Beamer wrote on Nov 26, 2012, 14:28:
It isn't so much about dudebro ignorance, though that's there, as it is about bang for the buck. A single player game, outside of open world games like Skyrim, is 8-20 hours. A multiplayer game is endless. If you're only going to buy one game this month, it makes sense to get the game that will last you the entire month. Or two months. Whatever your budget is.
I really wish that mentality wasn't so prevalent though, if only because I find competitive multiplayer games really repetitive, and I tire of them quickly. I'd much rather have a really engrossing singleplayer / co-op experience to dive into. Yes, for any singleplayer game I'm likely to shelve it after a playthrough, but if it's really good, I'll always pick it up again a few months later to give it another run-through. I do this for all of the great singleplayer games in my collection.
Of course, I also know that it isn't the same for everyone, and others prefer competitive multiplayer to singleplayer, and that I'm probably in the minority. Which is OK... my problem with this is that the raw sales metrics affect what kind of games end up published in the future. These days, this means I'm far less likely to see the kind of singleplayer / co-op gameplay experience I enjoy come onto the market.