna be 25 in June, and I can't imagine how I'll feel about it then.
Think there is too many games that are fighting for the same player base so many games die
hearing you talk about single player games reminds me. Me and my homies in like 3-4th grade. before we had online. we would call each other on the HOUSE PHONE (yes house phones) and just chill on there and play thru GTA San Andreas together.. idk how we did it.. but that was our online until about when the 360 came out lol
This is GREAT!
Not the video, but to get a pick into the generation of my little bro.
Black Ops 2 squeakers being today’s teenagers/young adults.
Grind Diamond camo? Well guess what cod is today! A GRIND!
The developers of yesterday studied filthy casuals and made the horrible days of today.
But the squeakers of today don’t have the reference to say NO to Microtransactions or 60 IQ game design.
lack of them releasing more than anything. If were talking shooters, last one was the finals a couple months ago - before that, halo, two years prior. it's nuts how few are coming out now
indeed, I think a lot of it has to do with the returns. The fact that new fps titles are costing more and more but getting worse and worse play bases probably is forcing companies to rethink.
Idk I love and play multiplayer games more now in my 30’s then I did when I was younger. I’m to busy to get buried in a story. I like hopping on some multiplayer fps with my buddies every weekend
See this is the other side of the coin. I know a lot of people with the same sort of thoughts on why they play games but that part you mentioned about playing with your buddies is truly were that comes into enjoying it. If they didn't jump on with you and you just played by yourself I'm assuming you wouldn't enjoy it anywere near as much.
@@Exiled7 yeah if they aren’t on I don’t play. lol
I think you hit the nail on the head about FN being a more casual FPS, vs the alternatives such as CoD and Halo and Titanfall. What's funny is Halo in the days of 3 was more attractive to casual and non-sweatie players. I think the decision for FPS games to focus on Esports significantly helped create the vacuum for FN to fill.
Feels like as the style, mechanics, and price improves/increases, the creativity and passion go down as well. Games with potential stop being updated, games that should be multiplayer are single-player and vice versa. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they're doing this on purpose
It’s hilarious because when people on social media find out I am a gamer they always ask what my handle on Xbox is.
I haven’t played a online game since 2014.
I only play campaigns or local LAN parties with friends. Modern gaming just sucks.
I do want to play helldivers 2 though.
Same thing here. Battlefront 1 EA was the last online multiplayer game from a AAA company I touched. Never played anything multiplayer besides co op titles, indie titles, and fromsoft.
Halo 2 was my first online game I ever played and it was magic, that era from 2004-2012 was really a golden era in gaming and now a lot of stuff just don’t be hitting like back in the 6th and 7th gen.
In the past if you had friends to stack on a game you’d win. Because everyone was so casual that even slight dedication and a couple friends was the biggest advantage.
Now everyone knows the meta, everyone STUDIES the game, and everyone practices the game.
The advantage of playing a game semi regularly and having friends was no longer an advantage but is now MUST to even survive in online multiplayer games.
You can have a 5 stack, play daily, and still get destroyed by another team.
This didn’t used to be the case and it’s sad. Either learn every angle and prefire or suffer constant losing.
I’m 25 and my peak gaming experience was OG Mw3 and bo 2. I miss grinding for titles and for gun cameos. Like the MSR gold! Also everyone is just toxic and loud now lol
Not the only reason but a main one especially for multiplayer: INCENTIVE! Now that the best items are purchased instead of being unlocked, what’s the point of grinding for useless rewards?
It’s funny, for me I used to adore playing online with my friends from around the world… nowadays as we’ve all grown up, got jobs, started families, it happens once every two or so months. But when it happens it feels amazing. But in the meantime I’ve finally started breaking through my catalogue of single player story driven games. And it’s been fantastic! Just because it’s not the same, doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed in other ways ❤️🎮
are you still making the video regarding addiction for games? im interested to provide inputs for it
indeed I am. Not going to be made for a while as I'm still wanting to gather a lot more thoughts. DM me on discord!