Like for many other people, Valve single player experiences were one of my favorite of all time growing up. I considered both Half-Life and Portal to be masterpieces. It’s true they’ve always been distracted with multiplayer games as well, things like Counter-Strike or Team Fortress and I did play them for sure, because I was a kid and I had all the time in the world.
These days I’m not a kid anymore and so when I game I tend to look more for memorable experiences instead of mindless grinding. Obviously I remember Valve as the experts in creating memorable experiences and I would like them to keep fully exploring those talents. They don’t have that many employees, but they do have all the money in the world, no external pressure, no publisher to shit on them, it’s just their developers and artists and a vision. But then they use all that and create this. An Overwatch looking moba shooter, really? I’m sure people will like and play it, but is this the results of the vision and ambition of a company like Valve?
It doesn’t have to be Half-Life. I remember them saying that they dont want to do another one in the series because they are looking to innovate and make something truly original. My body is ready, give me anything. I can’t imagine a moba shooter really fits with this description. I’m wondering how such a low hanging concept even becomes a real product at a company as ambitious as Valve.
I hear people are having fun with the new game and I’m happy for them. I am no longer the target audience and I wish them good luck with it. In the mean time let me hear your thoughts on it. Would you like to see another single player experience from Valve?
I’m not a kid anymore, I don’t have time for a deep immersive single player campaign, I want a light casual game I can play a few rounds of to relax after work.
I grew up and decided that games have a place in my life to give experiences, you grew up and decided that they are a source of burst distractions. I guess age has nothing to do with it and it’s just about personal preference.
Your observation is wise
Some games give you a story that sticks with you and you love them for that (Half-Life, To The Moon, Bioshock Infinite). Some give you an experience that sticks with you but no story to speak of (like Doom and Doom II, which I still play).
What I dislike is having to deal with people in my games. I already do that in reality, thank you very much.
To me games are about escaping reality.
I’m not a kid anymore and I’m the opposite: give me a single player Half Life 3 so I can relax without getting stressed online after work.
I honestly cannot fathom how people find pvp games relaxing. They’re toxic as fuck and their competitive online nature makes them inherently stressful.
If you do anything enough times, most of your responses are automatic. You’re doing less thinking and more instinctively responding to the situation.
Nah, I just type gg at the end. They’re just games, like disc golf, volleyball, or airsoft. I lose sometimes, actually I lose a fuck-ton, but that’s just statistics if the matchmaking isn’t actually the worst. It’s those wild unscripted moments. Coordinating with your buddies. Learning your opponents. Learning yourself.
I get the appeal of single player games, but I’ll just share my opinion: to me the most stressful gaming moments are hard bosses in single-player campaigns. If I get my ass handed to me in a multiplayer match, nbd “gg This is Rocket League”. I’ll get them next time. In the single player you’re stuck though. I’ve gotten migraines because I couldn’t beat a boss and I was stressing over the wasted money I spent on the game that I might not ever finish. Beating a boss after <5 tries is satisfying. Beating it after 20+ feels like getting out of the hospital.
I find single player enemies to be mostly easy and usually it is just a pattern logic that you have to figure out. Online games are just engagements with people who clearly take the game and what happens way too seriously, evident when you don’t meet the required expectations (that goes for being bad and better than them alike). I also find pvp games way too repetitive. It’s always the same matches over and over again. The same map, the same weapons, the same tactics. The randomness of the matchmaking just adds to making it more of a pointless experience. But ultimately, nothing really changes.
After two young kids I’ve pretty much abandoned multiplayer. Singleplayer, even deep ones, can be be paused, saved, interrupted and come back to later. And I’m wanting to go back to more distinct experiences, whereas I find stuff like league or live service games overfills time. I’m trying to avoid sandbox games too currently as well. Crusader kings, Stellaris, civilization are great, but im trying to concentrate on the more story driven games backlog right now
I wasn’t a kid anymore when HL came out. Hope you are still having fun, whatever you’re doing.