The Solitude of Single-Player | PostMesmeric
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
- Despite the current gaming climate championing multi-player, social interactions, and interconnected lifestyles, some games revel in their role of providing singular, contained, solitary experiences. Let's see how even the humblest of single-player games are preserving the power of solitude.
Follow PostMesmeric on Twitter!
/ postmesmeric
Support PostMesmeric on Patreon!
/ postmesmeric
Tomb Raider multiplayer footage by Amy Louise Mills: • Tomb Raider: Definitiv...
Tentacle Terry's Twitch stream: / tentacletouchy_
Additional music from OCRemix.org - Ігри
I think something you could've mentioned to strengthen (what I assume to be) your point is that other players inherently introduce a meta element to the game. Other players are a reminder that what you're playing is a product that people in the real world consume alongside you, something many games would benefit from not reminding you of, especially more immersive single-player ones. The most novel uses of this kind of integration are ones that use this to build a meta-narrative link, and aim to say something about the interactions you can have with other players.
Playing games alone is more relaxing to me. I always feel judged when playing multiplayer. Its one of the reasons I enjoy Nintendo's lack of voice chat on things like mario kart or splatoon. I dont want to talk to other players, I dont want people yelling at me because im bad at the game
Strange, but I feel like we had this same problem a decade ago, only it was the other way around. We didn't have enough multiplayer or co-op games and people were stating that more multiplayer games were needed in the mainly single player gaming landscape. I find that a bit funny.
The souls games are a pretty interesting example of games that can be both solitary experiences or large community adventures.
It has a good mid-point of being your own tailored adventure but it constantly reminds you that "You are not alone".
The experience itself is solitary and immersive but also has a large community behind it that mostly kicks in after the solitary experience, so it's not really a mid-point, more just a shift.
@@DesignFrameCaseStudies True.
Same whith monster hunter
I've recently taken to disabling platform overlays on my PC and disabling all notifications on my PS4. This is a huge step towards removing all of the social meta elements from my gaming. I don't see achievement/trophy popups or people coming online or reminders that one of my shared pictures has new comments or any of that. It really feels like gaming in the pre-2006 days. I've even taken it a step further on PC by using Playnite to bring my entire library together under one roof without any mention of forums, discussions, friends list, or achievements.
I know it isn't for everyone -- there are probably a lot of people who enjoy the social aspects of gaming -- but as a 90s kid it really hits a specific kind of gaming environment that makes me enjoy the process of gaming more.
I think my favorite single player experience was The Room series of puzzle adventure games. They heavily focused on solitary atmosphere, even the characters you “interact” with only send you letters, never showing their faces. I don’t think I’d ever stream them or even play with someone else watching. That “aha” moment when you figure out a puzzle entirely your own is extremely satisfying
Great video man. I felt like I was reading an essay and watching at the same time. The internet needs more of this kind of stuff.
I consider this to be an age thing. Until i was 25-26 y.o. i used to play MP literally everyday and became pretty good at it, especially FPS! But then something clicked, and now at 36 y.o. i enjoy nothing more than a dark room with super immersive, story rich, SP experience.
I'm 32 and flip back and forth. For a few years in my late twenties I was completing tons of single player games since the immersion and story was what I wanted back then. Over the last 2-3 years I've gravitated towards Rocket League and Counter Strike and rarely pick up a single player game. I'm sure in the next year or so I'll go back to craving that well crafted experience of single player games and then I'll want the chaotic, unexpected design of playing against live people again.
I really agree with the want and desire to just sit down by yourself and play a game and have an intimate experience. It is why I love the JRPG genre. I hate being put online for others to see and judge. Hell it is even why i quit playing Animal Crossing it felt like I was competing with my friends and everyone on social media to have the best island..
Currently replaying BotW in anticipation for a BotW 2 announcement and I am loving it.
The introduction of multiplayer elements into single player, even optional, can often have subtle, negative effects on the single player experience. Take the Souls games for example. The unique, deliberately unbalanced multiplayer from DeS was slowly turned into a 'balanced" PvP experience in the later games, thanks to constant calls for patching and balancing weapons as the focus moved from invaders being an almost unbreakable obstacle to your experience, adding to the horror and unpredictability of the world, to something competitive and actively sort out by the player. Which means that any stand out spell, weapon or ability or tactic that can be used to make the single player more rewarding or interesting, is often squashed as it makes the multiplayer less 'balanced" and "fair", so your left playing a game where almost all weapons and abilities feel the same, or at least there's not enough variation to make it rewarding to experiment in the world the way the single player wants you to. So even someone having a completely single player experience, with the connection turned off, is negatively effected by the multiplayer element that has limited their single player options.
