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The single player only gamer, a dying breed?

JusticeForAll

Gold Member
I have been gaming since the snes days, on consoles and pc. I loved competitive play at the time.

However, nowadays I play pretty much exclusively single player games. I have a very time consuming and at moments stressful job. I have a two year old daughter. I play games to relax. I simply don't have the time to invest to get good enough at any online game. I'm 30+ years old and I don't find it rewarding at all to be defeated time after time by some 15yo who has all the time in the world to "git gud", while being called a noob and worse.

That's simply not what I'm looking for in a game anymore. Give me a beautiful crafted single player game that I can finish in my own time. The Last of Us, The Witcher, God Of War, Uncharted,... That's my thing. Even the souls games: finished them all, in my own time.

I am financially comfortable enough to own all three consoles (ps5, series X and switch) and will basically use the PS5 as a first party single player exclusive machine, the series X as a gamepass single player machine and my switch as a Nintendo single player machine.

I do however feel like I'm a dying breed. Is that so? Or am I wrong? Are there any other people who feel the same as I do?

Ah, and I can't stand meaningless open world time sinks either. Just as bad for for me, even if they are single player games.
 
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LectureMaster

Gold Member
Hey OP I think you are pretty good. I'm on the exact same boat with you.

Never played League, never played battle royale, single player is my realm and I have 250+ platinums on PSN. I am having great fun with single player games and actually more real life friends who mainly play multiplayer or MMO now start getting into them due to my recommendation. One guy is now obsessed with Yakuza series, bought the whole series and sunk 300+ hours in.

I also got pretty burned out on formula open world games( looking at your dear Ubisoft) I found myself really into Japanese dev, they usually have wacky stuff for guilty pleasure haha.

PS: I buy COD games only for single player campaign lol.
 
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nerdface

Banned
I hope not...while I'm playing MH:R about half and half, I play it solo, before that was GnG, brutal solo...before that Hades, which was goty, maybe goat...solo.


so no, you're projecting...I haven't played an online game regularly for years
 

mansoor1980

Member
3I6.gif
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
I mostly play single player games as I usually have less time to commit to playing MP. You're definitely not alone and there's still a huge market for people like this. Will still play MP games, but they are typically the "party" type games when I have friends or family over and usually after a decent amount of drinks have gone around. Playing Nintendoland this last weekend for my buddies birthday party was a very good time, but typically, it's almost always single player games all the time.
 

JusticeForAll

Gold Member
Hey OP I think you are pretty good. I'm on the exact same boat with you.

Never played League, never played battle royal, single player is my realm and I have 250+ platinums on PSN. I am having great fun with single player games and actually more real life friends who mainly play multiplayer or MMO now start getting into them due to my recommendation. One guy is now obsessed with Yakuza series, bought the whole series and sunk 300+ hours in.
That's great to hear. But you know what? The last game that managed to keep me interested enough to put so many hours in, was The Witcher 3.

I don't think I have that many platinums. The thing is: I can't be bothered. I lose interest in games very fast, nowadays. I start something, and then just never go back to it. I have a hard time finding things I enjoy playing, even though I have an enormous choice. Gamepass is great for now though. I never owned an x-box, so now I played through the entire mainline halo series and almost finished Desperados 3. I have the new resident evil pre-ordered. Good things ahead. I just hope I don't lose interest. I love beautiful crafted single player experiences, but I just feel like there aren't that many. Maybe I'm too critical?

Sometimes it happens that I like a game I'm playing, but can't play for a while because of being too busy, and just never return to it.

And there's this remaster-craze: are they out of ideas or something? I feel like in the snes, psx and PS2 days there were literally so much more games to choose from - original titles-, while now it seems a lot less.

Maybe I should just step back from gamings while. I do realize I sound like an old man complaining.
 
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LectureMaster

Gold Member
That's great to hear. But you know what? The last game that managed to keep me interested enough to put so many hours in, was The Witcher 3.

I don't think I have that many platinums. The thing is: I can't be bothered. I lose interest in games very fast, nowadays. I start something, and then just never go back to it. I have a hard time finding things I enjoy playing, even though I have an enormous choice. Gamepass is great for now though. I never owned an x-box, so now I played through the entire mainline halo series and almost finished Desperados 3. I have the new resident evil pre-ordered. Good things ahead. I just hope I don't lose interest. I love beautiful crafted single player experiences, but I just feel like there aren't that many. Maybe I'm too critical?

Sometimes it happens that I like a game I'm playing, but can't play for a while because of being too busy, and just never return to it.
Totally understand, I think it is normal to temporarily lose interests, especially when you are getting more real life responsibility.

