As I’ve gotten older, I’ve struggled to keep up with multiplayer games. I don’t really want to play unless I have someone to play with, and finding someone to play with is more trouble than it’s worth. I have friends and family who game, but we always run into one of two main problems:
-1) Our schedules simply refuse to align, or
-2) We can’t agree on what to play.
I’m always on the lookout for cool indie multiplayer games, whether that means large-scale like Battlebit or small-scale like Deep Rock Galactic. Some of my friends are either always chasing that absolute latest game (i don’t), or they’re real into MMOs (I’m not), or they have very particular preferences about which aesthetics they will take a chance on. It’s a struggle, but I’m always working to figure it out.
So what do you think? How have you fit multiplayer gaming into your life?
Point 1 is always such a killer, isn’t it? I still try to get into games with friends and wife whenever possible. It’s like any activity, we just try our best to schedule it, and make a commitment to trying to find said schedule when we can.
It kind of doesn’t. Me and my brothers will play some Rocket League on a Monday night (assuming our kids are in bed) but aside from that my gaming is exclusively single-player.
Never been a big online gamer, but since having kids that’s basically become a non-starter.
it has very simple rules, but can get really crazy creative if you know your way around it.
player base is big enough so even if you are top 1% it’s still easy to find games.
there is no balance change or new character the throws you off and relearn your game plan
it’s average 7 minutes match for replay/kick off count down and queuing time.
you can totally drop it and then come back again after finish a single player game and it’s still going to be there.
it’s free to play but I did throw Psyonix about 60~100 per year to support their operation cost. Good pack/cosmetic didn’t come up often so I usually have at least 4000 credits sitting in my account.
The only multiplayer game I really play is Team Fortress 2. I learnt the mechanics over a decade ago and I understand it. My reflexes aren’t amazing, but I “get it”. I can’t be bothered to learn any new multiplayer game mechanics, so when I want to get online and play a shooter I go for TF2.
Coop games are another matter, but yeah, TF2. My desire to play it comes and goes, but it’s always there waiting for me.
I don’t really. Exception is Tape to Tape, best game this year no contest. Fast to pick up and play and super fun with friends. Also has couch coop so I just bring a controller over to a buddy.
I wrote a Matrix bot that can be used for my community to schedule gaming events. I just pick a time to play a particular game, and play with whoever shows up.
I played Watch Dogs 2 back when there were enough players to make it interesting, then Watch Dogs Legion but didn’t enjoy as much as the previous one.
Played a couple single-player video games since.
It doesn’t fit well into my life. With work, the kids and all the responsibilities that comes with it I can’t afford to sink a lot of time into it, so if I get a game I’ll focus on single-player games, or I’ll go with multiplayer games with a co-op to at least enjoy the game without it being a competition.
I hear you on the competitive games piece, but competitive games where i can play with friends gives me a similar feel. As long as you can all laugh at losing. lol
Did you ever have a time where competitive gaming was an interest or pastime for you?
Any game that requires regular playtime is a nope for me now. I switched to games that you can put off easily - games that are playable under a fixed amount of hours and that do not require dedication.
Typically right now i am playing Dark Souls on twitch - I can turn it on, play a bit (even just 30 minutes) then put it down easily.
I also switched to board games - my SO is not into video games but she is into board games so we can enjoy that together. We are playing Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion right now it’s a blast
I just prefer single player games in general, so I don’t play many multiplayer games anymore. I can play at my own pace and I don’t have to worry about things like cheaters, lag, battle passes, etc. I do play FFXIV with some friends pretty often, and I sometimes play Halo and Rocket League, but those I usually play solo.
the pace of multiplayer games is something i hardly even consider, but it’s a good point. After a time it becomes exhausting if you’re trying to keep up with a “meta”.
I’m lucky to have a friend group who all get together semi-frequently on Discord to try out any new games we’ve found and enjoy. We all have pretty similar tastes in games, sometimes a few of us will be playing something others might not enjoy and vice versa, but in those instances we’ll still hang out and chat but just play our separate games instead.
I would agree that one roadblock is that we all have less time now as adults with careers (and other responsibilities) than we did when we were students, but we do our best to make time all the same.
In terms of public multiplayer with randoms - not for me, tbh.
It doesn’t. I’m not really interested in multi-player games of any kind. Partly because I don’t have the time to git gud, and partly because my gaming interest is primarily getting lost in a narrative world.
Dota 2 and it doesn’t. I just force it in. Playing with friends is a thing of the past as everyone has a job with a different schedule, has a spouse and so on…
I mostly play fighting games, which can be alienating with a large group of friends who don’t grind them as much as you do, because then you reach a point where you win every match against them, and they’re not having fun. If you go to locals, and I do, you make fighting game friends, which is some kind of solution, though not ideal. Perhaps the 2v2 mode of Project L will help that problem, but I don’t trust Riot to make that game work without an internet connection, and online-only games are a deal-breaker for me at this point.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game a lot of my friends and even my brothers are interested in playing co-op, but I know from experience with Divinity: Original Sin and attempts to co-op long games like Factorio and Starbound that eventually adults’ schedules will not align to be able to finish the game you started. For BG3 in particular, I think I’m going to play it solo for the first time, and then I’ll try co-op with one of my brothers and maybe a separate game with another friend of mine where I play a character in their worlds; that way I can try different builds and strategies, and if our schedules diverge, they can keep going in their game with the character I was playing.
