comment: >
  
  Still plenty of single player games out there
context: I'd argue one step further and say the internet has ruined gaming. Yes, MMO and multiplayer games can be fun. But they're ruined by data mining and people just copying the meta. Gone are the days of unique builds in rpg's or unique decks in ccg's. The internet has created a gaming culture of 'must win' or 'must be the best' instead of just having fun. 
  Playing single player games without walkthroughs and being stuck on a level for weeks and persevering to finally figure it out was a real buzz. It's too easy now to Google the answers when you're stuck. No meta, no walkthroughs, no trolls. The glory days of gaming.
  Maybe I'm just old but I agree gaming has been ruined in part by online gaming. Don't get me wrong I used to love playing Duke Nukem 3D over LAN against my friends. But I'd rather that's as far as multiplayer had ever gotten. >
  
  Even for single player games people get mad if others don’t follow the meta.
  Like bro let people enjoy games how they want too >
  
  Corporate greed has ruined gaming. The rise of online-only gaming is just a symptom. >
  
  The worst part about that is people blame the devs, game devs get so much hate on the internet for it although it’s definitely the publishers/owners decision >
  
  So far no one mentions Pay to win for multiplayer games.  This is an eventual fate when a multiplayer game gets popular. They'd rather make quick money for maybe two years and close down and do other stuff than maintaining the game out of courtesy for decades...   So IMO this ruins most online games. >
  
  I feel like Minecraft is an exception to this >
  
  I enjoy online co-op. For the most part I'm not big into PvP. >
  
  I gotta agree for the most part. Online multiplayer has just become too much of the focus for alot of games. >
  
  That's because 90% of gamers prefer this. If it wasn't true, companies wouldn't do it. >
  
  I dunno, I think there’s something to be said for the power and persuasion of marketing. Online games provide game companies with a total gold mine of potential profits, way more than any single player game. There’s just so much more to monetize in online. Who’s to say that much of the interest in online multiplayer isn’t driven by marketing pushes, since it benefits the company the more people play and engage online. >
  
  Yeah I mostly prefer single player games with a multiplier option but not pure multiplayer games. >
  
  BTD6 is the perfect example of multiplayer as a side mode, the game has online co-op and a few leaderboards for events, but the main game is pure, farm fresh singleplayer >
  
  I only play single player games or couch co op with my daughters. In my younger years I played WoW and helped lead 20-40 man raids on dragons and the like… I outgrew it. 
  Other players generally ruin gaming. >
  
  If I'm understanding correctly, what you're pointing to is corporate greed, not online multiplayer in and of itself?
  If you ("you" in general, not specifically OP) don't have the self control to not go crazy buying skins & the like, that's kind of a you problem. I have no problem with mtx/battlepasses/lootboxes existing, you can choose not to buy in. When they pop up in single player games, sometimes I'll buy them, sometimes I won't, depending on how much I like the game. It's a different thing if we're talking blatant pay to win, but I'm personally not going to play a game (irrespective of how good of a game it is) where my in-game success is dependent on how much cheddar I throw at it. That's a deal breaker for me.
  Online multiplayer makes a good vehicle for these practices, but none of these practices are specifically the fault of online multiplayer. >
  
  Seeing your favorite games, I'm assuming your taste in games is goated >
  
  ty! >
  
  Singleplayer games still exist, therefore gaming as a whole isn't ruined. >
  
  Unless your preferred games are FPSs. I grew up playing wolfenstein, Duke nukem 3D, doom, half life. Any FPS these days is primarily focused on online play. I have neither the time nor inclination to compete against squeeling teenagers.
  So yes, for me online gaming has ruined the experience for me. >
  
  Do you look into any indie games, there are thousands of indie FPS games. Ultrakill, Severed Steel, A.W.O.L, Dusk, you get the idea. My point is there are still singleplayer FPS games. You just got to look past the AAA crap, which most likely wouldn’t be worth it even if it was singleplayer. >
  
  This feels like the “I was born in the wrong generation, todays music sucks” argument. There are more games than ever, single player or otherwise. Maybe if you just went and played the games you liked instead of complaining about all the games you don’t you’d see there are still plenty of incredible single player games. Stardew Valley, Disco Elysium, and of the darks souls games, MGS5, etc… this is a dumb take. >
  
  Ugh, why can't we just go back to when open world wasn't a thing and you had to do things IN ORDER and the story was ALL you got. /s >
  
