The past decade has seen the explosion of multiplayer game modes included in games that would have previously been purely single-player. This change, while popular, does have its downsides. It's about time that someone discussed these downsides. _ I was talking to my fiancée this weekend about games (a frequent occurrence) when I made a statement that surprised me a bit. “I’m getting tired of the multiplayer element in games,” I said. To many of my friends this would be a form of digital blasphemy, and two years ago I would have agreed. However, here’s my logic.
As games have become more complex, the multiplayer game modes have similarly developed new avenues to increase the longevity of the often redundant game modes. There are only so many times a gamer can play “capture the flag” or “domination” before it becomes so unbelievably repetitive that the player desires something different. New games, especially the (in)famous Call of Duty franchise have “solved” this problem by creating a leveling system where the player achieves a higher rank as more time is spent in the online community. Nearly every game that includes a competitive multiplayer feature has adopted this system and the new race is to see who can create the best “perks” attached to those ranks in order to feed the desire for gamers to have something new. For those of you who have never played a Call of Duty game (or anything similar) and therefore have no idea what I am talking about, I can only effectively describe it as a system similar to the U.S. military. When a member of the military starts out, they are stuck with the lowest rank, pay, and least desirable jobs. As that member progresses, they “unlock” clearance to new equipment, are trained to handle and use new weaponry, and gain the opportunity to advance in particular skills and prove themselves. Multiplayer gaming works in a similar way. When a player first starts playing a multiplayer game mode, that player will have the worst weapons available. The player will die numerous times at the hands of more seasoned players. However, if the player can hold off long enough to complete objectives, get a few kills, and gain experience, that player will gain higher rankings. As new rankings are achieved, new weapons and equipment are made available, giving the player the ability to pick a loadout that is more closely tailored to that player’s strengths and weaknesses. But there are three reasons why I have become unhappy with this system. First, the multiplayer is not fun when a player first starts out. A new player is often put on a team against much higher-leveled and more skilled opponents. As a result, the newer player is completely outmatched by the opponent. Not only does he have less experience with the game and thus lacks the understanding of the subtle elements of the game mechanics enough to be even considered competitive in the gaming community, but he is given a smaller selection of universally less effective equipment. A weaker, ill-equipped player will always be slaughtered by a stronger, well-equipped player. Some games, especially the Halo series, have tried to combat this constant mismatch by creating complex “matchmaking” systems. The system attempts to match players of similar level together so that newer players are not slaughtered by more experienced opponents. However, these attempts are still severely flawed and often times are designed to focus on a player’s level rather than a player’s kill/death ratio. The k/d ratio is what players almost universally use to show their skill and is usually a much better indicator of a player’s true skill, yet most matchmaking algorithms underplay this vital statistic or at times ignore it completely. Second, this system requires hours upon hours of dedication to a single game in order to achieve the highest ranks and the best weaponry. It may be surprising but the majority of the “experience points” that a player achieves will not directly come from the player’s gameplay. Instead, the majority of the experience that a player earns comes from completing “challenges” within the game. These challenges vary, but they tend to be things like “achieve X number of headshots with this weapon” or “call in five airstrikes”. The challenges get more difficult (and give more experience) as time goes on. The inclusion of these challenges means that, in order to reach the upper-ranks, the player has to spend the time to not only complete the match objective but also try to complete the challenge objectives. This is a very time consuming process. Third, I have already done this with the first Modern Warfare game and have no desire to repeat it for similar perks. I have played hours upon hours of multiplayer gameplay in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, earned every perk, and completed a good portion of the available challenges. The difference between the Call of Duty games is minimal, and as a result I would be repeating much of what I did in Modern Warfare. Even the differences between the Call of Duty games and other similar shooters like the Battlefield games or Homefront is so insignificant that the same result is achieved. I’m not saying that multiplayer gameplay isn’t fun. I am saying that multiplayer gameplay is not innovative. Some elements of the gameplay could certainly be considered “innovative” (i.e. horde mode, killstreaks, etc.), but the core mechanic is always the same. Competitive multiplayer shooters have been essentially the same thing since Counter-Strike was released way back in 1999. Yes, you read that correctly, the competitive multiplayer shooting experience has not effectively changed in over 12 years. So if you (or your kids) are looking for something new, pick a game that’s got an interesting single-player or cooperative campaign. You’ll be more satisfied in the long-run.
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The Legendary Carmine
Andrew Clayton (a.k.a. The Legendary Carmine) is SSG's Executive Editor. He toils at the stone to make sure this site brings its readers valuable content on a daily basis. Like what we do? Want to see more? Donate to the site using the button below!
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