Heads up: this is a rather disjointed rant. Get over it.
I play video games to have fun, relax, and enjoy myself. It’s my hobby, something I do because it pleases me. When I play a game, I expect to have a challenge, sure, but I do expect that challenge to be fair, to make sense, and to give me a chance to better my skills and progress, all the while enjoying myself.
With Halo 5 being free this past week, and me not having completed Halo 4, I was left with only the multiplayer modes to play. Now, online game modes are usually quite brutal, and difficulties will vary based on the skill levels of other players, but Halo 5 has been more rough than normal for me to get into. Adding in that this is a limited free play period, I wanted to get in as many games as I could, which means playing far more intensely than I normally would, which doesn’t help me out stress wise or skill wise – I need breaks between heated battles, to relax.
For the last time, those aren’t the prices I paid for those games.
Now I know what you’re thinking: the whole “Get Good” idea comes to mind, but let’s look at it seriously – if you play a game, you are wanting to have fun, no? People need a chance to actually get a feel for the games multiplayer modes, and some matches don’t give them any chance for such. Frustration sets in, and people eventually give up. You don’t know how many people I have seen as I have played the past few days quit because they just couldn’t get a hit in, it seems. I feel bad for them, because I know how they feel – they just want to have a chance to get better at the game, and thanks to the nature of online play, they can’t. It sucks.
There is a learning curve for most any game, and some games take longer than others. If a person gets too frustrated during that period, they might well quit the game and never play it again.
Granted, there are some single player games that are hard for the sake of it (the Ninja Gaiden titles, from the NES on to the 360, are good examples of such) and those games have their niche audience, but even then, the games seem to find a way to give the player something to leverage against the enemy – some mechanic that if they understand it will take some of the edge off the games harshness.
Online multiplayer often lacks such – you simply have to get better, and depending on how well matched you are, that can sometimes be harder than it seems. Online gaming can be more frustrating than rewarding, and the question has to be asked – If you aren’t having fun, what’s the point?
Seems like the gaming community is as negative as ever, focusing on bringing people down rather than trying to perk them up. Go figure.