Multiplayer Gaming: Changing for the better?
- SuperJedders
- Jul 19, 2015
- 6 min read
Gaming by yourself is fun, but multiplayer gaming can be even more fun!
Multiplayer gaming has quickly become the crux of nearly every new game that has been released over the past few years with fans even complaining if a game only supports a single player campaign mode – The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 for example. Earlier games that supported online multiplayer primarily granted players exciting player versus player action where as precious few others provided the chance to work together as a teams to complete various objectives or simply allow trading of items between games. The important thing about these multiplayer games was that no matter how many friends you had, you were still able to enjoy the modes alone with AI players or even call your friends into the action through split screen play and even Online split screen play.
Some of the fondest memories I have is playing the online user created Little Big Planet worlds with friends and family. Cast your mind back to the late 90’s and the early 2000’s and instead of online multiplayer maps; friends, siblings and strangers were settling down on the couch in front of the same screen or setting up over LAN for some good old fashioned split screen game play. Many of us will have the memories of squinting at a quadrant of a screen for 4 player racing games or the arguments that ensued from screen looking – admit it, we’ve all done it at some point or another but that was part of the experience. (and there’s even a game based on it now – Screen Cheat)
Next Generation consoles have paved the way for bigger and bolder titles to take the spotlight. Hours of story missions, vast worlds to explore, DLC every few months and of course more adventurous multiplayer experiences. The addition of GTA V Heists was highly anticipated and on delivery certainly didn’t disappoint, what did however, was the requirement for 4 players to complete the mission. In a vast PvP game players were suddenly expected to find 3 friends with the game on the same console or rely on complete strangers not loose connection or goof around and instead of focus on the task at hand. Sadly this was, and still is, easier said than done and many others, like myself, have found themselves unable to complete the heists. The same issue arose with Assassins Creed Unity.
The need to rely on other human beings to sneak around in order to maximise the reward proved frustrating enough with friends you knew personally. But with a stranger? All you could do was sigh angrily into the microphone and shake your head as your so called ‘partner’ ran headfirst into the building, alerting everyone and consequently loosing that nice bonus you were pinning your hopes on. You would have thought that developers would have identified this with earlier online team games . The occasional abusive message you would receive after a Halo game if your Kill to Death ratio wasn’t high enough or the screams of abuse during a Call of Duty Game if you were just starting out still happen today. This coupled with the basic fact that finding local friends with a next gen console, the game and even the time to play has just gotten harder over the years (more so for those of us outside of full time education it seems) should have raised a flag with developers that perhaps the multiplayer co-op angle isn’t a way to go to ensure gamers get the most out of their multiplayer experience right? Wrong…
In the next 6 months to a year we will have an array of games added that have online Multiplayer co-op modes. Tom Clancys’ The Division will rely on you working as a team to survive with the added threat of the ‘Dark Zone’ tossing in that PvP aspect into the mix and ultimately ramping up the paranoia and increase that itchy trigger finger as players wonder – can I really trust my friends….or this group of strangers? (The answer will always be no – just play 5 minutes of Rust and you’ll understand).
Rainbow Six Siege will require a team of players to communicate in order to survive the missions, and while there has been promise of a single player campaign this could still stand to prevent players enjoying the full extent of the game. Evolve fell into the trap of only offering team based multiplayer and as a result its player numbers – according to the Steam Charts- have dropped from average of 9,030 a month to a meager 625 since its release in February 2015, however Payday 2 on Steam seems to have reclaimed and maintained its Average player level at around 16,000 a month despite plummeting in the months after launch. This may have been due to the announcement and release of the Crimewave edition but the dramatic shifts in average player levels in the months after launch could be the sort we will see for Rainbow Six Siege and The Division.
With so many AAA title games sporting online modes, what has happened to the classic splitscreen modes we grew up with? The next generation consoles do not appear to be favourable to the idea, with very limited options for offline and online splitscreen. Even racing games, known for their 4 player split screen carnage, barely have 2 player split screen anymore which is just disheartening if, like me, you grew up playing Burnout or Need for Speed games. Sony and Microsoft seem to have the impression that families just don’t play anything together anymore apart from Just Dance and Rockband. However, where there is a lack in triple A titles supporting Couch co-op there is a goldmine of smaller and indie games that offer just that.
The Jackbox Party pack for instance only requires a single controller and everyone else who wishes to play just needs a Smartphone or tablet to take part in the crazy quizes, lie detecting and fact squashing chaos, Rocket league offers football with tiny customisable cars (and is one of this month’s free games for PSN this month -July 2015) and Paperbound offers ‘Flippy Dippy, stabby stabby things’ which is essentially 4 player PvP chaos with paper figures. This means that Nintendo are still very much the ‘Kings of the couch’, being heavily in favour of split screen/offline game play, in spite of the recent news that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 3D will have online co-op (Read More Here). The Mario Party Games, Super Mario Brothers, Mario Kart, Pikmin and most other Nintendo Wii (Wii U) games allow families to take part and have a bit of fun in the same room and even use the same controller in many instances. So maybe in time Sony and Microsoft will get the hint and shift back to giving us more local co-op game options? If not, there are always the Lego games…
If Online Multiplayer gaming is here to stay what can be done to try and limit the stress and frustration of trying to get in a game with the right combination of people? Many people have turned to official and non-official forums or social media in search of players aiming to accomplish certain tasks in a game, be that a mission or acquiring collectables. Newly spawned on the internet,however, is the site GameWith, dedicated to bringing together like minded individuals to play games. Although it is still in Beta, it currently allows users to sign up and create sessions against a game in their own time zone, specifying the purpose of the session, the number of people required and even if microphones are a necessity.
The site does not have the functionality to add those who link to the created session in game, but does enable you to keep track of who wishes to join, see their GamerTag and so allowing you to create a private session and manually add them to your game when you start it and thus keeping the ‘riff-raff’ out. New games are added as needed and are broken down by console type to avoid confusion and even include a little summary about the game – in case you were interested. With online gaming changing, sites like this may eventually become a part of routine for gamers seeking that last trophy, achievement or simply wanting to have a good time with like minded people. All it needs is the numbers to take off and maybe it will help with the never ending loop of trying to find that perfect online group through matchmaking in the game?
We are eager to hear your thoughts on this – Do you think multiplayer gaming is changing? Do you think there is too much focus on online co-op? Is offline gaming dying out?
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