- I stupidly bought a racing game in a sale recently which was crap, and I won’t give it the publicity of naming it 9It never worked),. But anyway, before I even discovered that it was a buggy mess, i had to go through a bunch of account-based social-networking bullshit to play the game I just bought. In other words, I had to endure the indignity of a singleplayer game being deliberately forced through a ‘social-games’ sized hole.
There are some games that are social and multiplayer by default. MMO games, clearly, and first-person shooters based on teamwork. Even if the bots were awesome, I’d still prefer to enjoy battlefield 4 with real people. But conversely, there are some game designs and genre that are absolutely firmly SINGLE player and NOT social. City builders are one. Almost all turn-based empire games are another. Single-player games have a lot of plus-sides. You can play when YOU want to, Nobody can ‘ruin’ the game for you. You don’t need to have lots of friends with similar interests. If you get bored, you just quit, without spoiling anyone else’s fun.
I hate the social media sharing bullshit that games ask you to do these days. I don't want my friends to know I'm playing an embarrassingly stupid game at 3am or during work. I like my twitter followers too much to subject them to a worthless advertisement. Once you start telling me that I need to rate your app, post on facebook, or share on twitter I promptly stop playing your game. My time and my friends are more valuable to me than any entertainment I could possibly get from your game. If you make an exceptional game, people will play it and pay for it, with or without "Like on Facebook to get next achievement." That's low and cheating and makes me lose respect for you. Have some balls and don't do what every other stupid developer is doing. Hopefully you'll get noticed for that.
Respect for game companies is a big thing for me. I absolutely love Rockstar because they've made consistently fantastic, immersive, sometimes revolutionary games. And I know each wing is basically a different company, but I'm extremely disappointed by the system in place with GTA online. Microtransactions, social media accounts. It just reminds me that all the company cares about is how much $$$ I can give them.
This is slightly off topic but boy that didn't work for me. I can do a simple race and get 2500 RP, use none of my ammo, and get ten grand, OR I can do a mission, get 800 RP, 500 bucks, have to use my own ammo which has to be replaced, and nine times out of ten be forced to do it on my own because no one else wants to play them. And then there are the missions I love that I'll get to play once a week since you don't get to actually choose what you play.
For real, who are these people that want every one to know how and when they while away the slow hours. I play some niche, nerdy browser games. I want no one but the friends I play with to even suspect what kind of boring shit I use to pass the time. I know my wife suspects that I'm almost as nerdy as she is but she isn't going to find out because my shit isn't linked to facebook.
It all feels interconnected. You do something that takes away from an experience for an ulterior motive or purpose to suit your own needs as a company. I'm not really into multiplayer games. I can enjoy them from time to time, and it adds a dimension of challenge and a different perspective on a game or its fanbase, but I have never felt immersed in a multiplayer game like I have in single players. I sunk 200 hours into Fallout between Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Do you know what I felt during those games? Terror, desolation, awe. I remember having chills the first time I walked out of the Vault and saw the wastelands. I have never felt so empty and alone as a person than when playing those games, and that's fantastic. I was absorbed, and this has happened in other games as well, where I am in that character and that world and there alone. I felt it playing GTA IV; I did not playing GTA Online. If I had gotten a gun for, say, tweeting about the game, there isn't a doubt in my mind that this effect would have been ruined, because that gun would be always be an artifact of this world. It's something that even if I were not consciously aware of, would still make it fundamentally different. If I had to get emails about the game through a DRM system, or I logged in because they're trying to prevent the experience from being stolen, these additionally break the illusion. There's nothing wrong with game companies trying to make money. I know they already exist on a razor's edge of profits, but have your Farmville and have your Fallout games separate, and especially don't go pulling something like Gran Turismo did today where I am made acutely aware that everything you're doing you're doing for money. Some gamers are truly dedicated to the craft and the world-building, not the perpetuation of a company. Besides, I'm a strong proponent of taking care of your fans. Yeah you won't make as much now in terms of profits, but you'll make a hell of a lot more in the long-run from word of mouth, new fans, and dedicated supporters. Take the Amazon approach.We have the generally understood concept of ‘DRM-free’, which is great. Maybe it’s time for ‘social-bribery free’?
I don't think there will be another game like that for a long while. It combined the best aspects of an single player RPG style game with a FPS, and unparalleled, immersive story telling. I actually felt terror from those ghouls, and desolation in the landscape. When Three Dog started calling me out on the radio, I felt a tense connection and responsibility to a group of disparate strangers that were barely hanging on, even though I was the only one playing. Fantastic.