Is the golden age of multiplayer beginning?

Are we entering multiplayers golden age?

  • Hell yes.

    Votes: 5 4.9%

  • No, the golden age of multiplayer was...(explain below)

    Votes: 97 95.1%
  • Total voters
    102
Men_in_Boxes

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I know there aren't a ton of multiplayer gamers on NeoGAF, but there's a real story developing here.

Multiplayer seems to be entering a golden age. I've never seen so many compelling multiplayer games getting ready to release in such a short time frame. Look at this beautiful bounty...
















tumblr_p49i5tpaGh1u7c3dro1_400.gifv


Even if you aren't into multiplayer (but especially if you are), you see this right? We're stepping foot into a new era.
 
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Loomy said:
We've been in the golden age for years now. And it's been a lot of fun.
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2016 - 2020 was phenomenal, for sure.

This feels different though. Back then, big releases mostly came out of left field. Tons of games during that time period snuck up on us.

This feels like an invasion of awesome.
 
Codiox said:
Gamechat LOL
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It really should have been Bloodborne 2, I mean Duskblood 1 directed by Miyazaki.

There isn't a single game on that list I'm looking forward to more than that, by a long shot.

Nightreign is obviously the b tier game vs Duskblood. Look at the director. One is by the Quentin Tarantino of gaming and the other one is by his underling.

People are mad over it, but look, I don't even think this topic would have been made if Duskblood 1 wasn't announced, do you? I mean, who gives a shit about these other games, this is really a duskblood thread.
 
It has always evolved, and continues to which is expected. But I don't know about this being the "golden age". I'm glad people can be excited and feel that way, but looking at those games in the OP, I don't feel that way at all about any of them. Just a lot of been there done that.

Marathon is still a huge question mark, but we'll see how it all pans out.
 
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Obviously it depends how old you are.

My personal golden era was on the Amiga with games like Summer Games and Sensible Soccer.
 
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Perfect Dark on the N64 with my bro as a kid, and later in college PC LAN parties and console couch parties. Sharing snacks and drinks, passing the weed, taunting each other, laughs...

That was the golden era. I've played from my house a few times chatting via discord but it's not the same.
 
I liked chaotic 64 player servers you could join and play for 5 minutes or 3 hours. No levels, no matchmaking, no balance. That was peak. Games like Enemy Territory, Battlefield 2, Tremulous, AvP 2, Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty 2.
 
The only golden age part of today with multiplayer are so many games going cross-platform with online, so people can be on whatever platform they want, and not have to buy the game twice (I did that enough in the 360/PS3 gen).

Otherwise, I'm not really sure how good some of these are gonna end up. I have pretty much no faith in Bungie anymore, and Marathon has had some troubled development. Hoping Monaco 2 and Wildgate are something though.
 
TintoConCasera said:
Perfect Dark on the N64 with my bro as a kid, and later in college PC LAN parties and console couch parties. Sharing snacks and drinks, passing the weed, taunting each other, laughs...

That was the golden era. I've played from my house a few times chatting via discord but it's not the same.
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Playing online from the house feels like a substitute to the couch or LAN experience. We all get older and move on and away with other stuff. Online with a mic or discord can still be fun but I can easily flip a coin and choose a single player game and yet back then with others around, no way that was happening. Not participating was off the menu.
 
MiguelItUp said:
It has always evolved, and continues to which is expected. But I don't know about this being the "golden age". I'm glad people can be excited and feel that way, but looking at those games in the OP, I don't feel that way at all about any of them. Just a lot of been there done that.

Marathon is still a huge question mark, but we'll see how it all pans out.
Click to expand...
It's crazy hearing this perspective because I've preferred multiplayer my whole life.

Marathon + ARC Raiders are Extraction Shooters. That's a new genre with almost no presence on console.

Monaco 2 looks like... ... ?... ...Monaco 1(?) and maybe Payday if Payday was isometric and not combat focused?

Rogue Core is a 4 player FPS cooperative Roguelite. I guess you could compare it to Risk of Rain 2 but, imo, that's a pretty big stretch. This pace is way slower and the building + destruction make it considerably different.

Wildgate only really resembles Guns of Icarus (not popular at all) and Sea of Thieves. The combat has way more depth than Sea of Thieves and the class system is a pretty strong differentiator.

I can't understand the "been there, done that" mentality whasoever. This crop isn't Call of Duty and FIFA by a long shot. This crop is a tornado of fresh air.

Zacfoldor said:
It really should have been Bloodborne 2, I mean Duskblood 1 directed by Miyazaki.

There isn't a single game on that list I'm looking forward to more than that, by a long shot.
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I didn't add Duskbloods initially because we really don't even know what genre it is, is 30fps, and Japan has a pretty terrible track record for multiplayer. I added it because hope wins in the end.

I added the Switch 2 trailer because it seems pretty obvious Nintendo is going harder into multiplayer this generation. I'm expecting some massive GAAS games from them soon.
 
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CoD/Halo lobbies when every console came with a mic/headset.
Golden age XBL in general.


Before private chat.
 
What's your next thread? Nintendo invented online gaming? Lol

I swear this Ninty die hards are crazy...they got paid party chat we got since forever for free then started acting like its some sort of revolution because Nintendo implemented it on its new toy 20 years later!

