Why "multiplayer" tends to ruin my fun

Please, resist the urge to reach through your screens and jab me in the eye for this heresy. Hear me out, I actually do have a point.

Recently, there seems to be a F2P MMO coming out something like every week. And since they're free, I've gone on to try most of them. A lot of these "MMOs," however, are just PvP arena deathmatch maps where you gain points to use for upgrading your characters. Fair enough, can't ask for the world for free, but this has started to remind me of a serious problem with gaming that only ever involves other people - if the people ain't good, the game ain't fun. Not naming names, here are a few examples:

There's a game I want to play, but it's can only be played player team vs. player team. Fair enough, I hop into a match and my enemies are incredible strong. I get slapped down like an errant child. Match over. Hmm... OK, next match. My enemies are once again very strong and it seems like I kind of suck. I get killed almost immediately. Damn it. OK, next match. It's all going well until the entire enemy team sweeps in and kills us all. Argh! Next... You know what? **** it. I'll play another game that doesn't piss me off.

So I go play another game. This one is also team-only, also arena-only. I log in, hop on an auto-team mid-game, only to realise that half the time has expired and no-one has done squat. Turns out my team is comprised of braindead monkeys. I do what I can to help, it isn't enough, we suffer a humiliating defeat. Well, that's not a good start. Next map, we start out bad and never really recover, and there's this annoying, cheap player that keeps pissing me off. We lose. Hard. For the love of... Next map starts, teams get scrambled so it will supposedly be more fair. I'm on the other team now. The game starts, my whole team rushes forward and stomps the opposition so hard I never even get to see any of the action. I "won," but it was still not fun. OK, next... No. No, this ain't fun. Forget that game. What else can I play...

You know what, forget all of those games. I'll log into City of Heroes, snag one of my own missions and go put the fear of God in some helpless NPCs. I know for a fact that there will be no other people to keep killing me before I even see them, because there's no PvP in PvE zones, and I know there will be no other people I have to rely on who will let me down, both because I don't NEED other people and because I will make a point to NOT INVITE other people to my missions.

So I log into City of Heroes, I'm pissed as all hell, I'm just looking for people to yell at just... Because. As soon as I log into the game, though, all of that goes away. No-one's trying to kill me, no-one's getting in my way, no-one's yelling "ATTACK!!!" over and over again like there's bloody anything else to do in that whole damn game! Ahem... I log in, grab a mission, and proceed to smack down some NPCs. And it's so good...

The "multiplayer" aspect of a game is really, really good. When it works. When it doesn't work, however, it's the worst experience in gaming I can remember, and that's every single time. I'm more than happy to participate when things are going well, but when things AREN'T going well... Let's just say that putting the hurt on some NPCs and having an "easy" time helps heal a LOT of wounds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

You should really have just used PvP versus "multiplayer."

Don't PUG. Problem solved.

I think one of the key problems you describe here is the sheer fact some people know it like the back of their hands. And that puts you at a colossal disadvantage. I've gone on many lambdas and BAF's in CoH telling them before we even start... me: Noob. You show me how please. And yet... I still get left behind like the fat kid at the start of the 100m sprint.

Such great advice of "just follow the leader" is wonderful if I have a reasonable grasp on what to do, but, really it doesn't teach me squat about how to play the thing. I suppose its my fault, had I had a level 50 when the incarnate stuff came out, I wouldn't have to learn it the hard way, but its the same with other TF's as well. Unless you know what you are doing, its a harsh environment. I know a lot more TF's quite well now, but, still, not to the level others know them, and it does put me at a disadvantage. Especially if I want to lead.

I'd say the only TF's I know inside out and upside down, are the ITF and Sutter. The Mortimer Kal SF on redside and me are good friends too.

I know most people don't want to nursemaid me through the game, and heck I don't expect them to. But, I think its easy to forget once upon a time they too had to learn the hard way what to do. Its like when a driver sees a learner driver, they think... "oh shat, a learner!! Better avoid them somehow" When once upon a time, it was you with the L plates. I mean, wouldn't it have been great for somebody to explain the ropes to you so you didn't have to learn the harsh way... Im not bitter. Having said that, if I say that Im new and don't know what Im doing, and can they help me through it... some of the guys I know have slowed it down deliberately for me.

