Topic: No longer finding competitive online fun. Anyone else?

[broodwars]

Yeah, I once was in a really amazing game in Uncharted 2's version of "hoard mode" (3 humans vs. waves of increasingly nasty CPU enemies) with 2 other random players.  We made it all the way to the last wave, which was all armored dudes.  One of my "allies" accidentally took me out with a grenade while I was trying to reach a rocket launcher (you cannot be revived from an explosive death).  The CPUs took him out soon after, so it was just the last player versus 5 armored CPUs.  The guy then systematically took out all 5 over the course of the next few minutes.  It was pretty awe-inspiring.

I've seen really great teams come together through random matchmaking, and I've seen terrible teams (mostly in games that place emphasis on individual progress like Killzone 3).  The thing is, I don't play these games enough to want to be shackled to clans.  It's like my best friend with WoW, where he's compelled to play WoW twice a week at specific times because that's when his clan is on.

And yeah, voice chat is both the best and worst thing to ever happen to online gaming.  I was playing Killzone 3 in Objective mode the other day trying to finally win a game as a member of the defensive team.  While the rest of my "team" was running to engage the opposing team, I bunkered down by one of the objectives and started placing defensive turrets.  The enemy team would keep respawning, and all they needed was one moment of weakness at each of our objectives and they'd win.  We ended up winning, and someone on my team with a Mic called me a "bitch" for actually defending an objective rather than doing glorified team deathmatch.  And that's one of the kinder things I've heard in online chat.

[oohhboy]

It really depends on the game. L4D2 for example requires extremely high level of cooperation to play effectively raising the bar on what an acceptable player is. Losing one player out of 4 decreases team effectiveness almost by half. It means random play is highly undesirable in Verses. I actually joined 2 clans in L4D2, but they don't play for rankings, don't require tags and use the group functions like group chat to better organise games. I provides a nice floor to level of play on your team. What happens on the other team isn't too much of a problem unless they rage quit when playing against randoms. Friends only games though are always random unless there is some special reason, like someones birthday.

CTF mode in Urban Terror has a lower cooperative threshold while maintaining the need for some level of coop play. If you have 10 players a side, 1-2 subpar people isn't going to tank the game since the teams are generally random, almost ensuring both teams have have the same amount of thickheads. Also having a smaller player base means people start knowing each other, at least within the game, so there is less incentive to be a dick. Active admins and monitoring bots with fairly low cost from getting TKed mean TKers/hackers have pretty minimal impact before they are kicked/banned.

[Stogi]

Does no one else feel a sense of accomplishment when you out play a group of random people? That's all competitive online is; outsmarting, outplaying, and outmaneuvering your enemies consistently.

[Ceric]

Does no one else feel a sense of accomplishment when you out play a group of random people? That's all competitive online is; outsmarting, outplaying, and outmaneuvering your enemies consistently.

No because normally I'm getting creamed so much when I'm trying to learn a game like that I just stop playing.

[Stogi]

That's what single player is for.

[broodwars]

That's what single player is for.

The single-player's job is to convey its own experience, its own story separate and unique from multiplayer.  It shouldn't be the job of the single-player campaign to prepare you for the cheap asshats you run into online.

[Ceric]

That's what single player is for.

And let me tell ya it normally does a terrible terrible job of it.

[Mop it up]

I've never really found competitive multiplayer to be all that enjoyable, online or otherwise. I'd much rather play co-op because it's a lot more fun to overcome challenges with a buddy. Unfortunately, it's pretty difficult to find co-op games, especially looking outside the genres of FPS and action-RPGs, and even those usually just have online co-op and no local.

[Chozo Ghost]

I've never really found competitive multiplayer to be all that enjoyable, online or otherwise. I'd much rather play co-op because it's a lot more fun to overcome challenges with a buddy. Unfortunately, it's pretty difficult to find co-op games, especially looking outside the genres of FPS and action-RPGs, and even those usually just have online co-op and no local.

Double Dragon, Contra, and River City Ransom are three games I can recall from the NES era which had great local co-op. Back in those days online play didn't exist, so this was what you had.

[NWR_insanolord]

If you want good local co-op on Wii, check out a game called Alien Syndrome. It got fairly poor reviews (whoever reviewed it for NWR gave it an unjustifiable 3.5) but I loved it. It made great use of pointer control and was a Gauntlet-esque type of game with loot elements. I never got a chance to play the co-op, but it supported up to 4 players locally (no online).

[Ymeegod]

I'm ole school Fortress gamer, played it since Quake's mods and still play TF2.

Usually I have voice mic off which mutes everyone.  Not in a clan but the server I play on will scramble the teams if things become too one-sided which is a great feature.

[Plugabugz]

I'm a bit late to this but online multiplayer can run the risk of ruining a game, as what happened with me and mario kart wii. i was playing and enjoyed it and my online rank improved until i reached around 7-8000 rank and upward. About then did i stopped running into the "fun" players (as in they were competitive and a good challenge, but still entertaining) and started to increasingly run into the players who werent actually having fun but turned the game into "how few mistakes can we make" and the cheaters who complete a lap in 3 seconds.

I stopped playing shortly thereafter. The vacuum was sucking the fun dry.

