Competitive multiplayer games are a big no, but I love cooperative multiplayer games. I'd much rather play one of them with a friend or two than play something by myself. I couldn't tell you the last time I've actually beaten a single player game, I tend to get bored and lose interest half way through.

I used to be pretty good at the usual stuff like COD, CS, Battlefield… but each game got fucked up in its own unique way. Stuff became just too sweaty and annoying, all the while the sense of community faded. COD back in the 360 days was fun. Now it’s just annoying.

These days, I’m fully single player. It’s just not worth the price of modern games to deal with all the multiplayer bullshit.

Hot take: single player games are lame, co-op is where it's at. That's not to say there aren't good single player games or I didn't enjoy them in the past, but my evolving tastes and circumstances make me mostly skip them.

1. Games in general have no respect for my time, so if I'm getting on for an extended session it's going to be with my friends. If they do respect my time, why should I pay $40+ for an 8 hour experience when I could buy a dozen used books for that price and get more content and variety?
2. Even games with compelling storytelling suffer because there's a core conflict between who's in control of the pacing and scene focus. What do I gain from holding a controller during the 8 hours of cutscenes in MSG4? Why play Dark Souls if I manage to miss out on 80% of the subtle world building? Does having a branching plot really make a story better?
3. Putting aside narrative, games without a human element are either dopamine toys or simulators. Most games aren't honest about that and are a palette swapped Total War, a tweaked 2D platformer, a fighting game with [gimmick], etc... It's very rare to see innovation because innovation is hard. Even harder when you're spending time on assets like character art, music, and world lore instead of the one thing that make games games: mechanics.

I'll still play the odd rogue like or crusader kings to kill time, but I generally don't feel the need to expand my catalogue unless a game looks fun as a platform for social play (friendslop as some might say).

I used to play mostly shooters online.

Somehow, living next to a country which is invading one of its neighbours, and seeing a bunch of actual real war footage from real wars on the daily basis, made me reconsider if shooters actually qualify as "fun" these days.

The problem is multiplayer competition, which is comparable to gambling addiction.

If I wanted to be the target of homophobic insults, I could just do it to myself in front of a mirror, though granted, I can't really emulate the voice of a 12 year-old so it's not quite the same experience bouquet.

Beyond that, multiplayer is almost like working - you're supposed to relentless keep at it, on somebody else's timings even if you're in a guild: done it in EVE Online and WoW and, frankly, for the experience of work I have real-life were I actually get paid for it rather than the other way around.

Then there's the whole creepy monetisation shit - I'm not really interested in the constant sales pressure, especially when it's "buy this or else you're handicaped vs those who did" (EA is still in my shit list since they did it with a DLC in one of the older Battlefield titles), especially nowadays when I've managed to mainly remove advertising from my life.

So I just stopped doing multiplayer a decade ago and pretty much avoid it like the plague.

Maybe I'll try Guild Wars 3 if it's in the same style as Guild Wars 2 (which came out before the monetisation era).

I miss community servers. Each had its own identity and you could pop in and out without being penalized. Being locked in to a 30+ minute sweatfest with people I don't know, or like, has never been appealing to me.

Got drunk and played megaman 11 with siblings, passing around the controller, cracking jokes about how megaman’s ow sound seemed weirdly gay and horny in this one. I was so bad I kept getting him hurt and it sounded like a gay porn.

My sister asks “isn’t that supposed to be a robot child?”

Me: “He’s been a child since the 80s and his voice is lower now. He’s a megaMAN now, and how dare you demean the short king fighting for your safety over his robo masochim kink and short stature.”

Brother: “yea he can’t help he was built that way. You’re a monster. Don’t kink shame”

Me and bro: -glare-

Sister (who is in a poly relationship and very much the alternachick of the family): “….what the fuck is happening here?”

Single player games are still fun when played together.

The live service model has been a plague on gaming and has basically killed every bit of enjoyment I'm getting out of multiplayer game nowadays. Shit's like having a job. You leave for two weeks and you might as well be playing a different game. Leave for a month? Maybe the game don't even exist anymore. It's exhausting.

I miss multiplayer video games. I wish someone still made them.

I'm in my early 40s. Back then, I used to play Quake 3, UT 99 and Tribes 2 competitively. Not anymore. Life is stressful enough, and I don't want to add to that by playing competitively. I want to relax by playing story-based games. I also play a lot of games on easy mode so that I can truly enjoy the story.

Yes, it's a peaceful life. It sucks when i finally can sit down in the evening and start up a game and then getting insta killed by teenager who has nothing to than practice all day.

Or team based PvE games where it's just trying to keep up with the speedrunners farming.

In addition getting 30 min of uninterrupted time can be a luxury, so pause feature is a must have.

The closest thing to multiplayer I touch now days are Fromsoft invasions.

I play exclusively on consoles, and enjoy a slower pace to gaming.

Have a huge backlog of games I haven't touched, and a few that I just keep coming back to.

Really gotten into permadeath gaming, which slows things down even more, but makes every decision and hour of gaming truly count.

Factorio, Cities Skylines, Far Cry 2, Subnautica, the Fromsoft catalogue, Mass Effect, I'll do a full play through at least once a year.

Finally playing the Witcher III while listening to the book on audio.

I get why people enjoy multiplayer games, but it hasn't been for me for a long time.

I think the last one I really spent any time on was America's Army around 2006.

I have over 1500 hours into The Witcher 3.

Sometimes I think at least 500 of those hours are just me loading into the game after a long week, finding an isolated spot on the map, and just staring into the sunset while the wind howls in my headset.

This is going to be extremely niche, but I find the surf mini game in Counter Strike Source to be incredibly relaxing and rewarding while also being a quasi multiplayer game. The community is quite helpful and friendly and there are almost 1000 different maps of all skill levels so there is something for everyone if you are into movement based mechanics.

Don't forget all the new CoD, battlefield, and even tarkov (soon) is requiring TPM 2.0, secure boot, and actively blocking linux making it impossible to even play them.

I've recently been playing Tales of Maj'Eyal and it's such a nice vibe. There's an in-game chat for people just going about playing their single-player adventures, generally filled with kind and intelligent people. The game is complex enough that being able to ask questions in the chat is a nice option.

Multi-player is fun at a good old fashioned Lan party and not much more.

I’m not opposed to playing multiplayer games. But I’m not going to be playing the vast majority of modern multiplayer titles.

Most of the time I wonder if there is even another player on the other end of modern game, or if it’s just bots

I like playing old games organized on discord and sites like game date

I think the friendslop trend is great. It brings the couch gaming experience into the modern era after a long time in coma.

Online multiplayer games used to be fub but they have really gone downhill recently.

The most fun I have ever had in a video game was hunting a bear in RDR2 to make clothing with the pelt. It took several days but I think that's what made finding the bear so satisfying.

Cheating and involving money ruined multiplayer gameplay.

I get it, but my favorite multi-player game is mobile suit Gundam battle operation 2. Try it. The community has really been pruned of trolls and bad actors. The game makes it more frustrating for them, but more fun with people who just wanna play giant robots. Sure sometimes you get stomped because of a whole ducking clan attacking at once, but I find the wide range of mechs with lots of different playstyles counter the stomping.

I just don't want to compete with other people. I used to play a lot of quake and team fortress, but it just feels kind of pointless now.