What's the appeal of non-competitive games?

[7412]

I don't recall ever playing a game that doesn't feature PvP.

My first game was Age of Empires II back when I was 7. Then WoW, I got into arena, I played some StarCraft II, Hearthstone, Mordhau.

 

What's fun in a videogame for me is to be challenged, to see my skill increase, to become better and unlock the ability to outplay a larger number of opponents through skill alone. 

I don't see the point of paying $50 or more for a solo campaign that has no replay value. Yeah, you experience the content, you know the story. And then what? What's the point?

Games like this, I just read a summary of the plot & I watch cutscenes. I wouldn't waste money on that.

 

I'm interested in understanding other people's take on it though.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, 7412 said:

I don't recall ever playing a game that doesn't feature PvP.

My first game was Age of Empires II back when I was 7. Then WoW, I got into arena, I played some StarCraft II, Hearthstone, Mordhau.

 

What's fun in a videogame for me is to be challenged, to see my skill increase, to become better and unlock the ability to outplay a larger number of opponents through skill alone. 

I don't see the point of paying $50 or more for a solo campaign that has no replay value. Yeah, you experience the content, you know the story. And then what? What's the point?

Games like this, I just read a summary of the plot & I watch cutscenes. I wouldn't waste money on that.

 

I'm interested in understanding other people's take on it though.

Well lets take stardew valley for example. You just harvest plants and can achieve some goals if you want to. I like playing it because it's just a nice chill pace where I can seek out some adventure in the mines if I want or just spend my days fishing fish. I like to just not have to be on edge the whole time and just relax as I know nothing really bad can happen.

[Fasauceome]

I've played the dark souls 3 campaign multiple times, even offline on my roomate's PS4. while dark souls pvp is fun, it was never my favorite part. Games with challenging singleplayer campaigns reward the astute player, the player that learns and overcomes overwhelming odds. your skill are put to the test when faced with an imposing foe that you need to understand to defeat.

 

also skyrim is fun to push the limits of and break with cheeky glitches.

[Stu_Bear]

Try Red Dead Redemption 2 or Fallout 4...they are awesome single player games.  If you get lost in the game...it's like taking a vacation from all the bullsh!t in your life

[Crunchy Dragon]

Some singleplayer games have an immense amount of replay value, see: They Are Billions.

 

Sometimes it's really nice to just have a chill laid-back gaming session. This is most of the reason I play Minecraft, it's nice to do whatever I want in my survival world.

 

PvP is fun for me, but sometimes even I need a break from it.

[For Science!]

Because i dont appreciate being beaten to a pulp by others

[greenhorn]

I'll talk about AoE II since this is the game I know best from the one you mentioned. I really enjoyed the campaigns, both back then as a child and now as an adult. I have also bought the HD and DE versions (when they were on sale) and enjoyed the improvements. I tend to replay the campaigns I liked every so often and from time to time I discover something new or try out new (sometimes quite bold) strategies. I also like to play random maps against the AI. I also played the game over LAN with some friends, which is fun, but the single player mode has much to offer by itself imho.
Another game I really like to play in single player mode is Age of Mythology. For this game, the campaign is interesting and also shows you how to really play well.

I can understand your frustration with single player mode if the game's campaign is lazily designed and much too short. But then that's what reviews are for, such things rarely go unnoticed by most reviewers.

[Vishera]

13 minutes ago, 7412 said:

I don't recall ever playing a game that doesn't feature PvP.

My first game was Age of Empires II back when I was 7. Then WoW, I got into arena, I played some StarCraft II, Hearthstone, Mordhau.

 

What's fun in a videogame for me is to be challenged, to see my skill increase, to become better and unlock the ability to outplay a larger number of opponents through skill alone. 

I don't see the point of paying $50 or more for a solo campaign that has no replay value. Yeah, you experience the content, you know the story. And then what? What's the point?

Games like this, I just read a summary of the plot & I watch cutscenes. I wouldn't waste money on that.

 

I'm interested in understanding other people's take on it though.

It depends on the game...

There are deep fantastic games where your decisions will determine your faith with a lot of possibilities.

Examples: The Witcher 3,Vampire: The Masquerade,the Persona series and more.

 

There are also fun games with a lot of possibilities like Resident Evil 6 - there are so many possible stories and characters to choose from.

 

Dark Souls series requires a lot of skill and will put you on the edge - It's brutal.

 

There are many more of course.

[Rancidpunk]

Spend a few hours playing WoT when the mm seems to hate you and teams you up bottom tier with 14 window-lickers for teammates and you quickly appreciate the need for single player games too

[PopsicleHustler]

What kind of a question is this? Its like asking - Why would you read a book? Or why would you watch a movie? Or why would you go on a vocation to Italy to take a few pictures if you can use Google Maps.

