The Multiplayer syndrome

By Valkyr October 29, 2010 1 Comments

The unpolished tacked on crap

 
You know what, I'm fucking tired of developers feeling the need to add some unpolished boring multiplayer mode to every single game that is released these days, wasting their limited budget on making a mode that will only last a few weeks or even days!, just to get an extra 0.5 Metacritic score, if you are not completely sure you have the material and the manpower to deliver a compelling and lasting multiplayer experience then just get over it, focus on your 8 hour game and don't be ashamed of it. 
 

AND The milking

The other side of the coin of this industry syndrome is releasing a lot of sequels of popular multiplayer games, we were happy with Modern Warfare 1 for example, then we appreciated the "improvements" of MW2, do we need another modern fps iteration of the Call of Duty franchise?. The other case is the Halo franchise, Halo 3, Halo ODST firefight and Halo Reach, can you say that Reach will be the Halo definitive multiplayer experience of this generation?, please Microsoft don't be stupid and wait till you release your next console it happens.  
 
Now let's talk about things done the right way, take note Bobby Kotick.

The commitment

A good example of support is what Zipper has been doing with MAG, adding a bunch of features and tweaking the game till the point that the experience is very different and improved from the original (I hope they don't come up tomorrow with the announcement of MAG 2.. ha!, that would be funny), trying to keep it fresh so this multiplayer-only game does not suffer a quick death. Leaving the Zipper example aside, the unquestionable kings are Valve and Blizzard, Valve with the awesome additions to games like Team Fortress and the Source engine long cycle that keeps defining how a game engine should be made and evolve, Blizzard with Stacraft 1 and Diablo 2 patches that kept coming out even after 10 years, yeah, unbelievable. 
 

The Culture founders

You can say when a game was a masterpiece if even after 5 or 10 years people keep playing it, remembering the time when it was released, arranging some obscure LAN parties just to play and talk about the game, telling stories about epic matches and moments with them. That is the difference between Starcraft and Counter Strike and the horrible future I predict to the COD franchise, we really appreciate NOW the "improvements" of the anual iterations but the magical and the cultural iconic games are only the ones that one day that you thought was going to be just another day, you visit your favorite gaming site and find out that the sequel was announced, yes!, after so many years!, you can't even imagine how the graphics would be like, your head start going bananas, the hardware is now 1000 faster, you can even see yourself as a kid playing the first iteration of that franchise and now as a grown up  you are going to buy that game day one and you will feel younger again.
 

The naive hope

I really hope Reach, Bad Company 2, Killzone 3 and MAG (this applies to Starcraft 2 and Rock Band 3 too if you want) stay as this generation last iteration of every style of  multiplayer fps game, we don't need any more sequels, we need commitment and support,  cheap or even free map packs, new game modes and classes to keep it fresh. Devs have to build themselves a reputation so we can trust them and then finally announce a sequel to make us go nuts, they have to learn that Rome wasn't built in a day, just look at Valve, don't rush things, take your time, make us feel that our $60 dollar investment was worth it.

 
 
See you around

1 Comments