I suppose the moral of the story is, time is a great healer. I think, were it not for my friend, I would have probably quit COH as I didn't have a clue what to do, that, and the fact MMO's were new to me, as of COH. Bottom line is, any game that has a multiplayer element, whether its co-op or PvP requires a learning curve and the knowledge of what to do and when to do it. There is skill obviously, some will just be better than you, got to accept that, its life. The biggest thing of all, is the game is played by other people, its easy to predict what a computer will do to you because there's only so much it can do, people, they have a very random element usually. So you just have to anticipate their next move.

I use CoH as the basis here, but really the logic can fit to any game.

Well for the PvP aspect, I think if people only have fun when they win, they should expect not to have fun then.

Win or Lose, I have fun in PvP Zones. If you only have fun in PvP if you win, then don't PvP.

Of course there's the retort, "I don't mind losing, I just want to win most of the time" to which it's usually, still the same advice "then dont pvp"

Also, if you can't handle idiots talking smack, best to not PvP either. Best bet if you can handle the losing and still have fun, just ignore the comments.

As for the ITFs type deal of teams splitting up...my suggestion is always make sure before the TF starts, what the plan is. If the plan was to rush it/stealth it from the start, and you want to kill all, don't join it.

And lastly...on an unrelated note to no one in particular...if you're going to duel, take it the arena Dueling in open zone is going to get you killed and whining about it is lame

Well, on the ITF-rushing thing, I didn't mean to say I can't hang with the team. I very much can, if for no reason other than I could suffer a stroke and die and no-one on the team would notice, simply because by this point, most people are tough enough to carry the weight of four or five other team-mates. Stick eight of these guys (or seven of 'em and me) on a team and you don't, strictly speaking, need half of them.

And it's really not a problem of me not being able to do better. I probably can. You know, build better, get better Inventions, skip this power, grab that power, crunch those numbers. There are ways to make a character much more powerful within the existing system, I'm well aware. But as was the case with Stamina once upon a time and then Sets thereafter... I kind of really don't wanna'.

There's something I should probably talk about - the so-called phenomenon of "tournament play." You know, the kind of A-game you take to a tournament with cash prizes, the kind of A-game that sees you try as hard as you can, work as fast as you can, bend the game's rules until they break and basically do whatever it takes to "win."

I don't like that style of gaming. A lot of the time, the smart and efficient thing to do is just no fun. Easy example: A game has a wide variety of swords, like fast ones, heavy ones, sharp ones and so forth. But the best "sword" by far and wide is the joke rubber chicken. Now, if I just want to win, you bet your toy box I'll be using that stupid thing, and probably rolling my eyes at every hit until I tie my optic nerves in a knot. But I don't really want to "win," so much as see, hear and play a game that's cool. And, unfortunately, what this means is sometimes I end up weak, sometimes I end up behind, sometimes I end up winning and not really feeling like I accomplished anything.

Just as another random example, I LOOOVE the new Energy Transfer animation. I like it much, much more than the "tap on the shoulder" it had before. But it's slower, therefore the power is weaker for it. What's more, people queue up to take turns and tell me the power was ruined and it now sucks... And I still love it. When I'm by myself, playing my own missions, setting my own difficulty, moving at my own pace... That doesn't matter so much. But when I get on a team with other, stronger players with much better characters, the difference starts to show.

It's been my experience that most people I team with or against just want to "win," for whatever definition of "win" is applicable for the particular game or situation. If "winning" involves blatantly unfun gameplay or, worse, gaming the system (say, getting a hostage killed to fail a mission to get through a TF faster), then this just becomes unpleasant. And yet, 9 out of 10 TFs I get on, people want to fail missions, ghost missions, skip missions and rush missions. I actually recall running a Respec that took 15 minutes, 10 of which I spent waiting to be teleported, waiting for a boss to be killed or waiting for someone to play my game for me.

