MMORPG vs Single Player

[Brizas99]

Which one do you prefer: MMORPGs or Single Player? For me personally, it depends on the games themselves and sometimes on the mood. If I'm up for a short getaway, I'll be going for Single Player.

 

[Cyan]

I prefer single player, as I'm not tied to other's schedule to play, and I don't have to deal with their anger when I don't play their ways.
I gave 3 years of my life to MMORPG, I decided I won't do it again. I had to play the game like every night, and every day, and every weekends, because we played as a group and others needed everyone else to be able to advance.
After 3 years, I had enough of "no life" and supporting others criticizing my way of playing.

Now, maybe without the "M" (for massively) could be fun, just playing a multiplayer game sometime together (like a diablo game with individual and private online sessions), but no more persistent real time world where people are too much into leveling and using bots to be the best, forgetting about fun of playing together.

that said, I'm looking for someone to play Path of Exile with. I'm sorcerer Lv80. anyone? alone is starting to be boring and hard to progress or get good drops. yes we will die a lot and lose exp, don't complain if we ever play together.

 

[Chary]

They're so very different, and have a ton of strengths and weaknesses, but I always feel daunted by the large worlds of MMORPGs. I didn't grow up with them, either, so I always feel a little lost in regards to the concepts of the genre. So, single player it is.

 

[Deleted User]

Single player. I want to indulge myself into story and gameplay in my own way.

 

[FAST6191]

Local co-op
Best of both worlds, though online stuff did eventually do a slightly bigger world and more complexity in its economy.

Sadly I can't remember the last time I saw such a thing, which might also explain the things above.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

99 times out of 100 I'll be playing some singleplayer game, I rarely touch multiplayer in general these days, just don't have the time for long multiplayer sessions anymore.

But every now and again I like to start up an MMO if I'm in the mood. It's usually Oldschool Runescape or some legacy WoW private servers, stuff I played when I was younger since most modern MMOs don't really sit with me that well (though I suppose that's just nostalgia glasses more than anything, but eh).

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm not a huge fan of MMOs, since they're almost all grindfests filled with fetch quests. Guild Wars 2 is one exception, since you can get to max level in just a couple of days, and after that you start on leveling up mastery, which mostly just requires you to explore every inch of the map to find special mastery point spots. Which I don't mind at all, as GW2 has a well designed and varied world and exploring it is fun.
I love a great single player game, but even more than that, I love a great coop game, games like Portal 2 where the coop doesn't feel tacked on, but actually feels like an integral part that makes the game better. Those are few and far between though.

I do enjoy the occasional MMORPG with friends though, mostly for the social aspect of it. I can't stand playing them solo. But it's the kind of game I play for a few weeks then take a long break from, or I get bored.

 

[FAST6191]

since most modern MMOs don't really sit with me that well (though I suppose that's just nostalgia glasses more than anything, but eh).

Are there modern MMOs? After WoW ascended to being what it was there were a few legacy hangers on and "big in Japan south Korea" types but for the most part they first went free to play and as that was about 5 years too early they mostly went as well.
There was some talk of one set to kick it old school and early demos doing well but I have not heard much (not that I normally would)

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I never actually "played" a mmorpg. I put the word in quotes, because I have tried, but I didn't actually play enough to call it playing, didn't buy one, or subscribe to any fees, or pay anything to play them. So... I dunno how most would consider it playing. I always wanted to try one, but I supposed I'm too uncertain about it. It seems like a complicated engagement to be involved in unlike single player games.

I can play those anytime I want and stop playing anytime I want and it way easier to manage. I don't have to worry about stuff happening without me there to play it, or the game "never ending" cause it wants to keep putting more stuff to do. I don't have to worry about falling behind other players or someone complaining how I play. But I still like to least have a fair experience of playing them. Talking to other people, sharing information, getting help without needing to read a online guide, or just following leaders. People make it seem like a fun time but I don't know.

Single player RPG are already deep in depth and complex enough to keep anyone busy for months. Adding that to a multiplayer game for the sake of subscription services or free to play model would probably make it triple the effort to even be more of a learning curve. A game that's easy to pick up and play and offers all the fun things that make RPG enjoyable without being boring sounds like too much of a logic I can't comprehend. Though I will say Phantasy Star online seems like fun, but only if I had someone to play it with.

 

[delilah23]

I prefer a single player RPG game where i can just roam and do whatever I desire, alone

 

[RyRyIV]

It really is an apples to oranges comparison, honestly. One is designed for experiencing a world and story on your own, while the other is designed to be almost endless in its lasting playability, and for you to group up with others to experience. I enjoy both, and wouldn't say one is "better" than the other.

