The thing I like most about MP games is that they allow me to play/communicate with friends that now live 1200 miles away. Of the games I've played the most of in the last 3 years (WoW, Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands, and Red Dead Redemption), I've played them just as much for the social aspect as for the actual gameplay. In fact, I rarely play(ed) any of them unless I had at least one friend online.
I enjoy those games online, but when playing with friends (and I don't mean random people I met online, these are true RL friends, a lot of whom I've known for 10+ years) it just makes it way more fun IMO.

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Original post by geo2004 The thing I like most about MP games is that they allow me to play/communicate with friends that now live 1200 miles away. Of the games I've played the most of in the last 3 years (WoW, Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands, and Red Dead Redemption), I've played them just as much for the social aspect as for the actual gameplay. In fact, I rarely play(ed) any of them unless I had at least one friend online. I enjoy those games online, but when playing with friends (and I don't mean random people I met online, these are true RL friends, a lot of whom I've known for 10+ years) it just makes it way more fun IMO.

I agree that the social aspect is a huge factor regardless of genre. I'd venture to say that the downtime in Counter-Strike after you die is one of the things that makes it the most popular PC-shooter. You can spec your teammates that are still playing and bullshit with other people that have died. In the "insta-respawn" games the social aspect is diminished and you don't really have time to chat with people.

Of course, downtime in a FPS can be taken too far, such as in America's Army. If you die early in AA you may be waiting 5-10 minutes for the next round. That's ridiculous and one of the reasons why it has relatively few players despite that fact that its a free game.