On Hating PVP by Tauriq Moosa
Game Write
The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of 1337 Media or Gamecca Magazine.
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ultiplayer is a strange beast to me. It seems a place I want to have as little contact with as possible: the weird dudebro environment I wanted to escape from in high school, where worth is measured by arbitrary points acquired by adhering to made-up rules. Ironically, this is games in general: all games. Whether one’s involving your meat legs or your thumbs. The difference of course is that the opposition in the case of the thumb games are themselves not real. They don’t hustle you after, swear at your family, or make racist/homophobic slurs. We all know that gamers can be horrific people: entitled, whiny children, threatening and hateful, bizarrely protective and selfdesignated gate-keepers of who may love the creative form (the idiot idea of fake geek girls, anyone?). It’s these sorts of gamers, this sort of environment, that
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I want to avoid. Multiplayer seems to invite that directly into your ear. Of course, this isn’t true of all multiplayer indeed, I spent many years playing and loving Left 4 Dead. But here comes the split between co-op and PVP (or PVE vs PVP). Player vs Player to me is awful, because I’m terrible at games and I’m terrible at engaging directly with people. So it has all the ingredients of something I’d never like. Player versus Environment (or Co-op) is much better and a unique engagement with a game that could otherwise get stale. For example, Left 4 Dead didn’t have particularly long levels nor that many of them. However, due to new people engaging with you, due to different styles of play (aggressive, smart, etc.) that conflicted with your own, completely unique gameplay experiences were expected. Having never been
someone who engages that much or was ever excited for multiplayer, I do find myself squeeing in delight for two upcoming next-gen titles (I will continue to call PS4 and Xbox One “next gen” until more than three people in South Africa own one and there are more than 5 games). Destiny is a Bungie title, which is as meaningless to me as the Latin name for elephants. For someone who never had Xbox, I suppose I never saw the importance of the title – and today it (the latest one) still looks like a generic, albeit very pretty, shooter. However, what I do know is that Bungie is highly regarded and make quality games – so this studio legacy pouring itself into a new IP sounds exciting. Especially as the franchise looks this gorgeous, this big, this involved. Travelling through space, visiting different planets and environments, witnessing someone’s legacy as a Destiny player by virtue
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of their guns alone, is simply incredible. As is the new trend with next-gen multiplayer, there is an eroding of the usual “kill anyone who isn’t you and call them homophobic slurs” mindset: here, Destiny is about exploration, co-op play and, if you so wish, PVP. Similarly, The Division (what’s with the D names?), is a third-person, postapocalyptic squad shooter, set in New York. When I first saw it, it seemed reminiscent of Spec Ops: The Line. Except, the graphics engine, Snowdrop, looks more real than my own life. Fluid, gorgeous, also with RPG elements that convey evolution. These games look amazing because they invite you to participate in a world with your friends; not merely kill others. This is what multiplayer should be about and that’s why I’ll be participating. Also, I probably won’t suck as much at the games.. g