I agree. Dark Souls 1 was similar when it originally came out. You couldn’t even be in a party on xbox and play the game online at the same time. Invaders were meant to be punishing to the player for summoning, and summoning was meant to be an anonymous experience that could only happen if you were in the right place at the right time and got lucky. But as the popularity for the game grew, so did the multiplayer and eventually the franchise shifted to being a more accessible and mainstream experience. Now, i dont think this change was completely bad. Ive had countless of hours of fun with souls multiplayer, but i do miss aspects of the olden days.
Dude I 100% hear you on this. I played Journey for the 1st time a few weeks ago, and I fully expected it to be a lonely experience and I was excited for it. But sure enough, the online feature kicked in and I had partners show up along the way which is cool, but not the experience I thought the game would be.
Great video man, keep 'em up :)
Hey Daryl (love your videos) I think Journey is one of those rare games where it can be played solo but a lot of the meta narrative is lost when doing so. It's literally a journey that everyone takes, the same exact way without deviation, but we don't have to take that journey alone. We can be guided by those more experienced than us or we can bumble along with another person, slowly making progress and discovering things as a team. To me, Journey is one of those games that is going to lose a lot of meaning when the servers get shut down.
Hey Bryan! I remember you man, hope you’re doing well. You know when you put it like that, maybe I was a little too closed minded about it. I think if I had known ahead of time that was going to happen I would have been more keen on it. Maybe I’ll revisit it again later haha
I hardly do multiplayer, at all. While it's mostly b/c I don't have that many friends I could go online with, but I'm always performing subpar in online matches like Overwatch, Counter-Strike, etc.
Plus, I enjoy single-player games like reading a book by myself.
100% behind you on the desire for more solitary player experiences in the AAA space. part of me is a little grateful for the departure because it's forcing me to explore more indie titles I've been ignoring up till now. my guess (or at least my hope) is that we'll reach an equilibrium eventually, and AAA will start to carve out more space for the true single player experience again.
I really enjoyed Overwatch as a multiplayer game until the made dramatic changes to the way the game functioned at it's core. Without a go-to multiplayer game, I took a break and played Metro Exodus. The experience was something I didn't know I missed. Everything was curated in a way. I was free to play how I wanted but moments were crafted for the single player in a way multiplayer can't.
One thing I miss from multiplayer is the lack of load/saves. Being able to load a save hurts immersion. Multiplayer games are a struggle against a resisting opponent/opponents and single player needs to work extremely hard to replicate that.
I know you explicitly stated that you were talking about popular games... but like, the solution is to realize big corporations will almost always ruin things with greed over time. We seem to have reached that point with the game industry. The solution is to go indie, or old school. Its like being disappointed with music when you only listen to the radio. The shit that is in your face everywhere is usually shit.
I'm still wondering to this day why the Switch needs to broadcast what you're playing for other people to see. I can only assume it's for advertising purposes. If you see all of your friends playing the latest Animal Crossing or wahtever around the same time, you might be tempted to get it yourself. I mean sure they other consoles (and Steam) do that sort of thing too, but Nintendo has always been so many steps behind on things like voice chat that the inclusion seems confusing to me.
And BOTW honestly felt to me like it was supposed to be an MMO, or at the very least could easily be one.
Amazing job as always on the video. I really can't understand why there has to be so many multiplayer games out there.
I think its also the way people look at single player games now,
Is no longer about engaging with the games themes and narrative, once the game is over people run to the internet to see what others think about the game and also love/hated depending on what exacly the community says, hell an entire game or frenchise can be destroyed by the opinions of a few famouse youtubers, this hive mind mentality that the internet is dealing with is what ruin many single player games
There is no individuality in single player anymore, not even in multiplayer you don't customize a class to your choosing you choose what ever preset character is available and get scream at for not playing like the character is suppose to be used
Is all a Hive mentality that we all have participated on in a subconscious level
I really don't understand what you're trying to say here about novel online systems, can you elaborate further? I think I can deduce your point, but it's a very meandering way to get to it. This felt a little long winded and lacking in focus in all honesty
Online mechanics in single player games ruin the solitude and engagement of set games cause is not about what you think or are engaging with is what the community thinks, you are no longer making choices on your own but what the community is about
Its a hive mind of the internet, but i guess thats to complicated for you to understand
I didn't feel this one, unfortunately.
Not the content, but rather your delivery.
From the outsiders perspective, you sounded very defensive. "I like multiplayer games but..", "I've used online features but..". This severely weakens your point. Moreover, you are trying to make a more personal video, but your constant points about the "industry" deviates a lot from it (and sounding very complaining like attitude).
Your insights and experience is why people would want to see your video, so please don't say "I don't want to sound like good old days". We ACTUALLY want to hear about your solitary experiences. Which were the games (beside BOTW), where the games felt personal and "lonely" to you.
Of course I'm no UA-camr or writer, so I don't know the difficulty of making such a video, but I've been a long time viewer and I really appreciate your content. You've made some excellent stuff.
So this is just my honest feedback to you on this video.