I've asked this question on c/gaming, but I'd love to see what KotakuinAction2's members think of this topic:
In an age where every game genre from shooters, strategy, fighting, and racing games are seeing a decreased emphasis on single-player content and in some cases, obstructing the single-player experience through mechanics like forced Internet connections to save progress, I want to ask this community:
Do you think the increased push behind esports and dedication of more resources to it has ruined gaming?
I've noticed that developers have been increasingly neglecting the offline experience and sometimes making some features exclusive to the online modes.
Take how Rockstar stopped adding content to the single-player mode of GTA V, Blizzard and Respawn omitted single-player modes from extremely popular games like Overwatch and Apex Legends, and how racing games like GT7 and the upcoming Forza 2023 are forcing everyone to play online to "prevent cheating", even those that would never touch multiplayer.
Do you think that this has done more damage to gaming in the long run? Do you see things ever trending back toward a more balanced approach where both single player and multiplayer gamers are equally accommodated?
How do you think developers can know that they're alienating a big part of their player base by focusing so extensively if that's how you feel?
Would love to see your thoughts on this topic.
Esports has ruined multiplayer gaming. Dota used to be much more fun before Valve started balancing everything towards pro tournament play. It's not that the game was necessarily out of balance before, it's that big teamfights involving all 10 players are more "fun" to watch, so the game is tweaked to require teamfights and punish independent plays. The impact of an individual player is decreased.
This results in a really frustrating experience when you play with people online and one online stranger messing up one little thing ruins the teamfight and the game. It also makes everything boring and samey because strats like split push don't really work anymore unless the person executing the strat is smurfing and way better than everyone else in the match.