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[StereoVsn]

I just don’t have time for MP for the most part as my hours for gaming are erratic and come after work, family, friends, other hobbies, etc…

And the MP games I used to like were mainly MMOs and co-op games anyways, and I don’t have patience to do game scheduling anymore.

Also sometimes after 8-9 hours of work, time with wife and kids, and other things (been tinkering with AI and separately electronics projects), you just want to chill and relax.

If I fire up a game and want to paint map in EU4 the color my an HRE minor, I don’t need MP for that. Or I might play some SP RPG or mess around with retro games.

After I spend majority of my day interacting with whole bunch of people, I just want “me time”. Whether it’s gaming, books, or media.

 

[dottme]

The problem for publisher is the people who like SP game just buy the game and done.
MTX are much more efficient in MP game and can generate massive amount of money. That’s what they are all after.

Look at me, I don’t even have PlayStation plus to play online. I’m really not making them enough money buying all my games on discount for my PS4.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

Since splitscreen was mostly abandoned I could probably count the amount of online multi-player hours I've played on my two hands but with thousands of hours of single player though. I guess I've done some local co-op/splitscreen with my daughter in Borderlands but thats about it. Playing with try-hards is not fun to me.

 

[Zacfoldor]

As you get older and less social, single player games start to appeal more and more. Young gamers are often in it for the social aspect exclusively, and will stop gaming when they no longer need that. The people that game for life will eventually migrate to single player. The chart is very clear, the older you get the less you care what other people think. As you age, the magic of being super social slowly fades. it’s evolutionary, once we pass certain milestones in life, we no longer need or even want to be social.

 

[Rivdoric]

I guess the stereotype of gamers being "introverted, anti-social, and lonely" is alive and well

Accurate but you forgot the Oedipus complex.

 

[Comandr]

The only multiplayer games I can stomach are old school MMOs. Today, most players online are so toxic it's not worth it. One of my last interactions with an online game was ... FFXIV. Me as a white mage desperately chasing after paladin that pulled literally everything in the dungeon up to the first boss and then screamed at everyone when the DPS couldn't kill everything and I couldn't keep him alive. Feels like most players online these days just want to rush as much content as fast as possible, and if you aren't playing at the professional level they expect, they're going to rage about it.

Imagine getting yelled at for picking a particular character in a MOBA or hero shooter. God forbid you play the game the way you want to.

No thanks, bro.

 

[NickFire]

I like a nice healthy balance of the two and can't really say I like one better than the other. I do tend towards single player elements in some games that offer both though (team building in sports games, pve in diablo, etc.). And for Sony in particular, I am generally looking forward to their single player games. Those were pretty much why I switched back to PS after all.

 

[twilo99]

Multiplayer fans looking at the poll.

I'm starting to think that people who are strictly MP or SP are completely different subset of humans

 

[BlackTron]

I'd say I'm 50/50. Skipping out completely out on either one is highly suspicious.

 

[Jaybe]

I put single player but I’m a bit on the fence. Most of my favourite games are single player (TLOU, RDR) however I’m often pushing through to get to the end of most of them after the halfway mark. In turn, some multiplayer games have been my biggest time sinks like COD4, Gears 5, Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, and Rocket League. I love free for all modes and cooperative games. They start to feel like Groundhog Day at some point too. Back to single player, recently, Balatro is my latest 100+ hour game. I’m going to do more deck games later and see if that’s my new jam or was simply lightning in a bottle for me.

 

[BlackTron]

As you get older and less social, single player games start to appeal more and more. Young gamers are often in it for the social aspect exclusively, and will stop gaming when they no longer need that. The people that game for life will eventually migrate to single player. The chart is very clear, the older you get the less you care what other people think. As you age, the magic of being super social slowly fades. it’s evolutionary, once we pass certain milestones in life, we no longer need or even want to be social.

While I agree with some of these insights, in online gaming you can just play with randoms with no social interaction. Not everyone, including young people, need to be playing mp for the social aspect, so there's no guarantee they will turn to sp.

 

[Robb]

Multiplayer is fun as something to pass the time.


Single player is something I really get invested in and is the primary reason I love gaming.

Pretty much what I was going to say.

To add to this, when I come home from work, or am done with the myriad of other obligations/chores during a day, the last thing I want is to play something stressful and fast-paced. Give me a singleplayer game I can play at my own pace.

