HiGame

As time goes on, more games are relying on online elements. And while that makes perfect sense for multiplayer games, single-player games are being impacted as well. When used sparingly, it’s no big deal, but developers and publishers seem totally willing to sacrifice the user experience for online hooks. And unsurprisingly, consumers aren’t happy with the situation. So, when are developers going to get the picture, and stop demanding online participation?

At the end of March, 2K Sports shut down the servers for NBA 2K14. While it’s not particularly surprising to see a sports game’s multiplayer mode shut down after a year or so, the server shutdown left the save files for many single-player games unusable. If your “career mode” save used the online hooks, it stopped working completely. Users do have the option of going offline exclusively, but that means starting over completely.

The reaction from users was incredibly harsh, and 2K Sports quickly turned the servers back on. Instead of a paltry 16-month window, 2K Sports promised 18 to 27 months of online support. It’s better than nothing, but that’s little more than a bandaid on a gaping wound. Unless the devs push out a patch to convert online saves to offline saves, players will still be left out in the cold eventually.



Of course, this problem goes well beyond sports titles. Infamously, SimCity and Diablo III both required Internet connections at launch. After serious performance issues and consumer outcry, offline modes were later patched into both of those titles. Even after these massive failures of the always-on ideology, it seems developers and publishers are still willing to inconvenience the players to push online functionality.

Now, not all online connectivity is bad. For example, I think BioWare’s Dragon Age Keep is a very clever solution to the save game problem. Despite my enthusiasm, it’s still a flawed implementation. If your Internet connection is down or the Keep servers are offline, you can’t customize your world state at all. At some point, there was talk about side-loading world states over USB, but that feature never materialized. And when EA pulls the plug on the Keep someday, the game will be significantly worse off.

Obviously, there are benefits for everyone when online functionality is included as an optional feature. But locking major single-player functionality behind an online gate almost always ends in heartbreak. What we need is a balance between online and offline, but the industry continues to fumble on this issue. How much consumer outrage is it going to take before the developers and publishers wise up?


More...