Gogogic CEO believes single-player games need to offer something “very appealing” otherwise, they’re “gimmicks”

By Stephany Nunneley

Gogogic CEO Jonas Antonsson believes single-player games need to offer the player something “very appealing” otherwise, single-payer games become nothing more than “gimmicks” in a multiplayer world.

Speaking with A List Daily, Antonsson, who heads up the independent games studio based out of Reykjavik, Iceland, believes games are meant to be played with others, and were designed as such from the onset.

“The single player mechanic is a gimmick – games are meant to be played with others and it doesn’t matter if it’s in-person or online,” he said. “The first games were designed as multiplayer experiences, but when computer and console games became a thing there was a need to construct an antagonist and/or a protagonist for commercial purposes,” he continued. You couldn’t depend on people coming together to have a synchronous experience over a game. That would have simply stifled sales. And since there was no reasonable way to connect people in other ways – the arcade was the only serious attempt – it became an industry need to project the game as the other player.

“Playing a game is a multiplayer activity and can easily be seen as such when you watch young toddlers play by themselves. They invent someone to play with, someone that they talk to and interact with.

“But now we can connect people in and around a game through real time PvP and PvE mechanics and the need for pure single-player games had gone down. We have multiple plots and stories and build the meta-experience for the entire audience. The premise for making games has changed – reverted back to building multiplayer experiences that are true to the game form.”

Antonsson said this doesn’t mean there isn’t room for “great single-player titles,” citing DayZ, Dark Souls and other “games that make you sweat and curse every couple of minutes.”

“It means that those titles have to be very appealing and cater well to the hardcore audience,” Antonsson said. “So games that drive you crazy can be excellent because they are well designed, not because that’s what games are supposed to do or how they should always work.”

Thanks, GI International.