Walter Reid

To multiplayer, or not to Multiplayer... an FPS question

I knew multiplayer was a great thing when I first played Quake against my buddies, but it wasn’t until half-life that I knew it was essential for a FPS. Human adversaries could just think more creatively than an NPC, exploit loopholes found in the game maps and just generally “see the forest for the trees” better than the AI.

But aren’t we heading for a time of bigger and better AI? Stronger, faster enemies that can predict a human’s movement before they even consider making it. Enemies that can shoot a thimble at 500 yards. Wouldn’t this bring back the single player aspect to games?

I’m not saying it wouldn’t help, but I do think the idea of a straight deathmatch between “Human vs. Bot” is in the past. Maybe it’s the human element – the fact that you just “pOwNeD” another player in Half-life2 or Unreal. Maybe it’s the smack talk that inevitably comes from hard play or that people like to see their name above all the others on the high score list. I think it’s just the fact that you, as a player, know that when you score a hit—someone, a real person, felt a little lower and you the winner got his respect.

However, I don’t believe a human element is a needed aspect to all games. I think Oblivion proved that a single player FPS epic can still exist without multiplayer.

I heard all the whining about the fact Oblivion didn’t come with multiplayer, but I agree with the decision. I believe it mainly because I think most people can’t keep to the theme of the game… There are a lot of hours milling around before you find a quest and I think it is too tempting to break character and ruin the immerged experience. I think this is an issue in World of Warcraft.

In a FPS you are constantly being put upon – you spawn you die you spawn again – No time to think – you play until the next map loads, run to the bathroom, or get yourself a drink then continue with the push. This isn’t how an Epic quest is.

Epics, despite the movies, have a lot of downtime – and downtime means there is a lot of time to break character and ruin the experience.

I think for FPS to survive without multiplayer these days the game companies need to supply something new to the experience—they need to supply the world of conversation and interaction that is lost from a straight deathmatch. Unreal added the concept of having the AI yell out random messages during play to keep the feel of action alive for the player and I think it worked… But it sorely needs an upgrade.

The player needs something new once again for FPS to survive in the absense of multiplayer and I think it will be this combination that will once again revitalize the genre because there are only so many themes (WWII, Future, Civil War, etc.) one can go through before the players realize that it is the same playing experience over and over again.

I’ll have to think about it… I have some ideas

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