Human vs machine

I just don't like hyper competitive games. I don't have time to get frustrated.
I like single player games where I have the option to change things I don't like via mods or console commands.
- Like competitive games, but I don't like overly competitive people. At the end of the day, win or lose, it's still a video game and it should be fun. Competitive games with friends who understand that and don't get tilted can be great fun, even when you're on a losing streak.
  
  Like competitive games, but I don't like overly competitive people.
  I wish competitive games did a better job not only matching people of similar skill, but similar personalities. I know it's just a bunch of pixels and numbers in a screen, why do you keep pairing me with these chuds that have no emotional maturity?
  Some games have an option to search for a like-minded party type and it really should be a standard option.
  
  I don't mind competitive games, just not the crazy competitive ones. TF2 is a great example - fun, casual, PvP. Tarkov is probably my least favorite - hyper competitive, huge losses if you die, big incentive to cheat.
  It's a shame that Tarkov is what it is, because I love shooters and it's probably the best of them, mechanics wise.
  
  Even if I lose a round in Xonotic I still have fun cause i still played
  
  The best games of Counter-Strike (the old one, before CSGO) I ever played were with friends in pub matches. Competitive is fun, but 32 player poolday? That's the best experience you can have.
  Now I'm all about co-op games or single player. I've been top scorer in FPS', I know it's a thrill, but it's not as fun as losing with your friends.
- I remember playing Overwatch and getting super angry about every single match, and then that Reggie quote "If it's not fun, why bother?" popped up in my head and I just stopped playing. Probably one of the last times I ever touched "competitive" games.
- I love being able to pause when my son needs something too

I used to like multiplayer back when there was a larger community element. Now no one uses their mic and the lobby changes every match so I'm basically just playing against bots anyway.
- Reject modernity, embrace tradition - we'll still be there for you in the arena and boomer shooter crowd, and of course, various Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 lobbies.
  Come prepared.
  
  I've been playing a lot of Red Alert 2 lately which has similar vibes as well
  
  There is something beautiful in TF2 kicking off the whole cosmetic microtransactions/lootbox industry, then sitting back and continuing to be a fun community game for the next decade.
- This hits hard. I still remember joining the same 3 cs servers and befriending the people there. Good times.
- Back when servers were hosted and you had a little community of maybe 200 people who would cycle in and out.
  
  I met some lifelong friends in those servers.
- A few friends and I are planning a 90s lan. Simple rules like no games published after 2001-08-23, no internet, only self-hosted servers, and all shit talking must be out loud. Also shit talking must be kid safe since we're all old and have kids old enough to be competent but young enough we don't want to teach them the true art of shit talking.
  
  My kids are teenagers now. Teaching them the true art of shit-talking has been a pleasure.
  My youngest kicking my ass at every fucking game we play has not been.
  
  This sounds like an insane amount of fun. The only thing more fun than a LAN as a kid, is a LAN when you're 40 and can afford top tier snacks. And you have kids to be waiters
- And you might actually be playing against bots, depending on the game.

This is their personal preference and has nothing to do with their generation
As an "elder Millennial," who do you think drove traffic on WoW, Half Life, Halo, COD, etc?

As a mid-50's genXer I wholeheartedly agree.
- When I read this, I definitely pictured Gen X or elder millennial first.
  
  There's a reason xennials sometimes get call the Oregon trail gen
- Also mid 50 gen-x’er. Completely agree.

That's definitely elder millennial more than younger millennial
- Yup, born in 1982 and I feel this way. I'm too old for competitive twitch-shooters (bloody shame that, I used to love them). Most other games are shit for online gaming.
  Only thing I ever play online is survival games with my brother, who lives 500 I'm away from me. It's more of a reason to talk for longer sessions though.
  
  Same. I just watch StarCraft now. I was never that good to begin with, but playing now is likely to make my withered heart explode.
- I'm young x and I feel this way as well.

