Why Multiplayer Games Suck
As I look at the rapid rate that my Nintendo Switch library is growing (I am the Face of Switch, after all) I am puzzled as to why my backlog has been growing at an equal rate. Granted, I've never bought games for any console at the rate I'm buying them for the Nintendo Switch, but I've also never had more time to game in my adult life.
It doesn't make sense.
On the N64, I played through Ogre Battle 64 and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time more times than I can count.
On the Gamecube, I explored all of Wind Waker, 100% completed Metroid Prime, and spent countless hours on long, complex JRPGs such as Tales of Symphonia and Skies of Arcadia: Legends.
But, here I sit, unable to make significant progress into Octopath Traveler or get remotely close to finishing Hollow Knight. Looking back a few years there are a dozen 'first party' titles across all platforms that I never touched, let alone completed.
What has changed since my youth, besides my buying habits and slight reograniztion of free time (and my metabolism)?
It's these damn online multiplayer games. They've ruined gaming!
I know many people in the GameZilla Media community who lost themselves to the mainstream introduction of MMORPGs (via World of Warcraft) but I dodged those bullets personally. In fact, as a Nintendo household, I really didn't even fall into early FPS hype with Halo. It wasn't until the next generation of gaming came around that the online multiplayer sickness hit me.
Yes, I owned a Wii. Yes, I bought a PS3 specifically to play Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and a handful of God of War games. HOWEVER, the overwhelming majority of my time was spent online, via Xbox Live, prestige-ing over and over again in a variety of Call of Duty games. Hundreds of hours spent shooting, spawning, collecting dog tags, and trying to drop nukes. I barely had time for anything else.
Now we move to the dark ages of this generation, the "pre-Switch" era. Putting the Wii U aside for just a second (forever), let's take a look at my history with PS4 and Xbox One. I bought an Xbox One at launch and juggled back and forth with the PS4 as my friends moved among gaming highs and lows. I didn't get real deep into any first party titles with generation because I was too damn busy playing Overwatch! Over half of the ENTIRE time I owned a PS4 and Xbox One I was playing Overwatch! Over, and over, and over again I ignored critically acclaimed first party games to capture payloads, hold the point, and otherwise Junkrat around.
Here we are. Current day gaming. The Nintendo Switch is filling it's library at a rapid pace, but not too fast to keep up. So why, do you ask, am I falling grossly behind in completing games that have never been a problem for me in the past, especially with Nintendo consoles? It's dumb cross play and dumb online multiplayer games such as Rocket League, Fortnite, and (most recently) Minecraft! If Nintendo could just get back into their bubble and close the door to a real online multiplayer scene I would NOT be having this problem right now. I've got over a half dozen games that I've paid for, started, and never finished because I keep getting sucked back in to the devil that is ONLINE MULTIPLAYER.
Granted, this isn't actually a problem. This is a good thing, right? Especially when I spent hundreds of dollars on 50+ games just to play the same 3 over and over again, right?
Everything is okay. I'm sure I'll beat Octopath Traveler eventually. Once I'm "done" playing Minecraft...
- @testanomics