The Online Gaming Fad, How do you like your pc & video games? Options

[bwdemon]

I've got a problem: too many games are going to online gameplay instead of offline gameplay. I can't stand it. Give me a game like Morrowind that I can play for YEARS and never be bored. Give me a game where I don't have to deal with host/player drops and the ever-present annoying players. In short, give me games where I don't need to rely on a pack of jackasses scattered across the nation in order to just get through, let alone enjoy, a single game.

I don't want to pay to play online. I don't want to play online at all. If it was completely free, I'd still never do it. I want my game resources devoted wholly to making a game that I can enjoy alone, not one that I am forced to enjoy with others. Am I the last bastion of offline gaming or are there others out there who share my view?

[nezumi]

Hey, I hear you : ) I far, far prefer a good offline game than any online one. Heck, I even play shadowrun all by myself! I play all of the roles and the GM.

I miss my friends... : (

[Digital Heroin]

I still to this day prefer Fallout and Fallout 2 to any of the new breed of MM games...

[TinkerGnome]

I was at Sams Club the other day and found the "Command and Conquer Collection" boxed set with Red Alert 2 and the expansion (and Tiberian Sun, TS: Firestorm, and Renegade). I lost my disc a long time ago, so I picked it up... now if I can just get the blasted thing to run.

[Digital Heroin]

Fallout2 ain't running either... says I need at least 20 megs of drive space free... *eues his free 3gigs* Yeah... ok...

[Kagetenshi]

Multiplayer gaming should stay on the LANs where it belongs.

~J

[nezumi]

Yeah, I had the same problem with Fallout 2... and it happened between loads! So then I uninstalled it, tried to reinstall it and found the CD was scratched up beyond all recovery *sigh*

Need to get another $10 copy from wal-mart, I guess...

[Lindt]

[easytohate]

A good game is a good game.

Just as annoying to me is the design of PC games that can be easily formatted to run on console. Companies are trying to save money and broaden consumer interest by creating product that sides with the lowest common denominator. It seems everything now days is internet multiplay based or a strait to console bomb.

Making strait to console video games is like making strait to video movies. Sometimes you get a gem, but most of it is just bullderk.

[locomotiveman]

DH, I can install and uninstall my copy of Fallout 2 to see if it is still in useable condition if you would like.

EDIT
and then send it to you I mean.

[Adam]

[Crusher Bob]

Yep, got burned on Lionheart, Homeworld 2, and UFO: Aftermath. I am most unhappy.

The real power of online games is there is almost always someone willing to play. Want to be a wizard at 3AM? and your friends won't come over for the table-top game? Go online.
The table-top simuilators (vampire, NWN, etc) have not done very well since, it still provides 'less' of an experience than table top or IM based gaming. But you can play tabletop 24/7 like some MMORPG addicts do...

[moosegod]

Homeworld 2 wasn't good? Tell me more, please, I beg you!

[Dim Sum]

[Crusher Bob]

on Homeworld 2:
So-so mission scripting/AI (mostly amounting to: outnumber the player by 6 to 1 and full frontal assault) Plenty of people have quit the game in disgust after the worst mission, in which the baddies outnumber your frigates (small disposable, ships) with their battle cruisers (of which you get 2, in that mission I had to take down around 20 BCs plus all the supporting ships. Hint: use really cheap anti-AI tactics)
So-so voice acting, soundtrack
So-so story
too much of:
Game: 'The Thing! The thing! The thing!"
Player: Erm, what's the thing? Why has it taken over my ship?
Would make no sense at all if you have not played the first game

Short version: So-so overall, main problem is it lacks majesty (something abundant in the first game) This is what happens when you have contract disputes with the development team for most of the ‘development time’.

On Aftermath:
An overall unfinished feel, so-so AI, no alien sound, very irritating soldier voices, some bad design/interface decisions (spotting vs stealth, weapon/armor balance, alien abilities)
Bad mission design:
Mission entry soldiers in tight group
Start time + .1 seconds. 5-7 incoming alien rockets (think blaster bombs) any two of which will wipe out your entire squad. Would you like to load the game and try for a different random placement of enemies?
The 'spiritual successor to Xcom' is just a marketing gimmick.

Stick with the mods of JA2 or wait for the upcoming Silent Storm.

Heh, I noticed that no one has asked me to say what sucked about Lionheart :silly:

[Jr. Woodchuck]

Many game developers have moved away from the PC market because of the blatant pirating of the software. While all markets, including all the consoles save Gamecube experience pirating, PC's is by far the worst.

Developers have spent a massive amount of money combating this problem. New and different types of pirate prevention just don't work. Thats why some companies out there stop the practice of serials. The only games that aren't pirated are the ones that are massively Online, where the true content is online and you must connect to the server to play. These Massively Online RPG's are also the biggest money cow, currently on the market.

When you have a game like Everquest that has been out for now 4+ years, and boasts a subscription base of nearly half a million people thats alot of money. 500,000 gamers are paying 10+ dollars a month to play online, on top of the initial investment of purchasing the game. Not to mention they charge for the expansion content of which there is now 6 separate expansions.

It doesn't take a wiz to realize this is a cash cow. Now sure not all MMORPG's are this successful, but the fact that one has achieved this success drives the rest of the market to follow. Incredibly successful offline games like The Sims, haven't made near the amount of cash.

[Diesel]

I think all MMORPGs should burn in hell. I've been on both sides, addicted and watching my grades/friends/everything go away because I had to be a GM swordsman (DAMN YOU UO!) and also watch a few friends dissappear into the mists of Telnet and or FF11. Damn dirty things.

[Lady Anaka]

The other reason so many games are console only is that it's far easier on the QA side. Instead of thousands of variant systems with all kinds of software and drivers installed, and having to predict and account for such things, you have one hardware and software config that never, ever changes. And, even better, it's designed specifically for games (as opposed to Joe Q. Public who doesn't understand why it won't run on his 486 Win 3.1 box that does his word processing just fine). It's a billion times easier to manage, both on the design and the customer service end of things.

[Kage no Tora]

Personally, I just like games.

I've spent many hours playing most of the MMORPG's out there. From EQ, to AC, to DAoC, to SWG, to tons of other little betas. I believe I have seen the best and the worst the Massive Online Game market has to offer. And they are fun.

But so are single player PC games.

I still have a Fallout 2 save game where I made the mistake of becoming a slaver and couldn't advance, so I started killing things.. until the only thing left on the map (other than the final base, which I couldn't get too) were random encounter spawns, I'd killed every other static npc. (IE a lot of hours) NWN is/was tons of fun, I still play it now and then when I get an itch to try a certain class combo. Single Player/LAN games are a blast, I own many of them.

But Console games are great too.

Games like GTA 3, and Vice city I feel are much better on a console than your pc. (Nothing like lounging on your couch, with your feet propped up causing random acts of chaos and violence) MarioKart would frankly just be silly and suck on a pc, but sitting around a buddies game cube with 4 of us going head to head is a total blast. Of course there are also the same group of friends I've spent many hours at LAN parties fraging the hell out of each other with UT, or Quake, or AvP, or trying to conquer each other in a 3 day long game of Sid Meier's Alpha Centaury.(sp) But then again these are the same guys I've grouped with and raided Dragons in EQ, or fought Baelzahron in Asheron's Call and Stole the Relics out from under Midgard's nose with in DAoC. I just like gaming with my friends.

I guess I just like games. To say, MMORPG's should burn in hell, or that console games suck, or single player games down have enough versitilty is pigeon holing and sterotyping bad. Every platform/medium has its place as a good game.. and all of them have their fair share of stinkers too. They all have something for everyone.

Me. I just like to play games.