Sometimes I don't even fight the computer. I just need to expand the factory. And coal is running low so Ill just quickly spin up a nuclear reactor or eight
- The factory must grow.
- and when time is running low, I'd bring out the ole scanmem and set my resources to 99999 just to get past the grind

Honestly never understood the appeal of multiplayer. I guess it's like sports, some people just like the spirit of competition.
- Sports are an example of where I need multiplayer. The only way they can make Madden against the computer hard is by making opponents just arbitrarily blow through tackles, making (bad) opposing QBs have magic awareness of the field and silly accuracy, etc.
  Playing other humans online allows a level playing field (well, if I didn't use the Patriots this year) and makes the chess match of play calling actually meaningful. I can disguise my looks and mix up play calls and have it actually cause confusion, instead of having the computer complete unaware of context.
  
  Also humans are much more interesting due to the variability of styles. Like bots tend to become predictable, as would be the case if you played the same humans every time...but having different humans makes the competition much more entertaining.
- Exactly. I like and play sports a lot, I get my competition there. I didn't need it in my games.
- Yeah if you don’t like team sports you’ll never get it

I am 36 and my wife is 35. I do not enjoy online multi-player games, and my wife pretty much exclusively plays them. I think this is about people's specific anxieties rather than age.
- Wow, are you me? My SO and I are about the same age and also have similar tastes as you and yours. It's almost like people have different tastes in video games...

that sounds like older millennials to me, tbh
younger millennials grew up on multiplayer and online games, which were widespread and extremely normalized by the time we were old enough
remember, the youngest millenials were 4 to 6 years old in 2000 and the mid 2000s was the big multiplayer boom for the industry
Halo, COD, Gears of War, Counter Strike: Source, Garrysmod, Minecraft, Trackmania, Everquest, World of Warcraft, Left4Dead, Diablo 2, all of these games came out while we were 6 to 14 years old
- Older millennials and Gen X were the ones that organized a lot of the multiplayer groups on old MMOs and other multiplayer games. In a lot of communities they're the ones that seem to reel the most whenever games make changes that break up content to make it cooperation less encouraged.
  As a younger millennial who hit 30 recently, I understand the feeling of wanting to step away from multiplayer games due to toxicity. I have played games where having someone cuss at you on voice was the least of your worries due to doxxing and irl harrassment including people having their families and work places called.
- Younger Gen X here, sounds more like older Millennials to me, too. Multiplayer was fun when it was usually LAN parties of people you knew personally (or split screen), but once it became standard to play with strangers and/or people you've never met in real life I wasn't interested.
- Younger millennial (wish me happy 30th in a few months) coming in. I had my niche group of PC nerds who played CS:S, WoW and L4D basically on release. We all knew we were dumb ass kids coming into a scene. We got verbally destroyed in Vent and TS servers when doing ESEL CSS and dunked on while learning boss mechanics in MMOs.
  I was always one to just want to have fun (shout out to surf_, aim_ag, and mg_ CSS maps). But I was in the trench as a plus one in a bunch of junk. I always felt like my other group of friends were out of the loop of gaming when they would just Autoaim headshot everything in sight on console COD4 and WAW, but I never got that group to try PC
  After I graduated high school I just played dota 2 for two years until I was drained from comp play, then I just started queueing/playing games without caring about my rank. I'll check meta of what I'm playing and know a tad beforehand, but I can't be arsed to care about a winding down activity.
  Tldr: Squeakers that played Source and/or 1.6 are adults now and are tired of comp play imo. One of my core group is still a Wow head and coaches raid clears, but we are just a bunch of tired adult stoners who dick around with FGs or rogue likes now.
  
  that's actually a really good point too
  im pretty close to your age and even i will admit that a good single player game hits better than any multiplayer arena shooter out there
  But there's a few "silent co-op" games i really enjoy. Games where i can join a stranger, help them with a quest or boss and then leave. Im the oldest of 3 and i miss beating levels for my little brothers. Elden Ring, Dark Souls , Nioh, Monster Hunter, these all scratch the itch pretty well
  When many people hear "multiplayer videogame" they think mmos or cod/quake/Unreal tournament clones
  i would never start playing multiplayer halo if it came out today. But theres still LOTS of multiplayer games out there that i find very appealing.
  