  I met my fiancé on Friday the 13th, online. 💖 >
  
  I have a whole friend group online 🥰 we play a lot of games together sometimes it's just 2 playing something, or we are all together when an nice game gets an update or smth.
  For me online gaming is about the social aspect. The gaming experience itself is better with single players, agree. >
  
  Online gaming overcomes many disadvantages of local software based games. Including bug fixes, patches, and updates. The distribution of the game is far simpler that doesn't involve the manufacturing of discs or other devices, making it far simpler and better for the environment. Your game data can be saved and retrieved anywhere. From the game Operation perspective, a multiplayer game is going to have to be controlled by a central server. Logistically there's no easy way around that. 
  There are still plenty of single player games out there. The online multiplayer game fills a role or need that is existed since the late 80s when us kids would line up around a Street fighter or mortal Kombat game and put a quarter on the machine and wait to challenge the next person.  Online multiplayer has not ruined gaming it's just not your thing. >
  
  OP is talking about online multiplayer, not using the internet as a distribution or maintenance tool for games. The advantages you mention aren’t at all specific to multiplayer games. You can achieve the exact same through steam or other platforms for games that are oriented around single player modes. >
  
  I agree with you that there is a downside. It's something that I thought would be incredible back before it existed, but I don't really enjoy it now that it is here. I think I am too thin-skinned for it. >
  
  I hate that when you do find a good single player game to find out they still do micro transactions, I shouldn’t be tempted to spend extra money on a game I play by myself aside from DLC that adds content to the game. Fallout 4 and the atomic store being the first evidence of this kind of problem. >
  
  For me, its Playstation Trophies that have ruined games for me. It's not an addiction at all because I can go weeks if not months without playing games when I have been travelling in the past with no such withdrawals or temptations. However, I play Valorant and Overwatch 2 on PC, otherwise PS5 (previously PS4 and PS3), SteamDeck and Nintendo Switch. 
  I find myself hardly ever touching anything except competitive multiplayer on PC, and games on PS, as I can play for Rank progress on PC, or my impressive PSN Trophy collection.
  I have no interest in Steam Achievements, as I started with PSN first in my early teens. Nintendo has no such collection based mechanic. I only get games on Switch or PC that are not avaliable on Playstation, because if I was to play them on other platforms, I would be kicking myself thinking, "I could be getting the same experience but getting trophies for this."
  Occasionally I break the cycle and enjoy my Switch games, or play online games on PC with my friends, not ranked queues, and really enjoy myself. I do feel like my recent ADHD diagnosis has a lot to answer for. Trophies feel like a list I get to check off and its so, so satisfying. They also help me focus on the game for longer. I've picked up new hobbies and dropped them many times over the years, which is transparent with my gaming, having been invested in MMOs and certain series in the past which I don't play any more, but one thing I am always gonna come back to is my trophy collection. It's bittersweet, as this has both made, and ruined, gaming for me. >
  
  You can enjoy your single player/campaign mode games with multiplayer games still existing. One doesn't destroy the other. >
  
  that would be true if it weren't for some singleplayer games having some of the tropes common in multiplayer games like microtransactions. I'm not saying that multiplayer is ruining gaming, it's that modern multiplayer games are ruining gaming >
  
  There's so many games out there that there is going to inevitably be some that monetize differently, it doesn't mean that current multiplayer games are corrupting it, anymore than you may be able to argue that single player games are ruining multiplayer. >
  
  Stop playing those types of games then, there's countless games being released that aren't full of that stuff. There are more games being released than we can count and an ever larger library of games we've never played.
  Stop chasing AAA titles is an easy one. Be more choosy and stop choosing the biggest flashiest games. Some of those games can be amazing (Final Fantasy VIIR was awesome and was the last AAA title I bought, oh and Crisis Core very recently) but some of them are just so generic and repetative.
  Yes, loot boxes and gacha elements suck most of the time. So ignore them, I do. >
  
  The ones that lean towards esports (skill balance, toxic players, etc.), Pay 2 win, and/or one built with a loot box/gatcha system tends to be not fun.
  An online co-op like Deep Rock Galactic makes online multiplayer very fun. Rock and stone. ⛏️ >
  
  
  with multiplayer games you are forced to interact with the community, which usually means more toxicity than skinny dipping in Chernobyl.
  
  Gamers online can be some of worst behaved human garbage oxygen thieves out there, rivalled only by TikTok.
  I find that playing really early in the morning lessens the exposure dramatically because most of the others online aren’t from my time zone (North America) and act more civil >
  
  Why is it, online multiplayer ruins every game and not corporate greed desperate to cash in on multiplayer so they stuff it everywhere is ruining every game?