 

Or better - Why would I sweat trying to learn how to play a competitive game if I can just watch E-sports stream of top players duking it out?

 

 

[boggy77]

there are good story driven games where the experience is like reading a book, or watching a tv series. and then there are great story driven games where the experience is like writing your own screenplay for that tv series which is even better. even if you don't replay it, you spend $50 for 50 hours of content. if you went to the cinema for 10 films, it would be more than $50. if you pay your netflix account for a year to see a good 50 hours series, it's more than $50. and it's not interactive.

there are also games where you need skill to beat the game. sure, most of them feature easy difficulties for those who just care about the story. but most good games feature a hard or nightmare or whatever difficulty, where you actually need to have skill, to think about tactics and strategy to be able to beat the AI. and that's as fun as trying to outsmart a real person.

[Mira Yurizaki]

 The appeal to me for non-competitive games are:

• I don't have to devote a lot of time trying to "git gud", or rather, I can enjoy the game at my pace, not at the pace of the community
• People on the internet get super salty if things don't go their way
• Depending on how well developed the game is or what its progression system is like, I'm going to be at a disadvantage the longer I don't play or the later I start from scratch
• Some games don't have matchmaking, and even then matchmaking can be floaty

 

This is why FFXIV was the first MMO to really appeal to me. There's plenty to do by yourself if you want (and even then, you can run a lot of that content with a group) and the endgame isn't PvP focused. And before you go "lol, who wants to play an MMO solo?"

 

 

[vong]

22 minutes ago, 7412 said:

I don't see the point of paying $50 or more for a solo campaign that has no replay value. Yeah, you experience the content, you know the story. And then what? What's the point?

So you'd rather pay $50 or more purely for the PvP? You increase your skills in that one game then what? Move onto the next one?

 

I gladly pay to play games with a story, even better if it's open world where I can explore and if the game has it then I can level up too. I get tired of PvP real quick. Fun the first few times then gets repetitive and boring.

 

I recently started playing Borderlands 3 and have clocked 6 days worth of playtime.

[WereCatf]

22 minutes ago, 7412 said:

And then what? What's the point?

The story. The story is the point.

[WereCatf]

12 minutes ago, For Science! said:

Because i dont appreciate being beaten to a pulp by all the cheaters

FTFY.

[wasab]

These games tend to be more fun. Witcher 3 has no pvp. It is good however. 

[Roswell]

Entertainment doesn't need to be competitive.

[kontradictions]

I play games to destress and unwind after a long day at work. I don't need something to keep me on edge and wind me up.

[lewdicrous]

Laying back after a long day and immersing myself in a nice game sounds more appealing to me, but then again, I'm not into competitive gaming; too stressful for me to enjoy it.

 

This, as with a lot of things in life, tends to fall under personal preference.

[WereCatf]

16 minutes ago, lewdicrous said:

I'm not into competitive gaming

Cooperative gaming, then? Personally, I find that cooperative gaming can be extremely nice and rewarding, given the right company and the right game.

[Gegger]

i play a rpg mmo, while there is pvp i don't do it, because it requires attention and i like to play that game while doingother stuff. the only time i go on the pvp map is when i want to collect mats from the resources in it.

[Intergalacticbits]

16 minutes ago, lewdicrous said:

This, as with a lot of things in life, tends to fall under personal preference.

Personal preference and the mood you happen to be in says it all I think.

 

I haven't played any current games in a long time and I can't wait to finally get my new system up and running.

It's going to feel like crazy town fun.

[lewdicrous]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

Cooperative gaming, then? Personally, I find that cooperative gaming can be extremely nice and rewarding, given the right company and the right game.

I can tolerate co-op (PvE), especially with the right people like you said, but every time I tried competitive gaming, it always resulted in more stress than fun, doesn't matter what game it was, so I try to stay away from it.

[Zando_]

Fun. I've been playing DOOM 2016 lately because I got it on sale, and there's not much of a multiplayer to that (I mean there is? Kinda? Don't think anyone really plays it and I haven't even launched it tho). It's a badass game and I can pretty easily choose how hard or not hard I want it to be. It's not like online PvP where I can hit my head against the wall of the skill gap and never have fun (so I stop playing and thus never improve), I can run at a reasonable difficulty until I understand game systems and everything, and then up the difficulty on my next playthrough. 

[7412]

3 hours ago, PopsicleHustler said:

Or why would you go on a vocation to Italy to take a few pictures if you can use Google Maps.

That's a genuine question I ask myself to be frank. I don't travel, I don't see the point, precisely for the reason you mentioned - even though I'm well aware you did it ironically.