I could imagine that’s why singleplayer skews higher the older people get. I definitely played more multiplayer when I was younger.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

As you get older and less social, single player games start to appeal more and more. Young gamers are often in it for the social aspect exclusively, and will stop gaming when they no longer need that. The people that game for life will eventually migrate to single player. The chart is very clear, the older you get the less you care what other people think. As you age, the magic of being super social slowly fades. it’s evolutionary, once we pass certain milestones in life, we no longer need or even want to be social.

It doesn't actually prove that. It's a nice theory.

The counter to it is that old gamers grew up playing non social games so they've been conditioned to prefer those over a length of time. I suspect social games will do quit well with older gamers going forward.

You ever go to a coffee shop and see 6 - 8 retired guys sit at a table? Being social is a lifelong need.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Makes sense why younger players prefer multiplayer

- More free time
- Bigger social circles
- Less money
- Quicker reaction time

This all changes with age, did for me anyway

 

[Coconutt]

I have not been obsessed with a multi-player game since titanfall 2 honestly. Don't know if it's an age thing or of multi-player games nowadays are truly that bad. Multi-player games are mainly now used as a vehicle to sell dlc/micro transactions not for fun.

 

[jburdick7]

I’m almost 100% single player. And generally speaking I tend to stay away from multiplayer - I don’t mind co-op style games with my buddies for online but generally speaking if a game doesn’t have local multiplayer I won’t touch multiplayer on it.

Never really been into online gaming but I love split screen, couch multiplayer games. Doesn’t matter if they’re co-op or pvp, there’s something special about local multiplayer.

 

[R6Rider]

I play a mix of both.

 

[chokotoureiki]

A huge majority of my backlog are single player titles. I don't really like gaming with other ppl much, as some of them can be bossy.

 

[clarky]

Multiplayer games all the way.

Halo CE in co-op was sublime.

 

[clarky]

Makes sense why younger players prefer multiplayer

- More free time
- Bigger social circles
- Less money
- Quicker reaction time

This all changes with age, did for me anyway

Reaction times don't drop as much as you think they do. Its around 2ms per decade.

 

[moogman]

That immersion in a game only comes from single player for me. I reckon that's because I treat it as a replacement for watching a movie or TV series, so want a similar experience.

 

[cireza]

Men_in_Boxes

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Yeah, if you look at the ages in the study, this basically confirms that people on neogaf are age 80+.

 

[Mortisfacio]

I steer towards single player because I like gaming as a story telling medium. Witcher 3, BG3, Bioshock, etc. all are great examples of this. BG3 can be played multiplayer if desired, but I ended up playing single player because my multiplayer attempt was hard to coordinate times with my friends with different schedules.

D4 and WoW are about the only multiplayer games I've played the last few months and even then, D4 is largely a single player experience unless I group with some friends. WoW I play with guildmates and enjoy the community of online friends, but playing with randoms is a mixed bag of toxicity. I deal with enough bickering with workplace politics and at home I have a 14 year old daughter and her teen angst/drama. I'm too burned out to also deal with it online. I just want to relax and enjoy my time. I'm getting old...

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Single Players
Elder Scrolls
Fallout
Dishonored
Stellar Blade
Resident Evil
Ratchet and Clank
Space Marine 2

Multiplayer
World of Warcraft
Dead by Daylight
GTA Online
Counter Strike
SCP Secret Lab
Starcraft

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

I also prefer single player games but my best gaming experiences were the online modes from Splinter Cell Spies Versus Mercenaries in Pandora Tomorrow/Chaos Theory

 

[XXL]

 

[SHA]

You can't tell single player stories on multiplayer, a huge downgrade on creativity.

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

SP or death.

 

[winjer]

I also prefer SP. But it seems that younger generations are not as keen.

 

[archangelmorph]

I love how the Western games industry seems to continue to conflate live service with MP.

They’re not the same thing.

There’s a reason why e.g. MiHoYo is a multibillion dollar success story.

Also I can bet ~90%+ of successful live service games on mobile are of the single player variety.

Asia seem to deeply understand this while the West still seem stuck in the early 00’s mentality that live service means MOBA, hero shooter, Battle Royale or MMORPG.

 

[Muffdraul]

Thank god. From the mid 2000s until a few years ago it really felt like all anyone played was CoD and Halo MP. I loved MP when it was playing Atari 2600 Warlords or Activision Boxing against my best friends on the couch, or Doom II and Quake vs my co-workers on the office LAN. As soon as it meant anonymous strangers on the internet, the fun ended for me.

 

[Wildebeest]

But as Socrates said to Buddha, "I believe the children are the future."

