Hello all. Kicking around some game ideas in my head right now (no idea on what Hockey API to use thought ;) ), and wondered what gamers would prefer when it comes to online/offline play. I'll define what I mean by this: Online - Game completely resides on the net, no psychical install on the users system at all short of a link bookmark. Pretty much no internet, no game. Offline - Completely the opposite. Game installed on client side, barring updates it doesn't' care if the internet even exists. Hybrid - Able to play online or off, having the ability to play the game regardless, possibility have different game experience based upon if the internet is available or not. Hopefully I've explained what I'm after here well enough for folks to comment upon, and I look forward to any good feedback this can offer. By the way this is a great site to find in my travels, I predict a lot of good reading in it's pages over the next few weeks.

I'm guessing 100% would vote for "hybrid" (if I hadn't posted this prediction).

I doubt I'm in any way normal in this respect, but I almost universally play either completely single player games (e.g., Zelda, Okami, Morrowind, Oblivion, etc.) or single-player arcade games with online leaderboards (e.g., Geometry Wars). If I play, say, a first-person shooter (rare), I'll only play the single-player mode and completely ignore the multiplayer mode.

I simply haven't yet found an online multiplayer game that I've found compelling. I loved playing multiplayer games with my friends when I was younger (and still would enjoy that), but playing online is completely unlike that experience and frankly just not very fun to me.

yeah same here, i can only play online with mates i know already, playing against a stranger just doesn't give the same satisfaction

I'm not a big online game player, and for the most part I avoid multiplayer also. The only game I ever really played a lot of multiplayer was Halo, not really sure why, just found the multiplayer enjoyable. I guess my vote would go to Hybrid games :)

I pretty much exclusively play either offline games (ignoring whatever online features they may have), or MMO's.

I used to play online games a lot, but after a while all the other people started making games LESS fun to play. So I've switched back to mostly single player games unless I can play exclusively with friends.

The only thing I play online anymore is TrackMania, but the player-player interaction in that is basically nonexistant (your cars cannot collide with each other).

Exclusively online games for me..

I used to play long single player games for the story, like the Final Fantasy series, but now I just enjoy games for the competition. I guess it used to be easier for me to get into stories when I was younger, now I just want to frag for 20-30 minutes and then do something else.

Quote: Original post by Chris Reynolds
Exclusively online games for me..

I used to play long single player games for the story, like the Final Fantasy series, but now I just enjoy games for the competition. I guess it used to be easier for me to get into stories when I was younger, now I just want to frag for 20-30 minutes and then do something else.

I guess in my case I simply feel like I'm wasting time if I frag for 20-30 minutes. It's only very mildly entertaining--certainly not more entertaining than other options--so I'd rather do something that has more of a long-lasting benefit for me.

That's why I like longer story-based single-player games. Even if they take a long time, I don't play them very often (usually I'll play no games whatsoever during school and then will play through a long single-player game when I get a week's break or so), and seeing a story progress and develop, learning about characters and watching them grow, and of course developing your own character are so much more compelling and meaningful to me than a few frags.

I enjoy story-based single-player games probably in exactly the same way lots of people enjoy novels. It's a way to go into another world temporarily. It's a way to rejuvenate myself after a long period of intense work. It's very refreshing and exciting.

For the record, I don't mean any of this to mean that my feelings are somehow more correct than yours. What you wrote just sparked in my mind a better understanding of my own feelings towards single-player games, and I thought I'd share these thoughts since they seem to be in the spirit of the thread.

Online mostly. I do play single-player games sometimes, but it's mostly online. I dont have a console :) And I also favour cooperations rather than competition. I never play Left For Dead or Guild Wars PvP. So basically a hybrid of the classic online play and single-player narrative.