I'm finding the older I get as a gamer, the less I wanna play with other people

[Arct1c0n]

Maybe it's just a sign of age at now being 35 and have been gaming since the NES days, dial up multilayer and the remake of gaming with home broadband. But maybe it just also comes down to less patience, energy, time and desire to deal with not only people's bullshit, but the fact I find it not longer enjoyable to be continually beaten by better players and no longer have the desire or time to just "get better" with more practice.

 

Rather, I am finding myself having much more enjoyable gaming COMPLETELY offline with well done, engaging, involving, immersive and sometimes epic single player games like The Last of Us, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Diablo 3, StarCraft 2 campaigns, GTA 5 and more recently, Witcher 3 and Fallout 4.

 

Games that I can go to any time I want and engage in a fun, enjoyable and satisfying experience with no negative human variables and leave/pause whenever I need or feel like. It's catererd to just me, especially games like Mass Effect and such that I can create and make my own special journey through a fun and non interrupted game world and not having to deal and keep up with dozens of 14 year old sailor cussing and tea bagging hormones filled shit bags of teammates and opponents.

 

Even coop based online gameplay hardly goes well with me as there is always "SOMEONE" who has to be asshater troller and ruin it for everyone else for whatever reason and because I moved to a new state and city, I still have few new friends who wanna play anything with me. It's all either fucking Call of Duty spasm fest or time and sanity sink League of Legends or DOTA2 which I can't stand gameplay wise. And i've retired from MMO's the past few years now, after 14 years, they are basically the same fucking thing at the core

 

The awesomeness and specialty of gaming with other people anywhere, anytime just no longer holds its "cool" and "unique" flavor like it did back in the late 90s and early 2000s

 

Or maybe it's just me.... 

 

TL;DR Playing with people after nearly 30 years of gaming, especially online is not fun anymore

[ShadowCaptain]

I have never been a big multi-player fan anyway, in fact in the last year the only games I have played with friends are GTA V doing heists with 3 friends, and BF4 playing with 2 mates in a squad  (oh and fucking around on the forest)

 

Honestly I play a game to escape, to explore a fantasy land, to experience an amazing story, to have freedom to what I want, to live experiences I cannot have in normal life

 

Multi-player is a very small % of my gaming time,

 

Basically, Id rather sit through Mass Effect, than play CS:GO

 

 

However - I am not put off because of the players, or trolling, I honestly don't care about that - I just find multi-player games boring, and they are generally repetitive

[Semper]

For the most part, i'm in agreement with you. The only games I play in an online setting anymore, are co-op with my friends/family. Some of my most favorite titles of "modern" gaming (post the online era) are single player games.

[Praesi]

Well back in CS 1.6 Days i played only shooter all day long and went on LAN Partys 2-3 a Month. But now i almost play only Coop Games with Friends or Games like Diablo Online. After 2h of Battlefield i cant hold my concentration anymore..damn im getting old

[guitarboy012001]

lol I love playing online with other people but I definitely see your point, the interwebs is full of dickwads now

[Dapolish]

It seems to really be a matter of preference. I personally LOVE playing with other people. Not for the competition, not for the "getting better"... Its playing with good people. And i feel that playing with the fun and good people in a fun and entertaining outweighs all those times that i get trolled. I simply see it as worth it. But as i said, its a preference.

[Lord_Karango17]

Funnily enough, its the other way around for me, where when I was first getting into gaming, because of a slow pc, and bad internet, I would only play single player games like skyrim, or GTA. I appreciated the expansive game worlds, and engaging story line back then, as it was the only thing I could play, however nowadays I just find it a bit boring (I'll hop onto some skyrim purely for nostalgia, but that's about it).

 

Lately though, I rarely play games by myself. I tend to only play games when my friends are on and down for some battlefront, or killing floor, etc. I find this especially apparent when the internet derps for whatever reason, as I find myself not having anything to do, while if the internet went down back in the day (as it would often do, Indian internet was not the best) I would not be phased in the slightest...

[FunkyFeatures]

I'm the opposite. I can barely play single-player games anymore, even Skyrim. It feels boring when there is noone to interact with

[Ottawa_Brewer]

29, nearly 30 here. Same boat. Early to mid 20s was all about online gaming; now I mostly play solo. A big part of the reason being that I rarely am able to set aside a designated amount of time to play games; life has a tendency to interrupt. Playing solo means I can play at my own pace.

[eLucid]

Recently I've been feeling the exact same. I'm in my mid 20's and I've played many games competitively from 2004 till about 2012. Nowadays I prefer story rich single player games instead.

 

It's simple, priorities change when you get older. That equates to less patience and not "wanting to deal with idiots/bs" because your time is much more valuable.

 

Don't feel bad, mate.

[NumLock21]

Have always played single player, don't want to deal with those online player nonsense. Gaming is way for me to relax, not to have some heated argument over something stupid.

[Alpha11]

I don't have any friends who are PC gamers, so I don't play on multiplayer at all.....

