Multiplayer gaming is dead? What is there to play?

[SFJake]

Renegade X is great, but it too, is pretty much dead. No US players here as far as I know, and very, very small community, too often the games die off, and I enjoy this game only at high player count (I'm still waiting for 40+ players per server, but there might NEVER be enough players again... how depressing)

So I look elsewhere, but everything is terrible. I'm talking about "player vs player" kind of games, by the way.

I don't care for deathmatch or last man standing games.

I hate anything without the ability to drop in and out of a game freely.

I hate small scale games (10v10 is my absolute minimum player count in a game, but I prefer 32 and above).

Anything with "microtransactions" that means the game in total costs more than 60$ = screw them. No games where you need to unlock a bunch of things over hundreds of hours.

MOBAs are obviously out of the question.

I like shooters, but anything like CoD, BF or Counter-Strike is, to me, really, really bad. I have never had any enjoyment out of those.

I've enjoyed Renegade the most, Team Fortress 2 for a time (not anymore), Chivalry (game is utterly dead in US east) and the old Unreal Tournament games.

Do I live alone in this ridiculously depressing multiplayer gaming world?

[tekgunman]

Classic renegade

[SFJake]

Well yeah, thats an obvious one <-< Not very alive, though, same problem.

[Truxa]

Planetside 2 has it's peak (~1250 total players online) at around 9 pm Berlin (3pm US central) every day, with battles ranging from 24v24 to 96v96 nowadays since a couple servers merged into 1.

However, it can become very hard to get a grip from whats going on.

It is a free game but it does have a micro transaction feature and it does require the 'play x hours to unlock' thing you complain about, but thats the RPG part of the game.

I have been playing PS2 for about 50 hours or so now and I do enjoy it. I haven't paid a single dime to the game and I'm no where good at it, but the large scale battles make it fun for me.

I'm that 1 guy hanging back sniping everything off, covering the battlefront from flank attacks, or the support unit to heal/repair and resupply ammo.

You start out having the basic guns for every class, but most of the times they are better than those you unlock (after playing 30 hours killing the enemy)

It's like this:

Kill an enemy, receive 125 experience, 250 experience gives a coin. With those coins you buy upgrades for your character.

Succesfully attacking and securing a base yield over 1000 experience (=4 coins) succesfully defending an area yields less. Certain key-points increase the experience gain (by 5%, 25%, etc)

Kill a person who has been killing a lot, yields more experience than a newb. (experience by threatlevel)

Taking over a base can take up to 10 minutes, but without proper defenses, 3 minutes will suffice. It's a BF-like capturing system (stay in the area to cap)

These are just a handfull of ways to earn esperience. Medics gain with healing, technicians gain with repairing and resupplying ammo. Certain vehicles function as spawnpoints, they yield experience that way too. In a single hour of playing, you can purchase persistent upgrades to your character, be it a scope for your gun, or increase a class skill etc.

Give it a go, it's more fun the longer you play it.

[SFJake]

I know about PS2, and I'm sorry, but its a very disgusting game. Has all the horrors of modern FPS I hate and its probably the most disgusting F2P model I know. It takes ridiculous amount of times to unlock anything (or a ridiculous amount of money). I got bored of Tribes Ascend because unlocking everything was going to take 120 hours. Some single weapon in PS2 can take 40 hours. You have no idea how disgusting this is to me.

First time I heard about the game I actually was excited since in some ways it made me think of Renegade, but its easily one of the least fun FPS I have -ever- tried in my entire life. The fights are beyond horrible, the game is a never ending back and forth and there's nothing but tedious in every part of the game and its gameplay.

You couldn't find a better example of how NOT to do everything in a shooter than Planetside 2. Sorry.

[ARC_trooper]

I am with you on this! Except for the bf part, i like that game.. Well i like bf1942/2142 and bf2 But thats more because i love the concept that you can drive/fly anything you like..

Actually i have the same feeling for coop games and with that i mean "old skool" split screen. (but thats on the ps3) There are only a few of those where you can actually play a campaign togheter in splitscreen. I love to play a game with a friend but not when he's at his house and i'm in mine.

[Truxa]

I'm sorry to say this SFJake but you sound very bitter.

It wasn't my intent to offend you with the PS2 idea, for me it is a diversion realy. Not that I'm a total fan of the game and playing it until it's death, it's just another game to try, thats it.

Regardless, I have the feeling I must agre with you and ARC_trooper. Games these days are too fast paced, like CSGO and BF4. It's the same with today's music, compare it to the music of 30 years ago, it's horrible.

Todays youth do not want to think only act and react to an ever repetative simple situation.

I started playing warthunder. Yes, also a free multiplayer game with microtransactions, but it's a flight sim. A World War II flight/fight simulator. I look passed the microtransactions and only play for free and for fun.