[Morari]

Um... isn't a racing game always about how few mistakes you make? Mario Kart only differs slightly because it seems to punish skill by giving out Blue Shell like candy to those behind you.

[Stogi]

The only mode I play in COD is Hardcore. It's where inexperience goes to die. One shot kill with most guns. I usually just hold down half the map with a silenced SPAS shotgun. It's extremely rewarding to get a 10+ kill streak because it's extremely hard to do so. You are using a weapon with the worst range in the game.

In Battlefield, i tend to be either assault or a medic. In Rush, the only mode I play, my entire goal is to get behind their spawn point. That's when I hang out, provide support and let my team mates spawn off of me.

[Plugabugz]

Um... isn't a racing game always about how few mistakes you make? Mario Kart only differs slightly because it seems to punish skill by giving out Blue Shell like candy to those behind you.

Yes, but by that point its not about AH YOU HIT ME WITH A RED SHELL! but one person does it and you drop from first to 12th because they all pass you at once with like 1 or 2 seconds between them.

[Chozo Ghost]

The only mode I play in COD is Hardcore. It's where inexperience goes to die. One shot kill with most guns. I usually just hold down half the map with a silenced SPAS shotgun. It's extremely rewarding to get a 10+ kill streak because it's extremely hard to do so. You are using a weapon with the worst range in the game.

I used to be obsessed with using the Olympia, because I thought it was the most challenging weapon to master. Not just because of the short range, but also because it only holds two shells and then you have to reload. But by shotgun standards it is the most powerful per shot, and even if you don't kill an enemy with the first shot you can fire off the second round very quickly to do the job.

[Stogi]

If you're talking about Black Ops, I suggest you try my combo. Revolver with an ACOG sight and a Silenced SPAS. Revolver to pick off long shots, the SPAS for everything else.

[Morari]

The only mode I play in COD is Hardcore. It's where inexperience goes to die. One shot kill with most guns.

Heh. Call of Duty and "hardcore" in the same sentence.

Quake2. Instagib. The Edge.

[Stogi]

Don't play PC games. Last time I played a game on the PC it was Max Payne 2 with the Kung Fu (aka AWESOME) mod. Some of my friends I use to play Starcraft with back in the dezzay want me to try out Starcraft 2 so they can quote unquote "whoop my ass like Deebo from Friday", but I can't do it. I spend too much time on my PC as it is; making music, editing video, email and facebooking. Can't play games on it too.

[Morari]

Better drop the Facebook junk so you can game instead.

[Chozo Ghost]

Thanks to this thread I created an Olympia class in Black Ops and used it for the first time in months. My perks were Lightweight Pro, Steady Aim Pro, and Marathon. I was also using Nova Gas and the Jammer as my equipment and the M1911 with extended mags as my secondary. I got 28 kills and only 12 deaths, which is actually about what I would do in a good match with any gun so I'm not quite sure if a shotgun is really an inferior weapon. You just have to know how to use it.

Most people seem to think Sleight of Hand is the best second perk for the Olympia because of the fact you have to reload often, but I've gotten much better results with Steady Aim Pro which means you don't need to mess with aiming it and reloading usually isn't an issue because if I find myself empty I'll just whip out the M1911 and use that until the coast is clear. Any pistol will do really, but I like the M1911 because its shiny and it is the oldest gun in the game I think, so it has a lot of history to it.

[S-U-P-E-R]

I love wet 'n wild pubbie TF2 games, but LFD2 with pubbies is intolerable!

80%+ of my game time is playing fighters, so it's safe to say I get *most* of my fun from competitive playing.

[leahsdad]

I'm ole school Fortress gamer, played it since Quake's mods and still play TF2.

Eh...I also was an old school Fortress gamer, I could spend hours playing it.  I've played so many competitive FPS's, from Doom 1 when we called it "deathmatch," Tribes, Unreal, UT, CS, MW2, BF2:BC, the list goes on.  And I have to echo the sentiment that I am just tired of playing these games.  A few weeks ago I fired up Black Ops for the first time in months, played some FFA for 20 minutes, go so bored that I stopped and played 6 Golden Coins for the rest of the evening.  Yes, for my Saturday night, a gameboy game beat Black Ops.

I think age has something to do with it, but also exposure contributes.  The more and longer that you play, the more you realize that this genre has really not moved forward, and maybe its been mined for all it's worth.

[Morari]

The more and longer that you play, the more you realize that this genre has really not moved forward, and maybe its been mined for all it's worth.

It has largely moved backward, if anything. Gameplay is slower than ever, the two weapons you're allowed to carry are little more than real world rehashes, health regenerates so that nothing is ever really accomplished or lost. The genre started to stagnate as it stopped catering to players with adequate skill.

Team Deathmatch or 1v1 is always better than FFA anyway.

[Silenced]

I like playing LFD2 with some random people on matchmaking on every map EXCEPT for The Parish. For some reason, whoever is playing as Rochelle speedruns on the bridge finale (its ALWAYS her) and screws our team over (because she either dies and lowers our numbers or gets on the chopper and forces US to speedrun). Versus is pretty fun too with random people (Smokers are the best).