It happens to me too, more frequently than I was younger. Just like most people would suggest , taking a break worked for me pretty well, I found myself enjoying other entertainment like reading and TV series just fine. And I know when next Witcher or Rockstar game drops, I will be back being immersed for hundred hours, :p.
 
I don‘t think we‘re a dying breed. Last generation every other game had a multiplayer implemented, no matter how unnecessary it was (tomb raider, last of us and many, many more). Sometimes just to sell onlinepasses to battle reselling of used games. That was a dark age where as a single player gamer who prefers story-driven games, I felt really lost.
 
No way, single player is here to stay. I can't stand multiplayer tbh. There is an embarrassment of great single player material constantly coming out. We have it good.
 

MiguelItUp

Gold Member
You're not a dying breed at all man, there are plenty of people out there that enjoy their single player experiences. I know I do, I'm sure the majority do.

Maybe there are just experiences that you've been missing? I think the past year and half may seem a bit rough because of COVID. But also because all the "big" news has been revolving around a lot of multiplayer and battle royal titles because they're making ridiculous money.

But the games are definitely out there, and they definitely exist!
 

Gaelyon

Gold Member
Most (not all) gamers play more solo games as they get older, for the exact same reason : less time and less energy to play competitives, git gud, games.

So you're not a dying breed, you just get older, and that's fine.
 

Humdinger

Member
I do however feel like I'm a dying breed. Is that so? Or am I wrong?

You are not a dying breed. I've been gaming 20 years, and I've inhabited many internet gaming forums, god help me. I have seen dozens of polls taken on this subject -- "Do you prefer single player or multiplayer games?" The outcome always favors single player gaming. Every time. And by a wide margin, too.

There is no shortage of people who love single player gaming. That is mainly how Sony and Nintendo made their reputations and fortunes.

Actually, there was a time, maybe 15 years ago, when people were genuinely concerned that SP games were fading away. Every game was getting a MP component tacked on. MP gaming was flourishing. A lot of money was to be made. SP gaming was seeming kind of out of step or behind the curve. People thought SP games might be unsustainable. But in time, that proved to be false. Too many people love SP games for them to ever go away.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Nah.. but like you said, many are big open world games. But there's also strategy games galore on PC and whatnot.

If you mean "mostly linear story driven games" you aren't a DYING breed per say, but they aren't that common. But you said you like The Witcher so I'm confused.
 
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Looks at Ghost of Tsushima, Last of Us Part 2, Demon's Souls, Spider-Man, Breath of the Wild, Witcher 3, Animal Crossing, Final Fantasy VII Remake and about 1000 other super popular single-player games over the last couple years.

Nope.

The only multi-player game I play is Rocket League. And I finish a few new games every month.
 
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iHaunter

Member
Not at all. Returnal is coming out next week. Nier Replicant this Friday (Technically not a new game). At least the games I follow, there's still plenty of single-player games.
 
That was the word a couple of years ago, also all games were going to be open world because it's more "advanced".

If all they ever released were open world I would just not get anything new in gaming and move on... Like I do with the woke stuff.

My bicycle will never be woke or multiplayer.
 

Zeroing

Banned
Yes and no, the older we get or “the more grown up our live is” it seems games as an escape from stress is what we look for in a game, single player games usually fit that perfectly.

For years Gaming studios, gamers, have been shouting how single player games are dying yet they are still being produced and sell well.

Some make fun of single player games with narrative as long as the games are only on the console they hate... if they weren’t, most people wouldn’t be complaining.

so the truth is, everyone have different tastes, I am glad we are over the 2010s trend of everything being “connected” Multiplayer is a genre that is saturated.
 

Rival

Gold Member
I haven’t regularly played many multiplayer games since the days of socom on ps2. Except maybe rocket league for a bit.
 
EA former CFO claimed something simmiliar and then Respawn released Jedi Fallen Order and it sold 15 million copies and single handedly increased the stock price of EA making investors take notice.
 

Hulk_Smash

Banned
I have been gaming since the snes days, on consoles and pc. I loved competitive play at the time.

However, nowadays I play pretty much exclusively single player games. I have a very time consuming and at moments stressful job. I have a two year old daughter. I play games to relax. I simply don't have the time to invest to get good enough at any online game. I'm 30+ years old and I don't find it rewarding at all to be defeated time after time by some 15yo who has all the time in the world to "git gud", while being called a noob and worse.

That's simply not what I'm looking for in a game anymore. Give me a beautiful crafted single player game that I can finish in my own time. The Last of Us, The Witcher, God Of War, Uncharted,... That's my thing. Even the souls games: finished them all, in my own time.

I am financially comfortable enough to own all three consoles (ps5, series X and switch) and will basically use the PS5 as a first party single player exclusive machine, the series X as a gamepass single player machine and my switch as a Nintendo single player machine.