  also lemme know if you need another handful of tired adult stoners who dick around with roguelikes
  (idk what an FG is....fighting game? like mortal Kombat and street fighter?)
  We are stuck on Forza right now but 3 of us have adhd so it wont be l9ng before we get bored and move to another game
- younger millennials grew up on multiplayer and online games, which were widespread and extremely normalized by the time we were old enough
  I think that one part of that shift was VoIP. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, if you were playing, say, Quake or similar online, you communicated via text chat. Subsequent to that, a lot of games acquired VoIP support, which I think helped make communication in online games more accessible to a broader audience.
  But another factor that I think affects playing multiplayer games for a number of people is having kids. Like, you're 18, you don't have that many immediate responsibilities, maybe. But if your kid's diaper needs to be changed or they produce some other emergency, getting an period where you can play realtime games with other people is maybe harder to get an uninterrupted time block for. Maybe slow turn-based games, like play-by-email type strategy games or something, stuff that doesn't have the same time constraints, would be more-viable.
- The disrespect to SOCOM
  
  listen bro i cant just sit here and name every multiplayer game from 2005
  i played socom on psp and i was convinced this was the future, peak gaming

That’s fine and all but I’m technically an elder Millenial, and we definitely played online pvp games when I was in high school. I was there for the first counterstrike alpha/beta. My brother and I spent an entire week playing CS one time while my parents were in a trip, 10 hours a day with breaks for pizza. We had a system for sharing play because we only had the one desktop… lol.
We had quake lan parties and even did a quake tourney in our school computer lab because this was before they really sorted out locking the computers down. I feel like tribes and unreal tournament were out pretty quick as well. Quake arena. Half life multiplayer and then CS, day of defeat, etc.
Super toxic online was sorta a thing, but I feel like that didnt mainstream until COD lobbies on consoles, and the advent of voice chat. Or rather most of the servers I played on were specific servers, hosted by people with admins, and while people would misbehave, you generally wanted to not get banned and keep coming back—you knew the other names and such, so that had an ok moderating effect.
- I had some pet birds when I was younger and played in those cesspool cod xbox lobbies. I would end up derailing the vitriol because everyone would be like, "the fuck, is that a bird? Why is there a bird?"
  
  Hahah brilliant, love it. Definitely the best way to end that stuff—surprise them or confuse them.
- Oh thanks for the nostalgic trip! Tribes was so fun. CS was so fun. Day of Defeat was my jam! Did you ever play Pirates Vikings Knights? 😆
  
  I think I missed pirates viiings knights, sad now!

My number one Gen X trait is having to wear reading glasses to play video games on my PC

Even in Classic WoW I prefer to run solo. I enjoy the presence of other people in the world and in cities, but I have no interested in becoming involved with them unless we need each other to complete a dungeon.
I also like to imagine joining guilds, but my idea of a guild died twenty years ago with the classic era of MMOs. Now being in a guild just means your immersion is forever ruined because you're not allowed to play anymore without participating in the giant fuckfest that is the guild Discord server. Fuck Discord.
If I ever go back I should create a guild of casual loners with kids. We all respect each other's space, provide support as often as we're able, and stay the fuck off of Discord. You get kicked out of the guild if you even mention it. You have to use code if you want to communicate during a dungeon. "My, how the swallows doth fly..", and then quietly log on with four companions and never speak a word of it again. Instant officer status if you have a private Ventrilo server.
- I love online games that allow for this. - the "It's a open world that you play solo".
  Fallout 76 and New World come to mind. You do your own thing in this giant shared world. You literally can walk over to help another human, then wave goodbye. If they try to start pvp with you, you can throw a lol emoji and walk away and fade off into the distance.
  