 

[RetroGamingUK]

I also prefer SP. But it seems that younger generations are not as keen.

Not sure if it’s a generational thing or age.

I played so much online gaming in my 20s during the PS360 days (Halo 3, COD MW2/3, Gears 1/2, PGR3, Uncharted 3, Motorstorm, WipEout HD, FIFA etc)

Now I’m in my 40s I genuinely can’t be arsed. I like playing games at my own pace and my friends just play single player now.

In a way, for the most part, I feel like I just grew out of online gaming.

 

[cireza]

Main reason that I prefer single player games is because these games don't impose themselves on me. I can consume them however I see fit, pause the game, resume when I want, not having to wait for anybody or anything. They adapt much better to my available gaming time slots.

And anything multiplayer will be coach co-op. Competitive is not very fun in my opinion.

 

[Alpha Male]

I love both...

Im 48 and prefer single player but I've been playing multiplayer for MANY years - which primarily consists of thousands of hours in Halo and Battlefield.

 

[dmaul1114]

I've always been mostly a single player gamer. I like my alone "me time" and games are my favorite hobby for that.

I've enjoyed some co-op stuff online with friends over the years (have a lot of friends who live in other states) for sure. But even that, these days I'd mostly rather zone out by myself than have to chat and coordinate, wait for people to be ready to start missions after doing inventory management etc.

That said, I get while there's a lot of risk with MP games/GAAS, the profit margins for ones that succeed are a ton more than single player games that people buy and don't keep spending on (and myself and others often wait for sales, play lots of things via Gamepass, PS+ etc.).

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I love how the Western games industry seems to continue to conflate live service with MP.

They’re not the same thing.

There’s a reason why e.g. MiHoYo is a multibillion dollar success story.

Also I can bet ~90%+ of successful live service games on mobile are of the single player variety.

Asia seem to deeply understand this while the West still seem stuck in the early 00’s mentality that live service means MOBA, hero shooter, Battle Royale or MMORPG.

The vast majority of the most successful Live Service games on console and PC are MP, not single player.

 

[archangelmorph]

The vast majority of the most successful Live Service games on console and PC are MP, not single player.

Which are all Western games.

Which is exactly my point.

 

[Pidull]

Good old 2017, when I confidently declared Bethesda as my new favorite game company over Nintendo for the first time because of their single player offerings.

That sure didn't last.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

I would play multiplayer if it wasn't paywalled. IMHO the platform holders fucked up by segmenting the player base in this way. I'm not paying $100+ a year just to access the occasional multiplayer.

 

[Sub_Level]

There’s a lot of safe moist as dudes these days who only play singleplayer japanese games. Reminds me of adults who still only order chicken strips. “Yes I’ll have the Soulsborne #1 with a Sprite for the drink.” whoah don’t get too crazy now.

 

[poppabk]

Playing vs bots/ai has never made sense to me unless its a puzzle of some sort.

Playing against or with other humans feels much better.

Honestly, yeah, I changed my vote to multiplayer. That's where I have enjoyed playing games the most. Sadly I just don't have the time to commit to multiplayer anymore so I make do with mainly SP.

 

[Judge Magister]

I play games because SP.
I see MP as an extra and maybe I'll play it.

If MP is the main thing is almost guaranteed I won't care about the game.

 

[Jigsaah]

At my age, I tend to play more single player games. However, I spend more time playing multiplayer games. I prefer multiplayer games because the experience can be different every time you play. Single player games I tend to finish quickly if I focus on them and don't tend to replay them unless they are really really good.

 

[BigLee74]

Single player games without doubt, but there is always room for a little COD/Halo MP!

 

[Bernardougf]

Dont play multiplayer games since I was a teenager ... coudnt care less ...

my 11 year old son also likes more single player ... yeah he will play the eventually freefire or fifa for 10-20 minutes and get bored... but will seat in front of the tv and play Astrobot or Crash for hours.

 

[Bernardougf]

I'm starting to think that people who are strictly MP or SP are completely different subset of humans

Thank god.. dont want to be put in the same gamer bracket as the "men in boxes" types... this gaas/mp shit does rot some brains

 

[Damigos]

What is multiplayer ?

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Yeah, if you look at the ages in the study, this basically confirms that people on neogaf are age 80+.

Definitely out of touch.

Like GAF cries endlessly about Physical... and yet Sony makes way more money off of PC now than Physical.

 

[nikos]

Play both but prefer multiplayer. Even multiplayer "elements" or something like a leaderboard makes a game way more interesting for me.