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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 5</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
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        <p align="LEFT"><img src="../images/guest.jpg" width="195" height="232" align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../corner/index.html"><font size="-1">Guest 
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          Single player? We don't need no stinkin' single player!</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Steve &quot;<a href="mailto:magicman@nihilistic.com" target="">MagicMan</a>&quot; 
          Thoms </font></b></font></p>
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i><font size="-1">Note: 
          This is my opinion and mine alone. It does not represent the opinion, 
          the direction or the stance of <a href="http://www.nihilistic.com">Nihilistic 
          Software</a> or any of its other employees.</font></i></font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../images/letters/t.jpg" width="26" height="40" align="LEFT">he 
          single player first person shooter (FPS) well has run dry. I do not 
          believe that light halos, lens flares, specular lighting, fog, true 
          curved surfaces, 9000 poly models, bump mapping, or whatever the next 
          buzz feature to jump out at us further the single player experience 

          as much as innovative multiplayer options will. The eye candy in games 
          (most recently, <b>Forsaken</b> and <b>Unreal</b>) definitely looks 
          great and I love it just as much as the next gamer, but it doesn't change 
          the experience. That leaves the developers no choice but to extend the 
          experience through gameplay. Without crossing genres, I'm not sure it 
          can happen.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Many developers 
          will try to do something different. They will tell you what they're 
          doing right now is something new that the FPS market hasn't seen before. 
          <b>Quake 2 </b>did something different with its unit-based missions. 
          <b>SiN</b> is going to give us what they have been calling ABO's as 
          well as some powerful scripted events.<b> Half-Life</b> looks like they'll 
          be offering an entirely new single player experience with plenty of 
          scripted events and a "real world" setting. Other games will pick up 
          on pieces of those that work and extend it I'm sure. All of this is 
          definitely something different (and usually makes things more interesting), 
          but it doesn't really change the basic gameplay. In the end, a FPS boils 
          down to killing everything in sight, finding a "key" to let you proceed, 
          then repeating. And that, in itself, is enough to satisfy the majority 
          of gamers playing single player (myself included - I play and love the 
          single player part of most games when I get a new shooter just like 
          everyone else).</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So, where does 
          that leave developers? It forces them to focus on multiplayer to be 
          innovative. I'm not saying any of this is a Bad Thing<font size="-1"><sup>TM</sup></font>. 
          The FPS is where my passions lie and probably always will. More specifically, 
          however, my passions lie in the multiplayer aspects of these FPS games. 
          Developers that leave the multiplayer portion of the game out or include 
          it as an afterthought, are going to be sorry. The good thing is that 
          I think most developers know this already and are doing something about 
          it.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For the longest 
          time, the multiplayer portions of the game have been secondary or done 
          as an add-on (if done at all, that is). The beginning of the end for 
          that train of thought is here. More and more games have been touting 
          Internet play or LAN play before you even hear about what's going on 
          with the single player aspect of the game. And more and more gamers 
          are clamoring for Internet play every day. <b>Descent</b> (not a "true" 
          FPS in some definitions) was the king of online experiences after <a href="http://www.kali.net">Kali</a> 
          arrived. QuakeSpy (now <a href="http://www.gamespy.com">GameSpy</a>) 
          did the same for <b>Quake</b> and <b>Quakeworld</b>. The market is shifting 
          and if support for programs like GameSpy and Kali continue to be as 
          widespread as it is even at these early stages, you'll see the majority 
          of the FPS games coming out feature a scaled-down single player experience 
          and a scaled-up multiplayer experience. I think this is a Good Thing<font size="-1"><sup>TM</sup></font>. 
          </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Developers are 
          constantly looking for that "replayability factor". How can we get the 
          game player to stay with this game for the next 12 to 18 months while 
          we pound away at the next one? There are few things more replayable 
          than multiplayer. I understand that a huge portion of the sales of games 
          come from the "average consumer" who only plays single player. But, 
          we're going to see a decline in those numbers as well (or more correctly, 
          a shift). The number of home gamers who have access to the net is rocketing 
          upwards and nobody would dispute that. Cable modems, ADSL, or a newer 
          technology not yet up to full speed will be widespread in a relatively 
          short time (I'd be shocked if every community didn't have easy access 
          to high speed net connections one or two game development cycles from 
          now). This basically means that more and more gamers are going to be 
          drawn to the online multiplayer experience. Where the gamers go, the 
          developers go.</font></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Lovers of the 
          single player experience are going to be shortchanged in the upcoming 
          years. Games will still include it and developers will still say they're 
          focusing on it, but the reality is that multiplayer is what will sell 
          games in the not so distant future. Be prepared for it. Embrace it. 
          </font></p>
        <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font> 
        <p align="RIGHT"><i><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">- 
          Steve Thoms is a level designer for Nihilistic Software</font></i></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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    <td height="22"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
      Guest Editorial logo illustrated and is &copy; 1998 Dan Zalkus. Single player? 
      We don't need no stinkin' single player! is &copy; 1998 Steve Thoms. All 
      other content is &copy; 1998 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
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