One thing I think City of Heroes got very right, in this regard, is giving me an option. When a team pisses me off, I don't have to join another team angry and be pissed off even more. I can go do my own missions and work off my anger on the uncaring, unfeeling, soulless NPCs. I mean, they're not real people, so it's hard to feel sympathy for them

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

i actually have to agree with Sam on this account, since i have played a many online games (which i would mention here but cant due to forum rules)

in a majority of those games you are usually fighting other poeple and losing is not fun especially if its a complete wipeout (not a close fight)

i think most of the pvp in this game is a wipeout, it never really feels like a fight and thats why i avoid it like the plague (the pvp system has some other problems, but i just dislike pvp in general)

i do play this game at my pace, if i feel like teaming ill team, but ill still mostly focus on what im doing and what the goal of the mish is (i also dislike speeding tfs or failing mishs)

A lot of these games part of the fun is finding a group of players to play with and watching each other improve. I played a certain PVP-focused fantasy MMORPG for quite a while, and let me tell you, it becomes a whole lot more fun if you have a good guild behind you. (Not that it didn't get boring eventually as well)

A lot of it is not just learning what to do, but learning what to do in response to what others are doing. Even a good PUG can't really compare to the kind of synergy you get when playing with people you know (who might even have created their builds specifically to synchronize with each other) joining the zerg isn't half as fun as using your guild-warband to successfully hold of two enemy warbands from the premier opposition guilds

In a lot of these type of games, the network-building is kind of the point. Go off alone and half-cocked (which is pretty much standard procedure with PUG:s) against a coordinated enemy and you'll have your rear handed to you. Regardless of any other factor.

The man has a point. Most of the reason I still even play this game is because of the people I play it with. If not for them, I wouldn't still be here. Overly restricting free players' ability to communicate and form the social networks that arguably keep people playing longer is only going to give them one more reason to leave once the next big thing comes out.

Personally, I think we should at least let them have friends lists. The comparison on the Freedom overview page doesn't say anything about the friends list so they might already be doing so. I would suggest also allowing them to send tells to people on their friends list only. However, add the same confirmation on the other end that we currently have for global friends to the server friends list as well, so the RMTers can't just add the whole server to their friends list and commence spamming.

I just had a conversation last night with my brother-in-law and he had a similar experience with another popular game where you actually lose stuff that took months of work to set up as well.
My demon/pain is my current goto toon (when I'm frustrated).

This is why I will never cancel my subscription to CoH. And also why I am an Altaholic. Because at lower levels you can always find teams of people who are in it for fun. No worries if the team wipes. No kicking a team mate just because they are a complete noob.

It's also why I won't do the trials. People screaming orders (ok, typing orders) without stopping to explain.
"Team A Grenades! Team B Acids"
Hmmmm... is he calling me a grenade? Where is everybody running to? Nobody has said anything about what we need to do.

Ever seen that WoW magic marker video with the guy screaming "MORE DOTS!" Thats what a trial feels like. I'm not going to link to it directly because it contains very nsfw language. But if you want to find it just search onyxia wipe on youtube and it will be the first result. Now not all trials involve somebody as psycho as that but they pretty much do involve people who spout out acronyms and abbreviations and expect everybody to know what they are supposed to do and expect the whole thing to be done in the minimum possible time.

Don't like end game in any game because it always involves a large percentage of people who are not interested in playing the game, only in "beating" the game by becoming the most powerful or fastest or what have you.

Sir, you complain far too much.

I find this problem a lot in FPS games and the like where level and such actually has an effect on what kit you get.

A certain game based around the story of aliens, super soldiers and long forgotten ring-shaped worlds does this just right; level means nothing.
Well, ok, not true. 1) You unlock more vanity-only armour pieces and, 2) Higher levels tend to be more experienced. The guys/gals in the uber-high level range you know are going to do their considerable best to hand you your backside on a plate.

Others do it 'wrong'. A certain series of games based on war and military Duty started of great, with the weapons being mostly balanced throughout the levels (bar the nade-launcher....damn cheap thing...) It's successors fared far worse. Higher levels DO have an advantage. It doesn't help those games tend to be rife with glitchable spots on maps, leading to immense frustration if things go bad.

And then there is a certain chainsaw-gun based 3PS. The second game was a case of 'Hosts team wins', end of. Fortunately the third games dedicated servers should fix that a little. And it's vs NPCs wave mode is fan-flipping-tastic...

/rant
Also, Sam; you should start doing your own recorded blogs or something would make good reading/listening

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.