Coin-Ops are opinion pieces exploring the culture of gaming So I don't like online multiplayer. There I said it. I know I'm not alone. Not that publishers are likely to take notice. The game market as it stands today is full of games that focus on a bunch of strangers battling it out in digital arenas. With some game being exclusively online only like MMORPGs. Shooter are all the rage with Call of Duty, Battlefield, Halo, Killzone, and the like ruling the charts. But I feel this all an illusion and the the bubble needs to burst. Take for example the bad value proposition the upcoming Titianfall presents. "What a minute what are you talking about Titianfall looks great," you may say. And you are correct. I also think it looks great but I think it is a very bad value at $60. Why? Well first off it is doomed to die. 10 years from now I will not able to play it. It has no single player component to come back to, and the online exists only as long as the servers are running. But realistically I likely won't be able to play much of it 10 months now let alone years. By the time the next battlefield or CoD comes out we'll be looking forward to Destiny. Titianfall will be a shadow of it's former self with few players able to matchmake in anything by the most popular mode. And those players who remain are likely the die hards, the best of the best. And no will want to be destroyed by them, it is no fun. It not that I think that games should always be replayable forever. But I do feel they should last longer than a few months. And as these game remove more single player feature we get an even more short term experiences. MMORPGS even are starting to suffer this fate. Other than the mainstay of World of Warcraft, most game feature a burst of audience that tapers off in only a few months. The best example of this Star Wars the Old Republic. It was planned to be a WoW killer and seemed to be on track. But it was forced to become a free to play game before even a year was over. These type of audience drift makes it oppressively difficult to play the game after the initial hype. And sometimes when you can't find a group you cannot complete the game's goals. We a begin sold games with expiration dates. I know this how things goes because it has happened with every online game I've gotten into. These types of gaming experiences are just temporary by nature. They can only last until the next game eclipses it. And I feel the more we accept these bad deals the more they validate this type of overpricing. And in the end I find myself constantly alone in games that should be alive with players. So while I may never find enough people to play zombie mode in Halo Reach ever again, I really question if I should have ever invested in it in the first place. -Mac