I long for games like America's Army 1 or 2, back in the day those were realistic coop team vs team games. Death means death untill the round ends.

[SFJake]

Yeah we ... don't see eye to eye at all. Sorry.

I am very bitter, though, yes. I can't find multiplayer games I like. I always have gigantic problems finding anything I enjoy these days.

[RoundShades]

Renegade X is great, but it too, is pretty much dead.

So is Super Monday Night Combat. But it is a moba too.

Despite that, I recommend it. It is a challenging multi-facet 5v5 shooter. I say 5v5, as a moba you have to constantly kill bot waves against an enemy doing the same, while killing enemies and avoiding death, and then there is turrets to push against at the enemy's front door.

So, despite that it is small player teams, moba, and dead, I still recommend it. It has 16 characters, and to unlock them... let me do maths.... 120 on average a game... 6000 average cost... 40 games per character isn't asking for a lot, some games make you grind.

And... you get tf2 hats if that is your thing?

But... you gotta be good. That game will chew you up and spit you out into an elegantly shaped forged urn, if you don't know how to play it like a shooter and a tournament fighter as well as a moba, kill bots and keep yourself alive while showing excellent brawling and flank-ambush skill and fluent active heat-of-battle aim.

[devilslayersbane]

Personally I enjoy Planetside 2 and I feel it has a very good F2P model and even an interesting backstory. My problem is it's performance and balance issues. Regardless, I'm not here to debate, I'm here to provide a suggestion.

Look up Arma 3. It's a game that you can play however you want. Period. It is the true definition of a sandbox. You want to play as a civilian in a police state? go ahead. You want to be in a platoon, fighting an enemy that's of equal or lesser technological strength? You can. You want to be an insurgent or a spec-op? Drive tanks? Be a dedicated gunner on a gunship? Do it. you can do just about anything in Arma 3. It has a larger player base and a lot of communities dedicated to different things. You can even create your own missions with ease. You can play with or against players and AI. It's really a lot of fun. No microtransactions, no fees for features. Hell, the Helicopters DLC that's slated for release soon won't keep you from riding in one of the new helo's (although it will in order to pilot it). It's by far one of the best games I've ever played. It's big, immersive and even though it doesn't have tracers everywhere, the combat is really intense because dying is really easy. It's not really an FPS as it is a combat sim. If it's not what you're looking for, then you can make into what you're looking for. You can mod it to hell and back again if you so desire.

My only complaint about it is that the AI only runs on a single core, so your FPS might take a hit in single player, but other than that it's a really solid game and has a much more intense and real multiplayer aspect than anything else I've seen so far.

Edit: I forgot to mention that it's $60 bucks on steam. And there's a new fatigue system that takes some getting used to, but once you do it's so easy to keep under control.

[NodCommander]

If you like RTSs, then Forged Alliance Forever is an amazing place to play the original Supreme Commander online!

Regardless, I have the feeling I must agre with you and ARC_trooper. Games these days are too fast paced, like CSGO and BF4. It's the same with today's music, compare it to the music of 30 years ago, it's horrible.

Todays youth do not want to think only act and react to an ever repetative simple situation.

Excuse me, what? Did you just call Battlefield 4 a "fast paced" game? ... Okay...

[Truxa]

If you like RTSs, then Forged Alliance Forever is an amazing place to play the original Supreme Commander online!

Regardless, I have the feeling I must agre with you and ARC_trooper. Games these days are too fast paced, like CSGO and BF4. It's the same with today's music, compare it to the music of 30 years ago, it's horrible.

Todays youth do not want to think only act and react to an ever repetative simple situation.

Excuse me, what? Did you just call Battlefield 4 a "fast paced" game? ... Okay...

Yes I do, I don't play it, I watched youtube to find that out. Standing still for more than 3 seconds gets you killed and around every corner there is a single enemy waiting to kill you. I call that fast paced. And as soon as you spawn back, you can either be lucky or unlucky but in either cases no time to prepare, whereas in RenX you spawn in your base and have a few moments to prepare yourself.

[MajorLunaC]

Why the hell are you complaining? Seriously! On Linux we have maybe 0.01% of the games that Windows has, and certainly not usually professionally made, or even well-made, or even nice-looking. That doesn't mean the games are good on either platform, but you have a HELL of a lot more games to choose from. Look at old, new, flash, HTML5, Chrome-games, etc.

Go look, go try, look at ratings, look at popularity, look at servers (see http://www.gameservers.com/ , gametrackers,com/ ), look at best game listings, look at game download sites (gamespy, gamershell.com, steam, desura, etc.).

You seem to have particular tastes, so look for yourself. There is no shortage of games for a Windows user and I don't want to hear you complaining you don't have any games to play again.