  It’s basically like playing in a game world filled with super advanced NPCs. The other players are just there to make the world feel alive.
- This was basically why I switched to Guild Wars back in the day.
  Then GW2 and still playing today. Still no guild.
  Pugs were the best innovation. Rather just being near other people in the events. No group required.

Lol I'm currently playing GTA v online solo. I liked it when it was fresh for PS3 and everyone had low grade weapons and cars and was having drive bys. Now people are flying around in flying cars and clown costumes with jetpacks. It's Saints row at that point.
So I decided to give gtao another chance but I'm all by myself just doing taxi missions, pizza deliveries and being a vigilante who attacks drug houses and gangsters but doesn't go after regular folk.
- I love the role play It honestly improves the over all experience of most games

I want to do more than win a match, I want to beat the game. You can't beat multiplayer.
Also, singleplayer exists to entertain me personally. I can pause, quit, restart, mod, cheat, and engage in completely counterproductive nonsense whenever I like. I don't have to worry about game balance, fairness and making sure the computer has fun.
Also, while I'm sure a majority of people in multiplayer aren't assholes, it can seem that way when the assholes are the only ones who do anything but silently play the game.

TIL that millenials are just Gen X nerds.

I dont like competitive games anymore because Markov broke me long before that infamous video came out. People cheat. If the computer cheats at least its doing it to make the game better. People just cheat to be assholes.
Markov... dayz.... cod... just people cheating because they are not playing to have fun. They are ruining peoples games to have fun because they are broken.
- No, people cheat to feel better about themselves,
  
  If there's no tangible gain, like prize money or something, then I would agree with that. I can't really wrap my head around the mindset. I can't imagine playing without the satisfaction of besting or proper teamwork.
- Dayz... Holy shit brings back memories of spending hours and hours collecting new gear. Only for a random dude to randomly teleport shooting me in the face and disappearing. And people wonder why online pvp isn't fun for some of us.

I'm old enough that some of the PC games I grew up playing came on a CD.
In fact, I'm old enough to remember before when CD became a tag for cross dressing on Pornhub!
"You youngins think you're pro gamers‽ I've forgotten more PC games than y'all have put your hands on!"
- I’m old enough that some of the PC games I grew up playing came on a CD.
  As someone who remembers installing games with ten 5 1/4" floppy disks - ouch.
  
  Game code came in a magazine, written in BASIC, and you had to transcribe onto the computer... Sometimes multiple pages of it.
- Pfft I have 50 plus 5-1/4" disks for an Atari computer from 86... It still works, I fired it up a couple years ago!

This is a generation thing?
- I feel like the RTS genre has taken such a hit since the 90s heyday. People don't appreciate a good long form slow build Age of Empires or Warcraft 3 match anymore. Its all that twitchy DOTA nonsense.
  
  no, it all went to hell when we started seeing Koreans play and realized we were all terrible at these games. ladder started to fill with people who were super sweaty about it.
  also this is more personal for me but Jesus the micromanaging sucked ass. i am currently commanding an army to expand my territory; why am I also telling each individual idiot to cut down trees to have wood available? shouldn't you have figured this out by now?
  this is why i loved games where this part was either cut (like c&c) or the people were at least smart about these things (like settlers 1&2, even though i liked being a peaceful settlement rather than engage in wars in those games)

I like playing online because single player generally becomes too easy. But I also don't play online much anymore because the methods of getting online in a game fucking suck now. Random matchmaking being the only option is so, so, so fucking lame. It makes many people even more toxic than it was in the past. Being banned doesn't mean jack shit since you'll only be permanently banned for cheating (and even that's iffy), so nobody gives two fucks about being civil. Not like you'll ever see any of those players again anyway.

Do all the shit-ass logistics I have to do to get people together for a night out, and then not go out? Or, play with a bunch of strangers, more than a few of whom are insufferable dicks? Hey, gfy on both counts.

One of the coolest arcade moments I can personally recall was in the arcade at Penn Station in New York City. White, 20-something exec in a suit and tie playing Tetris head to head against a little Asian girl.

