Single Player only?

So when I first started playing video games on a home console it was on the Nintendo System . . . at my sister’s house.  It was my brother-in-law’s and I would play it while I was there babysitting my niece.  The first console I got to call my own was the Super Nintendo.  I had asked for a NES for Christmas but my mom said the salesperson said the SNES was the latest and greatest.  I wasn’t happy at first but I grew to love it.  Mostly because I could get all the games I liked on the NES (a trend Nintendo has a repeating their games when a new console is released) but also because it was the only system I had for a long time.

I remember when I got my first Playstation.  It was a hand me down from my brother because he had recently got a PS2 and it was backwards compatible so he didn’t need the PS any more.  At first I was skeptical but at that time I had a lot more expendable income, I was able to branch out even more and get a wide variety of games.  I also found that Playstation had more game I wanted to play then Nintendo did at that time.  I eventually bought my own PS2 and I fell in love with that system more than anything else.

When the Xbox system came out I wasn’t really interested in it at all.  That was until I saw that it had Star Wars Battlefront and I watched my brother play it.  I wasn’t interested in shooters (didn’t have a good experience with the ones that I bought (and traded in immediately) for the Playstation).  And I wasn’t interested in playing online.  I couldn’t resist and I almost bought it on Playstation but since my brother had it on Xbox I decided to go buy that system and play it on that console.

Why am I telling you all of this (since I’ve probably told you something like this before)?  Well I started to notice a trend on my game buying habits between Playstation and Xbox.  It started with the PS2 and original Xbox and has continued ever since.  But now things are changing once again.

The games that I bought for Playstation were single player games.  Occasionally there would be a multiplayer game but only local co-op and no online play.  For Xbox games I would get the multiple player online games.  If it was something I wanted to play with friends, it was something I got for the Xbox.  I really wasn’t buying single player games for the Xbox.  I viewed my PS2 as single player and my Xbox as multiplayer.  That’s how it’s always been.  But something has changed.

While I make a lot more money now than I did back when this all started, I also have a mortgage and a lot more expenses now that I didn’t have then.  Once again I find myself in a position that I have to be a little selective in the games that I buy.  I can’t afford them all . . . at least if I want to have food to eat and a roof over my head.  I’ve had to make some tough choices of what games I have to have now . . . and what games can wait until later.

After a lot of soul searching I’ve figured out a compromise with myself.  And it all comes down to the type of game and how I want to play it.  If it’s a single player game only I’m not going to buy it right away.  I’ll wait until I have more money or when it goes on sale.  That usually means that I don’t play those game right away.  Sometimes it’s several months, or maybe a year or more, before I get around to purchasing it and playing it.  That makes it hard on me as my friends usually get it right away and really want to talk about it but they don’t want to spoil it for me.  There have been times when I play with friends but I have to exit the party for a while so they can talk about it without spoiling anything for me.  When they are done discussing it they invite me back to the party and we continue playing as normal.  They only problem I have is that they think 6 months is long enough to be careful about spoilers.  After that they don’t think they have to be cautious talking about a game around me.  Unfortunately, I might not have bought it within that 6 months, let alone starting playing it.

Now, if the game is mostly multiplayer based (like Star Wars Battlefront or a Call of Duty, etc,) I’ll get those games right at launch, or as close as I can afford.  Why?  Because it’s no fun to pick up a multiplayer games 6 months or a year after launch and you find yourself playing against people who have mastered the game already or . . . well, everyone has left and moved on to the next best game out there.  If there’s a possibility that either one of those scenarios is going to happen I’m going to make every effort to buy that game and get in on the action while it’s still new and hot.

That being said, it has to be a game that I really want to play online with friends . . . and maybe strangers.  If I’m not going to enjoy playing online after a couple of weeks, it’s a game I probably won’t get.  I’m getting very picky in my old age.

So picky in fact, that I’m starting to notice that the number of multiplayer games that I buy each year is getting fewer and fewer.  I’m finding that, even playing with friends, I’m really not enjoying the online experience as much as I use to.  Now I’m more in to single player games and things I can consume on my own.  They don’t have to be linear games.  They could be open world as long as they are single player.

I find that really interesting at this time because EA just announced that they are closing Visceral Studios and reworking the single player linear story game they were working on for the Star Wars universe and they are scraping that and going to build something more fitting today’s appetite of what they think gamers want.  Apparently that’s multiplayer games with lots of microtransactions and loot boxes.  For some reason I’m just not in to the that at this point in my life.

The games that I like to watch on YouTube and Twitch and the games I like to play now are all single player, story driven games.  Give me a game that lets me experience something for myself.  Not be reminded that there’s always someone faster, smarter and with better eyes than me who’s going to kick my ass in an online match.  To me, that’s just not fun anymore.

So why mention the games consoles earlier?  Because I’m finding it very weird to only be gravitating to single player games on my Xbox One.  It feels strange to be on that system and NOT be playing with my friends.  I love playing the games (I wouldn’t be playing them if I didn’t) but I miss having things to play with my friends.  

I’m sure that will all change in November when Star Wars Battlefront comes out.  I’m sure almost everyone on my friends list will be getting it.  That’s where I first met most of them in the original Star Wars Battlefront game.  Maybe that will rekindle my love of multiplayer games and take me back to the glory games.  Until then, I guess both my Playstation and Xbox consoles are single player only.