Unfortunately, most other co-op games are online-only these days, and I think we’re going to start seeing a swing back to allowing LAN and split-screen again, not the least of which is Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s going to be slow going for a while. FPS games in particular have dried up immensely, at least for the style of game I’m looking for. Competitive FPS games have become live service, second job, battle royale or extraction shooters; and the campaigns, when they happen at all, have become open world checklists. So in the meantime, my favorite co-op games have been session-based games like roguelikes. Things like Vagante, 30XX, Streets of Rogue, and such. The one exception for FPS games is that cross play, split screen, controller support, all that good stuff added to the Quake remasters has myself and a friend of mine eyeing finally playing those games co-op, because we’re not going to get anything like it for a long time.
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Point 1 is always such a killer, isn’t it? I still try to get into games with friends and wife whenever possible. It’s like any activity, we just try our best to schedule it, and make a commitment to trying to find said schedule when we can.
It kind of doesn’t. Me and my brothers will play some Rocket League on a Monday night (assuming our kids are in bed) but aside from that my gaming is exclusively single-player.
Never been a big online gamer, but since having kids that’s basically become a non-starter.
Rocket League for me as well. Because:
The only multiplayer game I really play is Team Fortress 2. I learnt the mechanics over a decade ago and I understand it. My reflexes aren’t amazing, but I “get it”. I can’t be bothered to learn any new multiplayer game mechanics, so when I want to get online and play a shooter I go for TF2.
Coop games are another matter, but yeah, TF2. My desire to play it comes and goes, but it’s always there waiting for me.
I don’t really. Exception is Tape to Tape, best game this year no contest. Fast to pick up and play and super fun with friends. Also has couch coop so I just bring a controller over to a buddy.
I wrote a Matrix bot that can be used for my community to schedule gaming events. I just pick a time to play a particular game, and play with whoever shows up.
I played Watch Dogs 2 back when there were enough players to make it interesting, then Watch Dogs Legion but didn’t enjoy as much as the previous one. Played a couple single-player video games since.
It doesn’t fit well into my life. With work, the kids and all the responsibilities that comes with it I can’t afford to sink a lot of time into it, so if I get a game I’ll focus on single-player games, or I’ll go with multiplayer games with a co-op to at least enjoy the game without it being a competition.
I hear you on the competitive games piece, but competitive games where i can play with friends gives me a similar feel. As long as you can all laugh at losing. lol
Did you ever have a time where competitive gaming was an interest or pastime for you?
I played CS a lot in the past and I was decent, but now I’d get absolutely destroyed.
I’m baffled how people can constantly find new games to play. If I find myself enjoying a multiplayer game I’ll stick with it for years to come
Any game that requires regular playtime is a nope for me now. I switched to games that you can put off easily - games that are playable under a fixed amount of hours and that do not require dedication.
Typically right now i am playing Dark Souls on twitch - I can turn it on, play a bit (even just 30 minutes) then put it down easily.
I also switched to board games - my SO is not into video games but she is into board games so we can enjoy that together. We are playing Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion right now it’s a blast
I just prefer single player games in general, so I don’t play many multiplayer games anymore. I can play at my own pace and I don’t have to worry about things like cheaters, lag, battle passes, etc. I do play FFXIV with some friends pretty often, and I sometimes play Halo and Rocket League, but those I usually play solo.
the pace of multiplayer games is something i hardly even consider, but it’s a good point. After a time it becomes exhausting if you’re trying to keep up with a “meta”.
i enjoy playing couch co-op with my partner. that’s all for me and multiplayer. 🙃
I’m lucky to have a friend group who all get together semi-frequently on Discord to try out any new games we’ve found and enjoy. We all have pretty similar tastes in games, sometimes a few of us will be playing something others might not enjoy and vice versa, but in those instances we’ll still hang out and chat but just play our separate games instead.
I would agree that one roadblock is that we all have less time now as adults with careers (and other responsibilities) than we did when we were students, but we do our best to make time all the same.
In terms of public multiplayer with randoms - not for me, tbh.
I’m so jealous, i wish i had cultivated something like that back when i had more time/friends.
It doesn’t. I’m not really interested in multi-player games of any kind. Partly because I don’t have the time to git gud, and partly because my gaming interest is primarily getting lost in a narrative world.
Dota 2 and it doesn’t. I just force it in. Playing with friends is a thing of the past as everyone has a job with a different schedule, has a spouse and so on…
I mostly play fighting games, which can be alienating with a large group of friends who don’t grind them as much as you do, because then you reach a point where you win every match against them, and they’re not having fun. If you go to locals, and I do, you make fighting game friends, which is some kind of solution, though not ideal. Perhaps the 2v2 mode of Project L will help that problem, but I don’t trust Riot to make that game work without an internet connection, and online-only games are a deal-breaker for me at this point.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game a lot of my friends and even my brothers are interested in playing co-op, but I know from experience with Divinity: Original Sin and attempts to co-op long games like Factorio and Starbound that eventually adults’ schedules will not align to be able to finish the game you started. For BG3 in particular, I think I’m going to play it solo for the first time, and then I’ll try co-op with one of my brothers and maybe a separate game with another friend of mine where I play a character in their worlds; that way I can try different builds and strategies, and if our schedules diverge, they can keep going in their game with the character I was playing.
Unfortunately, most other co-op games are online-only these days, and I think we’re going to start seeing a swing back to allowing LAN and split-screen again, not the least of which is Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s going to be slow going for a while. FPS games in particular have dried up immensely, at least for the style of game I’m looking for. Competitive FPS games have become live service, second job, battle royale or extraction shooters; and the campaigns, when they happen at all, have become open world checklists. So in the meantime, my favorite co-op games have been session-based games like roguelikes. Things like Vagante, 30XX, Streets of Rogue, and such. The one exception for FPS games is that cross play, split screen, controller support, all that good stuff added to the Quake remasters has myself and a friend of mine eyeing finally playing those games co-op, because we’re not going to get anything like it for a long time.