[GeekJump]

My gaming transition over the years.

 

0-13 - Single player RPG/FPS since multiplayer didn't really exist outside PC

13-20 - Mainly FPS multiplayer since online console became a thing and I could play with friends long distance

20-Present - Still play online with friends but if no one is around I rather play single play like FO4 or DA:I instead of with annoying randos in a lobby.

 

I always preferred story over online. Now with all of us being all adult like with jobs and such I'm slowly switching to single player only again.

[noc]

I relate to this as well. I'm a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series, and when Elder Scrolls Online came out, I didn't even care one bit because I saw the word "online" in the title.

 

-snip-

 

"they are basically the same fucking thing at the core

 

The awesomeness and specialty of gaming with other people anywhere, anytime just no longer holds its "cool" and "unique" flavor like it did back in the late 90s and early 2000s

 

Or maybe it's just me.... "

 

In my opinion, most of the players online these days are young kids or younger people, at least that's what I came across in my online gaming experiences. So when you get older, you don't relate to that generation anymore, and you just can't be bothered with childish BS. I find gaming to be something I do to relax and just take my mind off of the daily BS. I'm 29 by the way.

[No Nrg]

Last multiplayer game I was into was versus mode Left 4 Dead on Xbox 360. Back in the original CS 1.6 days I would spend hours a day and was a clan member.. I'm 35 now myself and could care less about multiplayer.

 

I play games to escape and get engrossed in a story these days, not rack up the most kills in a match. That does nothing for me.

 

To each his own though, not knocking people that do enjoy the occasional frag fest

[MoonSpot]

I've been the feeling that for ages.  I do however still like ME3 MP.  No one talks (or talks shit from a $5 mic), still pretty active and solid gameplay.

[Paranoid Kami]

It's the opposite for me. I'm in my late 20's at the moment and I can't stand single player games anymore. They just seem so simple and straightforward now and I would rather watch a movie if that's the case. I only ever play competitive multiplayer games and have no problems having fun even if I'm not the best player in the world. I just mute the people I don't want to talk to.

[eLucid]

It's the opposite for me. I'm in my late 20's at the moment and I can't stand single player games anymore. They just seem so simple and straightforward now and I would rather watch a movie if that's the case. I only ever play competitive multiplayer games and have no problems having fun even if I'm not the best player in the world. I just mute the people I don't want to talk to.

 

Maybe you're playing the wrong single player games? Single player shooters will do that  

[Paranoid Kami]

Maybe you're playing the wrong single player games? Single player shooters will do that

 

I've played a variety of single player games. Maybe the modern casual single player game just isn't what it used to be. I used to like single player games.

[App4that]

For me it depends on the game. I have multiplayer games I play as much for the community as the game itself. I never waste more than a few hours on any game that has a bad community.

[Totallycasual]

I kinda feel the same.

 

In the past i played WoW a lot and was focused on progression raiding, the guilds that i joined and people i played with were simply a consequence of my progression goals but now i couldn't give a damn about the gear hamster wheel, i made my own small social guild and only invite like minded people who have been through all the phases and are happy to be put out to pasture. 

 

I see my guild as a retirement village with a pulse, in many ways the people you play with can make or break a game for you personally.  

[Arct1c0n]

Glad to see i'm not the only one....

[Arct1c0n]

Any others feeling this lately?

[ManOfDisguise]

25 minutes ago, Arct1c0n said:

Any others feeling this lately?

In a way, yes. I sitll play both MP and SP but I don't play MP games competitively anymore. I've been playing The Witcher 3, Mirror's Edge, Just Cause 3 and some other SP games lately and I kind of got worse in MP FPS games. I like to think I was pretty good at the MP games that I put in several hundreds of hours into(especially CSGO with 2k hrs) but I'm just not into the whole tryhard, competitive, esports gameplay.

 

Currently waiting for:

Witcher 3 Blood and Wine DLC(this DLC is gona be amazing if it were to be taken as a game which it very well could be since it's 20 hours long it could win 2016 GOTY not even kidding)

Mirror's Edge Catalyst(wondering how good the open world is gona be, story will be crap I guarantee it)

No Man's Sky(gona try to not hype this up too much, lots of promises and we all know how it goes with that)

Deus Ex Mankind Divided(haven't really played Deus Ex but the games look pretty cool)

Dishonored 2(loved Dishonored, best atmosphere in a game!)

Mass Effect Andromeda(loved Mass Effect 2, couldn't get into 3 so dropped it..)

 

Wanted Firewatch as well but 20 euros for a 3-6 hr game with nothing to do in it and a story with lots of wasted potential and an anticlimactic ending...nah

 

 

[deVIZtation]

4 hours ago, Arct1c0n said:

Any others feeling this lately?

I mainly play SP games. I like play at my own pace. Recently my first playthrough of Fallout 4 took over 130 hours. Have no need for being competitive and playing against kids.