Online Gaming Thoughts?

[everybodystalking]

By and large, most of my life, I've been a single player person. Not uncommon seeing as how online multiplayer hasn't been all that active until a few years ago, at least on the console side.

I dabbled in it, but I've never found a game where I can truly feel like I'm a good online player. I admit I had some fun with Call of Duty 4 at times, but this was back when everyone was learning how to play, and exploring their tactics and whatnot. Nowadays, it's only home to the hardcore players, and anyone else is ruthlessly destroyed.

It makes me wonder, how many people play online that either are one of these gods of the game, or can tolerate being obliterated game after game? Is it really enjoyable to be stomped to such a degree that you barely contribute to the experience?

This has led me to wonder if there will ever be a solution to this, and if such a thing would bolster the amount of people who play online.

Would you be more prone to playing something online if the playing field was more even? How would this be implemented best?

I personally would like if online games could adapt and change with each player as a match progresses, sort of like, active handicapping. Such as, in a shooter, if one player pulls way ahead from the pack, the software could take note and lower his hit points and bullet damage, and boost everyone else. If a player is having a pathetic match, the game bolsters how much damage they can take and how much damage they dish out. On certain maps that you may not do well on, you could be given a bonus or handicap for ones you do very well on. If a new player comes in who is head and shoulders above everyone else, he would be given massive penalties, which would make the game fair for him and for the less skilled players in the match.

Thoughts?

[tsmith15]

I think that handicapping is an awful, awful, awful idea unless it's included in a completely seperate area of matchmaking. Good players should never be penalized for playing against noobs. There's a lot of reasons for being a noob, that range from inexperience to terrible dexterity, etc, but in general rankings work as a pretty good way of playing with people mostly of your skill level.

For example, in Halo 2, it did a pretty good job of matching you up against similarly capable players, exception being when weaker players were in a party with stronger players. Considering you mentioned COD4, it doesn't have such a feature, except that the ratio of good players to bad players is higher in hardcore matchmaking. I found myself getting frustrated a lot the last time I got into COD4 for a while, because I'm not super good at it (like I am at Halo 2) so it wasn't too fun.

I generally don't enjoy games where I'm not good, because I'm ultra-competitive. I curse a ton (not on mic) when I play shooters, and get really stressed out when I'm playing like shit. That said, if you go in with the attitude of 'I don't care if I suck I'm just going to have fun' you can often actually have fun, especially playing with friends or messing around in the game. For example going for as many melee kills or whatever kind of humiliating kill that game offers can be a lot of fun even if it butchers your kill-death ratio.

Bottom-line, games should implement efficient matchmaking, like Halo 2, because as much as skilled players enjoy killing noobs, its a) more fun playing and actually beating talented players (sense of accomplishment), and b) not fun for the noobs to get slaughtered.

[axtimus_prime]

I think the only multiplayer (FPS) that I actually excelled at was Killzone 2. Maybe it was because the controls were different than most shooters so the playing field was a bit even at the start. In a more encompassing sense I played Final Fantasy 11 for a few years and was pretty damn good at that. Quitting that almost put me in rehab...

[blacksymbiote]

I'm generally not a competitive person, and most people that play online multiplayer games are. This means that if you do poorly, they rub it in your face and that makes me not even want to keep playing. The only game I've played a lot of online multiplayer is Gears of War 2. And the only reason I did that was because I had several friends who I could play with in a sort of team. The match making in Gears seemed pretty decent. We never saw the really crazy good players until we started really getting better. But that took a long time. And by then, we weren't totally horrible either.

I must say though, it was pretty fun when I nearly won a game of Wingman by myself after a glitch that made my partner drop-out before the match even began. I may not have won in the end, but I'd say getting 14 kills when it's 15 to win is still pretty good... and lucky! haha :D

[dolson]

I like co-op online, always have since the first time I tried it (I believe that was Ghost Recon 2 on the original Xbox). It's more fun, in my opinion, than playing against people who are either extremely good or cheating.

I can't stand COD online anymore. I don't get enjoyment out of death after death after death. It's rare in a single-player game that I will die more than 3 or 4 times in a row before giving it up for a few hours/days/weeks. Even in Uncharted 2, there was this beasty enemy I kept dying on, and I had to take a break. It's just not fun to die over and over again.

[bobafettjm]

I love me some online gaming. I would certainly NOT want a handicapping system. I am pretty good at Call of Duty online, I am good at it because I kept getting my ass kicked and eventually got better at it.

I think what Modern Warfare 2 is doing is a good thing for those who get frustrated, they are doing death streaks where you get some bonuses if you die so many times in a row.

Honestly I think the best fix for this would be better matchmaking.

[vegan]

Online competitive gaming doesn't appeal to me. It's basically just jumping into an arena match after endless match, and I find that boring. I play games to beat them, to progress and then move on to another game, and hopefully there's a decent story element. Playing games of capture the flag in a video game, that doesn't transport me to another world; I might as well be outside playing match after match of some sport.

[az0madman]

I love online gaming when the game first gets released. Everyone is fairly new to the playing field and we're all discovering the awesomeness together. Cut to two or three months later of not playing, and either people have discovered some quick cheat that I don't know about to kill me or no one is playing anymore. In the case that it's not true, then the only people that do play are douchebags.

That's what I hate most about online gaming. The amount of fun you have directly relates to who you're playing with. It's easy to play with friends and enjoy a game, but playing with strangers is usually a hit or miss. There are some people who take the game way too seriously, and then some who have been drinking and just want to fuck around.

Though, I will say that when things go right, it's a lot of fun.

[whistler]

FPS multiplayer gets boring quite fast imo. Fun for awhile but.

Mmos the other hand they can really suck you in and then you wake up 2 years later wondering what happened ;)

Regarding handicap, I don't like it if it was forced. But there should be an option for it. You could have starting rooms where you can only play if your stats aren't that good or something. Or have 1 mode that had handicap.
Part of the fun of multiplayer is becoming better than other people, if there's a handicap there's just no progression, if you get better you get punished for it so you become the same anyway. No that's no fun. But some mode so it's easier for new players to get into a multiplayer game I'm for.

[everybodystalking]

Regarding handicap, I don't like it if it was forced

I totally understand that, and there would definitely be a toggle to turn it off and on, and if it was off, you'd get thrown into any old match, but if it's on, you get put in with people who also have it activated who match you in terms of skill.

That's what I miss about playing multiplayer with friends on Goldeneye, for example, was all of us being just as good as the one next to us, so it was never stressful. And if someone liked abusing one gun, guess what happened next round, we're not having that gun. Ah, good old days. :D