Story/Campaign vs Onine gaming

I couldn't find a thread or poll on this, so if there is one, then this one can be deleted, or however it works ^-^

I thought this would be interesting to discuss. There was a time when online gaming didn't exist. As the years have passed, online gaming has become very popular and is enjoyed worldwide.

My question to you is this: which do you enjoy more, playing through a story or playing against people online?

Remember to vote!

Online has endless loads of fun.

and frustration/RAGE

Only if you're a noob. Are you a noob lazy? >:]

I prefer a story/campaign because of the adventure it holds. Even if it's linear with not much replay value, there is still a story to be told and an adventure to experience at least once. Great cinematic moments can be crafted in a story driven environment and these moments are the reason I play games. When that mixture of great voice acting, storytelling, artwork, and music can trigger any emotion that it was designed to.

For online gaming it depends on the type of game but from my experience it has become way too competitive and way less fun over the years. Now I have my share of stories of great underdog victories and epic comebacks just as anyone else does, but it isn't worth the competitive and stressful atmosphere in my opinion. Maybe some folks like the challenge of competing against other humans, but it's not where I find my fun.

That being said, I really enjoy a good online co-op campaign. When it becomes less about competing against another human and more about cooperation with friends (and sometimes strangers) and where we can play at our own pace and progress through a story together.

Buy it for the campaign
stay for the multiplayer

Works for me

I rarely buy games now much because single player almost always takes a backseat. Developers are afraid that people won't buy their games if there isn't any multiplayer content to 'prolong the experience', when a good single player-only game (case in point: Mass Effect) will be rich enough that you soon want to play it through again. However strategic, skill-based or tactical, multiplayer is essentially mindless fun, and there are plenty of games which do that very well. For me though, mindless fun is a sideshow to the true, cinematic quality which gaming as an art-form deserves to deliver.

That's certainly not to say that I don't like multiplayer games - I rape at Halo :p - but that's another franchise where for me, the single player got progressively worse as the multiplayer got better; the universe had so much promise and the first game was fantastic, even the second was good, but the third was poorly voiced, poorly scripted, underwhelming and hugely anti-climactic. Modern Warfare 1 proved that even with a short campaign as part of a broadly multiplayer experience, that isn't a sacrifice that needs to be made.

I agree with everything you have said. The fun kind of dims when it comes to online gaming as you have the competitors fighting to be the best. Gaming with friends is a laugh; the infinite teamwork and arguments with people from around the world, which is a pro of online gaming - you get to play with people from around the world.

edit: However, with that said, a story in a game can become extremely gripping, and when you finally complete it you will play it through again. When I received Final Fantasy XIII I played it for around 16 hours on the Saturday, and about the same on the Sunday. I had a lot of free time ^-^

It is true. If either Infinity Ward or Treyarch took multiplayer from Call of Duty I doubt anyone would buy it.

Games these days have a short story/campaign and only focus on multiplayer

Im 50/50 on this, I love the story mode of games, but they eventually end, and thats when online comes into play, unless its a game like Bioshock, where I can play the story for hours

both can be fun...especially on Red Dead Redemption.

I love both. I put WAY more gaming hours in multiplayer games, like LOL, Modern warfare 2, WoW, Phantasy star, but I get a whole different feeling playing single player campaigns like Final fantasy, Soul blazer and the like.

Both is good and both is needed :)

I like any game with good sstory line... so i stick with the story, however games like COD and so on is good to play when there is more then one people, hahahahaha, but I still like the story for the overall reason.

I think this is what's happening to most games nowadays as with most devs,they would focus on multiplayer aspect more and leave the campaign alot to be desired.

There need to be an understanding that not all games benefit from online gaming/multiplayer.

I should have added another poll option for 50/50!

I dont really bother with the story mode anymore, Its all about that online play baby! :D (Some storys piss me off anyway and you always get that one mission thats complete bullshit which you really dont want to do)

Id like to play a game like GTA where you can choose options as in a visual novel, GTA with different arcs. (Tomoyo ending) That would be AWESOME! ! :P~

It's all for the story.

I don't like multiplayer much, because my friends and I can't always synchronize our on-line times (different time-zones oh yeah) and simply, I just don't find multiplayer as exciting as a good story.

And in most cases, you can end story in convenient time, and then pick it up again where you left it. Not necessarily the case in on-line gaming.

I'd love that with San andreas, I wish there wasn't that mission where . He's the funniest character in the entire game and it's just a shame the story turned out how it did and you had to kill him. :(

I like both, but I prefer the story.

For me, a video game is a medium for stories, feelings and thoughts. I like to play a single player game to discover the story and the characters. I also like to master whatever system the gameplay hosts.

I also like multiplayer games, but I never feel the need to be very competitive. I do not like to play with unknown people, which means that to play a game online, I would need to have friends to play with/against.