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Single player gaming doomed, say execs [UPDATE 1]
At the Churchill Club in California yesterday, Peter Moore wasn't the only one gazing into his crystal ball. Raph Koster of Sony Online Entertainment and Lars Butler, formerly of EA, were cheerfully predicting the downfall of single-player gaming, with Koster going so far as to say that the last 21 years of gaming history are an aberration.Drawing from the fundamental principle that "people play games together", Koster and Butler predict a huge shift in the games industry as the impact of online gaming starts to really hit home. Butler's claim that "linear entertainment in single-player is to media what masturbation is to sex" is eerily similar to David Jaffe's comparison between games and porn. Experiences are enriched by the presence of other people, and perhaps the depth of multiplayer gaming and the online social interaction embodied in these games can provide the emotional content that Jaffe finds so lacking.[Via Raph's Weblog][Update: Raph has written a much more detailed explanation behind his statement.]
Single player games get competitive again
Many gamers' favourite moments include racking up high scores at the local arcade and boasting about them to friends--that's about as competitive as single-player games could get. Multiplayer games, with their inherent replayability, are dominating the sales charts; has the humble high score died a death?No, says this article from competitive gaming site MLG Pro. Instead, single player games have moved into a new era of competitiveness via the likes of Xbox Live. With achievements and gamerscores that are influenced by your single-player prowess as much as your multiplayer muscle, we have incentives to do well at single player games again; we have our friends' scores to beat, and the world records to challenge.It's an interesting observation. Given the number of fiercely competitive FPS gamers who have been spending more time in the Live Arcade, racking up score after score, it seems to be spot-on, too. The next step? More obscure achievements, perhaps -- games that award points just for finishing the game don't really carry the feeling of competitive triumph that gamers seem to be lusting after these days.[via /.]