Lol
 
Did you miss the 7th, 8th and 9th gen of video games in a row after a 20 years coma or something?

Hell, that's when it got good, but we had multiplayer before that too, the hell are you talking about?
 
My golden age was OG Xbox Live

(Although it began on PC via 56k modem)

Chu Chu Rocket on Dreamcast was my first console online game

But, it's over now and I am a solo gamer and have been for a very long time

Edit: Strictly speaking online multiplayer
 
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no way. it was in World of Warcraft Vanilla when i was leveling my horde warlock in Ashenvale (level 20 ish zone) when some high level ?? alliance came and ganked me and camped my body and continued to hunt me down. I called out in the general chat for help and a group of Horde came and destroyed the gankers. One of many moments before flying mounts destroyed the grounded nature of the game that truly was peak.
 
The Golden Age of Multiplayer began in 1983 with MULE on the Atari 800 and continues today.

I'm sure the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast fans are going to conquer this thread, and I for one welcome our new overlords.
 
I have no ambition to get into multiplayer games anymore because cheating is rampant and you pay a console tax on consoles.

Today's MP gaming feels like a dark age to me, the golden age was the PS360 era and on PC around 2012 - 2020.
 
No.... No and no....

I guess for kids and single 20 somethings it always is.

For me it was the 1980s for local multiplayer with friends playing the NES (the 8bit og )
For online multiplayer it was the mid-late 90s -> 2008 with the pc exclusive scene 3dfx cards, Doom , quake 1-3, Unreal Tournament, Tribes, Battelefiled 1942, BF veitnam, Battlefield2, SW Battlefront 1&2., Half-life 2dm, Team Fortress, RTCW, ... etc...
Good Mmos- Ultima Online, Everquest, Star Wars Galaxy, Guild wars, Lotro, Conan HA, vanguard , (ok wow too, I hate wow though seen too many become mindless addicts).
Console mp - Resistance2, Killzone2, motorstorm, lbp, Halo3 (I didn't own an xbox till last year so I am only including this and ) Gears, Warhawk, BF Bad Company, Cod2, Cod4, WAW, MW2, rainbow six, graw, etc..

To me that was the golden age for that, we got more single player games too. It was just a better time.

Its crazy but these modern multiplayer games look like they are made by committee for children or young Gen Z/Alphas. All the bright colors and mobile looking graphics...nah..
Back in the day things were gritty, and didn't look so blah, or lame.
 
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The golden age was when you and some buddies met in real life to play golden eye or Mario kart. When people played together in person was the true golden age, not this costume chasing, emote dancing, microtransacting, hellscape.
 
Nah the market is absolutely saturated with micro-transaction autistic live service predatory slop thesedays, It's unbearable. Nothing will ever come close to sitting with a group IRL, a couple of pizzas and a few cases of beer with Goldeneye/Perfect Dark. That, or Unreal Tournament (OG 1999) was when online MP peaked. For me at least.
 
I get you are like the MP guy, and that's your persona and so on.

but like...

Nothing in your OP cries "golden age of Multiplayer", nor are any of them doing anything that could be considered new or stepping into a new era. Besides MK:W, most of those titles will be ghostlands after a few months.

Maybe Marathon ends up being great, but even then this hardly signifies anything.

I dunno... Sometimes you don't have to play the character, you know what I mean.
 
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Men_in_Boxes said:
It's crazy hearing this perspective because I've preferred multiplayer my whole life.

Marathon + ARC Raiders are Extraction Shooters. That's a new genre with almost no presence on console.

Monaco 2 looks like... ... ?... ...Monaco 1(?) and maybe Payday if Payday was isometric and not combat focused?

Rogue Core is a 4 player FPS cooperative Roguelite. I guess you could compare it to Risk of Rain 2 but, imo, that's a pretty big stretch. This pace is way slower and the building + destruction make it considerably different.

Wildgate only really resembles Guns of Icarus (not popular at all) and Sea of Thieves. The combat has way more depth than Sea of Thieves and the class system is a pretty strong differentiator.

I can't understand the "been there, done that" mentality whasoever. This crop isn't Call of Duty and FIFA by a long shot. This crop is a tornado of fresh air.
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Growing up and experiencing online multiplayer for the first time was huge, even though it was dial-up, lol. It paved the road for insane experiences, especially when, as a kid, you had never seen such a thing before and then before you know it you're playing online with strangers. When you realized they were on the other side of the world it was even more mind blowing.

I can't speak on behalf of everyone, but for me, coming from that era and all the experiences that came with, it's really hard to be woo'd by "new multiplayer experiences." I think the most monumental ones revolve around new game types or mechanics we've never really seen before. Depending on what those are really affects their staying power, how hard they land, etc. But after all the games and mods I've played over the decades, it really feels hard to be woo'd.

It could just be a "problem" of my own. I DO still really enjoy and love multiplayer. But with all the experiences I've had, something REALLY has to click, and for me none of those intrigue me at all. I AM curious about Marathon, but I'm also kind of tired of the whole extraction shooter core gameplay loop. Depending on how they approach it really affects my interest.
 
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