I do however feel like I'm a dying breed. Is that so? Or am I wrong? Are there any other people who feel the same as I do?

Ah, and I can't stand meaningless open world time sinks either. Just as bad for for me, even if they are single player games.
No you are not wrong. I don’t have time or willpower to get good and keep good at MP games plus my reflexes aren’t what they used to be.

I feel the same way about open world, too. That works better be mighty interesting for me to keep playing. It’s the reason why I quit Neir Automata, although I did enjoy the non world aspects.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I am not going to complain. I’ve got 30ish hours out of Monster Hunter Rise (solo), NieR Replicant comes out this week, Returnal a week from that, and then Village. I’ve got them all pre-ordered. I’m in my 30’s too and I’m enjoying myself far more than I have in a long time. I at one time played any MMO that I could find (not for too long, but I tried them out), I played DOTA/LoL and etc, and I played Battlefield/CoD. I remember the days of Halo too. I don’t really find myself wanting to play those type of games anymore. I play fighting games offline most of the time. I’ll play online to sharpen my skills, but it isn’t that often. I just ignore a lot of the content that is multiplayer centric. I came to the conclusion that if someone invaded my world in a Souls game that they probably played it for hours and hours. I have close to 150 hours in Bloodborne and I just love it a lot. I’m not concerned about the ageism of gaming. That’s wasting your time. I will go to the eSports section of MSN sometimes and none of it interests me. I think it comes down to picking what you enjoy and focusing on that. There’s a lot out there and a lot more to come.

I don’t think they’re a dying bread. David Jaffe brought something up on his stream where he talked about some people want to grow up too fast or too soon. Of course a lot of SP people are not the target audience for your Fortnite and so forth. I don’t think we have anything to worry about. A lot of the times we get what we want.
 
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kikkis

Member
I love multiplayer games, but they have to be really good and align with my tastes, and that is very rare. Decade later I still only play COD as mp since nothing else comes even close to it. But in the mean time I also play single player games as well for variety, even though they don't reach the highs of good MP game.
 
I've never played any Halo MP outside of Halo 3 MP Beta. I only buy Halo for the campaign. I never touched COD 4 multiplayer once. I bought it for the campaign, same for MW2. People like me that prefer to play exclusively alone are still here and kicking, and I will never drop my love for singleplayer adventures.
 

Silvawuff

Member
1P gamer here! I used to play MMOs and stuff (with my now ex husband) but I found myself enjoying any multiplayer content less and less until the thought of playing with others made me sick.

Other people know how to spoil a game perfectly and I just can’t be bothered, especially with my limited time to game. I think it’d be more fun to like, hang out with someone and take turns gaming in something like BotW than do any multiplayer online anything.
 
I hate online gaming. I play racing games online but outside that I don't care. Honestly I'm pretty shit at a lot of the competitive genres like FPS and fighting games.

This guy SLIMWITZZ is one of my cousin's friends. He has some legitimate issues and actually behaves this way in real life. He's a perfect example of the type of people I seem to run into on the odd occasion I do try an online game. Pretty sure he changed his GT after this video went up.

 

Bkdk

Member
It’s dying because single player games need much better AI to really push it forward. Todd Howard love using old engines but he did say the technology just isn’t ready for another elder scrolls, I think he mostly meant AI script that can really enhance t npc’s range of actions and adaptive conversations. Until those see significant improvement, it’s hard to really push single player games forward to real next gen.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
With even EA daring more SP games nowadays I feel like more devs are dipping into it again.

The issue I see is that pushing towards MP is a tempting gamble for many. But also a risky one. If you do it well and have loads of luck you can make mad $$$ with MP games... but the risk of tanking is extremely high because everyone else is trying to do the same shit as well. So I feel like most end up drying to dip into it, fail a couple of time, then make a few SP games and then try it all over again. It's never ending.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
I think number of SP gamers is about the same or higher but it's WAY overwhelmed by qty of mp players
 
I'm with you. I detest anything online or multi-player, apart from casual couch co-op with my girlfriend from time to time.

I'm not a competitive person either, so. I want to be alone and have complete immersion when I play games, and other players are extremely disturbing to me.
 

The Shepard

Member
Single player games are my bread and butter, without them I'd most likely quit gaming. I don't mind the odd multiplayer game but I don't get the same level of immersion as a good single player game, helps me switch off after work.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
In my case, gaming was about multiplayers in the SNES days when I was a kid and it didn't make sense for me how games from N64 and PSX were mostly single player, the "single player" as a concept was weird for me, I mean... if you died on SM64, won't the second player as Luigui take the chance now?

As of today, I don't think exclusively single player games are dying or so, it's just that many people spread their time more between single and multiplayer games... In my case I have a handful of multiplayer games to play with my friends, then go back to play my single player campaigns once I'm alone again.
 
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