The only game I can recommend, even though it's not really popular anymore, is Tribes 2 (now the community-supported TribesNext), the MUCH better game that TribesAscend was vaguely based on. Tribes 2 requires no leveling, no experience gain. Just start and play. It's more a nice concept game now, although it was much better before all the mods got wiped out by a patch. Still fun, still nice maps (just watch out for mine-disks as they weren't a problem when I played it long ago). You can also try the (likely) more popular Global Agenda Free Agent ( https://account.hirezstudios.com/globalagendagame/ ) that is somewhat related but requires some permanent leveling.

[SFJake]

What the hell was that.

Nobody goes Linux to play games, so why the hell is the comparison even here?

I'm always looking, by the way. This topic is just another one asking for things I missed. Clearly I did not miss anything.

[MajorLunaC]

I had to go to Linux because everything, especially games, stopped working on Windows. It wasn't a choice. It was because tons of trojans, viruses, and worms infiltrated the deepest darkest depths of Windows that not even repair techs are allowed to see, much less access. Yes, there is such a place on your computer and it's absolutely vital, and you don't even know exactly where that is. I had all the firewalls, virus-scans, and malware removers in the world, but nothing could fix anything. Windows itself has to be reinstalled every once in a while or else it just slows down more and more, and this is will RAM-clearers, cache cleaners, etc.

So, I don't go to Linux only to play games, but so my computer will actually run smoothly and not break over time. And if it ever does break, I know exactly what's going on, unlike the useless Windows pop-ups. Windows players saying they don't have games to play seem like they're just spoiled brats that don't realize how lucky they are to have all the games in the world, while Linux users are just left with mostly trash. That's changing but super slow. It's thanks to Microsoft and Windows that other platforms are ignored and have few games. Linux is the sane and stable alternative that everyone should be using, but thanks to the Microsoft monopoly, it is incredibly rare that any school teaches anything but Windows, and programming exclusively for Windows.

[Truxa]

I had to go to Linux because everything, especially games, stopped working on Windows. It wasn't a choice. It was because tons of trojans, viruses, and worms infiltrated the deepest darkest depths of Windows that not even repair techs are allowed to see, much less access.

No idea what you are on about and what your problem is, I don't have these issues using windows. Once in a while (lets say once every 3 months or so) I get a notification of a possible threat, I dive into it and remedy the situation how I see fit.

As long as you or other people who use your machine, do not access dubious websites, then there is hardly anything going wrong with a windows OS.

IMO, linux being a free OS (most of the time), is more prone to being broken than windows or Mac. Yes, microsoft/windows have a monopoly, but thats only because it was the first major OS following DOS. The reason for Mac having less issues with trojans and such is because the vast majority of businesses and privately used OS is windows. Hackers would have a better target targetting windows than Mac/Apple, let alone linux users.

So your complaint about SFJake's question for lack of playable games is in my opinion, ungrounded.

I wish my school added programming into my curriculum

[LaserOfFury]

I had to go to Linux because everything, especially games, stopped working on Windows. It wasn't a choice. It was because tons of trojans, viruses, and worms infiltrated the deepest darkest depths of Windows that not even repair techs are allowed to see, much less access. Yes, there is such a place on your computer and it's absolutely vital, and you don't even know exactly where that is. I had all the firewalls, virus-scans, and malware removers in the world, but nothing could fix anything. Windows itself has to be reinstalled every once in a while or else it just slows down more and more, and this is will RAM-clearers, cache cleaners, etc.

So, I don't go to Linux only to play games, but so my computer will actually run smoothly and not break over time. And if it ever does break, I know exactly what's going on, unlike the useless Windows pop-ups. Windows players saying they don't have games to play seem like they're just spoiled brats that don't realize how lucky they are to have all the games in the world, while Linux users are just left with mostly trash. That's changing but super slow. It's thanks to Microsoft and Windows that other platforms are ignored and have few games. Linux is the sane and stable alternative that everyone should be using, but thanks to the Microsoft monopoly, it is incredibly rare that any school teaches anything but Windows, and programming exclusively for Windows.

1) Your tech sucks.

2) Most firewalls you install only block ports. Adding more doesn't do anything. Also having all those crappy malware scanners would have eaten tons of resources.

3) If a virus is good, most malware scanners (mainly those consumer ones) won't see the malware or be able to do anything before the malware executes.

4) RAM-cleaners. That just sounds like pure adware. Also most funny cleaners (Registry Cleaner PRO, Windows PC Cleanup Tuneup 2014 Pro, etc...)usually are adware.

5) If you are getting so much crap. Something is wrong with your browsing habits.

now for that second part..

6) Spoiled brats eh. I have issues sometimes playing something because the gaming industry is ran mostly by money hungry publishers now. So much problems these days.