Gun to my head, I suppose I'd say single player just because it's nice to play at my own schedule. But I think the sweet spot, for me, is a game like Halo that has a really solid single player experience, but an equally great multiplayer experience to go through with friends.

 

[Alexander1970]

I always played alone but since I have played "Eye of the Beholder" a good equipped and nice (CPU) Party is more what I like now.

 

[FAST6191]

It really is an apples to oranges comparison, honestly. One is designed for experiencing a world and story on your own, while the other is designed to be almost endless in its lasting playability, and for you to group up with others to experience. I enjoy both, and wouldn't say one is "better" than the other.

Gun to my head, I suppose I'd say single player just because it's nice to play at my own schedule. But I think the sweet spot, for me, is a game like Halo that has a really solid single player experience, but an equally great multiplayer experience to go through with friends.

Trouble is I solo, or maybe co-op with a machine I can pull the cable and hear a crash for, MMOs and play them like I would single player games (partially because the mmo set often gets the really good stuff as far as pickups, abilities and whatever else).
Likewise I play plenty of single player stuff to soak in the world -- even if they don't do it by default then refusal of the call is not just a thing I do but the default play experience.

 

[RyRyIV]

Trouble is I solo, or maybe co-op with a machine I can pull the cable and hear a crash for, MMOs and play them like I would single player games (partially because the mmo set often gets the really good stuff as far as pickups, abilities and whatever else).
Likewise I play plenty of single player stuff to soak in the world -- even if they don't do it by default then refusal of the call is not just a thing I do but the default play experience.

Fair enough. Do you know how common it is for people to play MMOs as solo games? I've always seen it as a co-op thing, so I'm very interested in hearing about it as a solo experience!

 

[FAST6191]

Fair enough. Do you know how common it is for people to play MMOs as solo games? I've always seen it as a co-op thing, so I'm very interested in hearing about it as a solo experience!

I would usually break it down between straight solo, local co-op or those I would be doing local co-op with (the pull the cable and hear a crash sort of thing, or at least could probably get to their house in a dead sprint to give them a slap before I idle time out) and the guilds, hastily assembled parties and whatnot many think of.

The former two. Pretty common.
In my case as mentioned you tend to get nice systems (have we ever seen a magic system in a game on par with say the Final Fantasy MMO? Time seasons, compass direction... good stuff there), things/crafting you have to work for rather than play for a few hours or hope the RNG is in your favour (I think I might have just found one of the reasons I am not such a fan of monster hunter) or quasi fetch quest in the technically it is an in game economy, a massive world with actual stuff rather than 6 main hubs and a few identikit villages.
They also represented the only real option for local co-op RPGs; back in LAN world you got the odd mouse killer diablo clone with co-op, though they are also a bit thin on the ground, but there is a reason I would still have to go back to something like Dungeon Lords to give an example more than 5 people will have heard of. Also one of the reasons I was so all in on borderlands when it dropped. Some also come with the added bonus that a 2x or 4x server if we were doing private WoW actually made for a fairly nice experience when playing that (you could almost play it as a game rather than as a straight up hobby or project).

Most will tend to gravitate towards games that do that rather than "everything is in preparation for max level raids" so if you went in for that you might have missed them similar to say a cod or counterstrike player jumping in on one of the super long range tactical affairs and realising a whole other world is out there.

Some people do also like to be among people, even if they are not dealing with them -- your NPCs having a real person behind them can make for something feeling a bit more real as it were (depending upon the timeframe this might well have been before Skyrim's expansion of Oblivion's "radiant AI" gave something more workable but still hardly that impressive.

I would however love if someone opened up some player datasets to see how many do some kind of solo activity like that (should be easy enough to spot groupings, backtrace it across clans, and figure it out).

 

[Wii_Shaker]

I prefer a single player RPG game where i can just roam and do whatever I desire, alone

This.

The worst part of a good MMO or online game in general is when the party is over and it's a ghost town. I really don't care for clan politics or sucking up to stronger players to sweep up their crumbs. There is a time and a place for online but I prefer a strong single-player experience over pretty much any environment online.

 

[Paulsar99]

Mmorpgs used to be fun for me especially during my highschool years but eventually got tired of it because most of them are just shallow, repetitive, and heavy grind experience. I don't really have all the time in the world to play anymore so I would rather choose to play single player games nowadays which I could play at my own pace.