I don’t play a lot of multiplayer, but I love co-op. That’s why my favorite game to play online is Monster Hunter. Lets beef at the computer together

doesnt help that they make them insufferable and toxic

I'm born in the 80s and play competitive PC games every day. It's just a question if you like competitive games. I also have to emphasize that there are round based competitive games, you don't need to have quick reflexes.

Counterstrike and Starcraft used to be my jam. I'm less invested in the more modern games, where everything feels too frenetic and I don't know any of the maps anymore. But I'm also deeply psychologically scared by the old TV show Reboot. You're telling me every time I win a game of Mario Kart, a small neighborhood in the Computer World gets nullified? That's horrible! I would never!

Started out on my Dad’s Atari 2600, and other than PvE WoW and a couple odd games, I never bothered with multiplayer as most apparently know it. The few times I set my flag to PvP in WoW taught me all I needed to know about it.
- I was the opposite. I started playing wow not realizing there were different servers and just joined the one my buddy was on...when I got to the pvp point I realized that I couldn't attack the horde players and was like "wtf is this shit?" And rerolled onto a pvp server. Lol

Im a middle Xer and one on one fighting games were huge. I was not into them but playing against a human was big.
- Yeah and fighting games still are massive these days, it's been great to see them explode back into the scene. However playing them online against random faceless strangers holds no appeal to me.
  
  the major advantage that fighting games have in person is yhat it basically requires you to respect one another else get kicked out of thr venue and potentially get banned in local events. The being together in person allows comradery, and which is one of the reasons why FGC is very LGBTQ+ friendly, while things terminally online gets the worst people.
  basically the level of anonymity and lack thereof of a good punishment for cheating is what holds online games back.
  
  I honestly was never big on adversarial like that but I like coop.

I'm an elder millennial and I've spent maybe 3 or 4 hours playing a game on the internet. I have played probably several days worth of games on an intranet with friends. I'm not interested in playing against people I don't know.
I also have really old hardware so I haven't played online with a friend in maybe 15 years. I'm too busy adulting and newer gear isn't a priority.

This isn’t a generational thing. I’m the same way, and I’m Gen X.

Are you me????

Maybe around the same age as this person and we played the shit out of HL, Quake and Unreal T online. Then Phantasy Star Online.

This is also Gen-X trait but only if you got bullied for not eating paint chips back in the day.

My problem is that the computer is pretty stupid in most games, especially in strategy or similar genres. In more difficult settings the computer usually only have more resources or some buffs but is not a better player. Even in 2024, they can't manage to program a decent AI. It often kills the fun for me.

This is kinda why Bloodborn is the best game I’ve played since NES times

For me, always has been

Go sign Stop Killing Games then
- Link to the initiative. Sign now!
  BTW, Sweden at 99.93% of the threshold. And Finland already at 114%! Thank god for the Nordic countries.
  
  Sweeden reached 100%, Poland is 97.53%.

I like to play online to Get Good™, but I highly prefer playing with my friends. Each of my friends is good enough at a different game to be ranked regionally or globally.

I'm gen z but I honestly suck at most online competitive games so I can really relate

For me this is because I had dialup until 07

Gen X and I like real opponents to shoot virtually so I don't have to do it IRL. The first real multi-player FPS I played was the original Doom circa 1993. Those are some of my fondest gaming memories.
You do you though. Don't cave to peer pressure. If you don't want to play multi-player, don't. I understand- the toxicity can be excessive. People who don't sound like they're having fun. Weird to me.

Older millennial, I was a teenager when Xbox live started and I spent thousands of hours in various multiplayer lobbies. I don't play online really anymore because of I'm burnt out on either supremely toxic mother fuckers or just try hards that only want to win and not enjoy the challenge and competition of a good match. So I'll just go where I can have fun my way, which happens to be alone, or being yelled at by best friend as he runs from a monster either one.

This person never did lan parties?