7) Windows is great. I love it (Running 8.1)

8) I'm glad the schools teach windows. Need more of it.

9) Not all school programming is windows exclusive. For example, C++ and Java are not Windows exclusive.

My servers and clients run Windows environments harmoniously together, It is great! Love playing with it and learning it.

[MajorLunaC]

Yeah .... why not look into all of that instead of boasting "Windows is good! Windows is great!" The Linux I run has yet to have any malware, and I get no crashes, unlike Windows. Bugs and issues are fixed ludicrously faster than on Windows. Overall, Windows can be thought of as crippleware. It's not about bragging, it's about understanding what's going on. Stop forming baseless opinions and "dive right in" to get the real facts about Windows and Linux. Windows is a sadistic company that tries to buy out and/or destroy competitors (glance at TechRights site if you're interested). Linux users have to make their own games a lot of the time thanks to those money-hungry companies and everyone else completely ignoring Linux thanks to baseless opinions like yours.

[devilslayersbane]

Yeah .... why not look into all of that instead of boasting "Windows is good! Windows is great!" The Linux I run has yet to have any malware, and I get no crashes, unlike Windows. Bugs and issues are fixed ludicrously faster than on Windows. Overall, Windows can be thought of as crippleware. It's not about bragging, it's about understanding what's going on. Stop forming baseless opinions and "dive right in" to get the real facts about Windows and Linux. Windows is a sadistic company that tries to buy out and/or destroy competitors (glance at TechRights site if you're interested). Linux users have to make their own games a lot of the time thanks to those money-hungry companies and everyone else completely ignoring Linux thanks to baseless opinions like yours.

While gaming may not be on Linux yet, a lot of professional software devs are making more and more linux-compatible software making it more viable in the workplace (the place where it actually counts). I have a lot of family working for various software and networking companies and the shift is slow but steady. As far as windows goes itself, I enjoy it. It's easy, user-friendly and doesn't require much thought to actually get running. I'm also well aware of what can happen if I'm not careful with my browsing. However, I have a failsafe that I built myself to reset my computer. Linux, however, takes a bit more configuration and getting used to. A lot (a vast majority) of people don't have the time or patience to mess around with linux. As far as business goes, by your logic, all businesses are sadistic. One goes into business with the intention of making money so being "money-hungry" is a given. However, in terms of microsoft's case, a lot of that money goes into actual research and development (either directly -i.e. making new code- or indirectly -i.e. sending kids to school-). You also have to remember that windows is product to be sold because it puts food on people's tables (from the most basic to most extravagant tables). Linux, however is free. It doesn't cost a dime. Like it or not, friend, windows helps people. Why don't you find some credible sources instead of using websites like TechRights. I've found multiple credible websites that deny TechRights as a credible read. My advice: Learn to browse the web. Make sure you research what you're downloading and pay careful attention to advertisements and adware downloads. Get a new computer, as it's likely that whatever was in the depths of your computer is still there, if it was actually there. If it was just a pop-up that was telling you that files were infected and that you should buy such and such anti-virus, that program is the virus and just requires a bit of lag-inducing to get around it.

My final statement is to stop calling other opinions baseless, when the only source you produced wasn't completely credible yourself.

Just for the record, LOF, all computers will degrade. Obsolescence is a real thing as well.

[Kriemhild Gretchen]

[LaserOfFury]

Yeah .... why not look into all of that instead of boasting "Windows is good! Windows is great!" The Linux I run has yet to have any malware, and I get no crashes, unlike Windows. Bugs and issues are fixed ludicrously faster than on Windows. Overall, Windows can be thought of as crippleware. It's not about bragging, it's about understanding what's going on. Stop forming baseless opinions and "dive right in" to get the real facts about Windows and Linux. Windows is a sadistic company that tries to buy out and/or destroy competitors (glance at TechRights site if you're interested). Linux users have to make their own games a lot of the time thanks to those money-hungry companies and everyone else completely ignoring Linux thanks to baseless opinions like yours.

I look into a lot of things. Windows is great As for malware, I don't run into that stuff myself. Others in the house have had issues with adware and crap but I have this cute linux system on my network that stops all of that stuff, so now I'm worry free. And oh, My servers run a linux-type system.

I don't know what all this "baseless" crap is about. It seems you are missing a lot of information for these posts, for example; "everyone else completely ignoring Linux"..... Linux is a huge customizable system and myself, I really like it. Some amazing things are done using Linux systems and they are not ignored by industry whatsoever.

I made this ownCloud server that would only work with SMB if it was using a linux system (smbclient), so I set one up using Xubuntu for the hell of it. I can admit though, I can be often too lazy when working with linux systems such as Ubuntu.

For me though, Windows all the way for many server/client configurations. Especially clients. As for the baseless stuff goes though, I speak from experience.