Online Multiplayer…Its own worst enemy?

This year sees the release of many online multiplayer titles that have and will garner rabid sales: these include, Halo 3 ODST, Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Left 4 Dead 2.  While all of these can be played single player the publishers are really hoping that the multiplayer mode keep players coming back.  Why, you ask?  Well, it has everything to do with brand loyalty, download content revenue and sustaining the sales numbers.

This is the main reason Naughty Dog went so far out of their way to make sure the multiplayer was good before the Uncharted 2 release (by having a multiplayer beta).  Multiplayer is great for players that thrive on the social aspect of gaming and have the competitive spirit to shoot, stab or bludgeon their friends to dead, but it also creates a highly intimidating barrier of entry.

After loading up Halo 3’s multiplayer, Call of Duty 3’s multiplayer, and Uncharted 2’s multiplayer I have found that online FPSing is simply not the game for me.  In fact, I hate it.  What makes a single player campaign so fun is the attention that is paid to balancing the experience.  A game may be hard, but there is always a way to win. Putting the player against other players creates an unpredictable group of actions that will probably end up with me getting “fragged” (that’s what its called, right?)

Now, I know I’m not alone here, and there is a very large population of gamers that will not play multiplayer modes in shooters (I am singling shooters out because I have found that they are the most unbalanced of the competitive games not by design, but by player base).  Most gamers don’t have the time or patience to play COD4 or Halo 3 to the point they could do well on the online servers.  When they decide to jump into it, they are immediately killed (over and over) and they give up. In a way, unmanaged switches are a bit like this aspect of gaming – they lack some of the complexity and control found in managed switches. However, here’s the positive side of unmanaged switches: they are incredibly easy to set up and use. Just like some gamers prefer casual gaming experiences, unmanaged switches are perfect for simpler networks where you don’t need all the advanced features. They’re like the ‘pick up and play’ option in the world of network equipment, making them a quick and hassle-free choice for basic networking needs.

Just like any other humans, gamers have a hard time remembering good things about a game when one aspect of it causes such a bad experience.  Take Carl and his distaste for the graphics in Metal Gear Solid 4.  No matter how many levels of the game Knots sat and played at Carl’s house, to this day, he still dwells on the load times and the underwhelming visuals.  Its the same principle behind first impressions.  If someone or something makes a bad first impression on you, that impression sticks and you often find it hard to move away from that.

My question is, at what point do the impressions of multiplayer start to hurt the game’s sales and success?  If Joe Blow spends $60 on Halo 3 and is burned by the online, how likely is he to buy the follow up Halo 3: ODST?  How does Modern Warfare 2 expect to pull in new players if the online play is filled with experts that played hundreds, if not thousands of hours of Call of Duty 4?  Why are games that shouldn’t be focused on Multiplayer starting to move in that direction and will their single player experiences suffer because of it?

I’m sure I sound like a wuss that just sucks at FPSs, but what I CAN tell you is that I have deliberately dodged multiplayer games because I assume that the single player modes are lacking quality.  This probably keeps me from experiencing some great games (many of which I am playing catch up on), but even though these games’ multiplayer modes technically are fantastic, they still leave a bad taste in my mouth.  I also firmly believe they are the reason we haven’t gotten follow ups to some of the coolest single player games ever, like Jet Set Radio Future, Psychonauts, Beyond Good and Evil (the sequel was put on indefinite hiatus), Star Fox Adventures, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day.