Recently, I have been playing a game called Demon's Souls. In case you don't know what it is, it is a fantasy Action RPG. It has no cooperative or competitive online functionality with matchmaking. But, It has an interesting online functionality called "World Tendancy." Simply put, it alters the difficulty and rewards for killing an enemy based on the performance of other players around the world. Demon's souls allows players to leave messages on the ground as advice for other players to read. Another feature of Demon's Souls is the Bloodstain feature. This allows one player to see the last few seconds of another player's life. Players can also see the white ghostly figures of other players' characters exploring the world at the same time as you. Later on in the game, players are able to invade other player's games as a red, shadowy figure. When in another player's world, your goal is to kill them to take all of their souls (Demon's Souls currency). If you are killed by the defending player, your stats degrade a little bit.
The point of all of this is that single player games in the future can learn a bit from Demon's Souls. A player in a single player game can still be interacting with other players in unique ways. For example, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim could have a market where players can deposit items in a place within the game. Another player could check the listings for items, purchase an item, and when the seller comes back, he can pick up his money (Similar to the auction house from WoW).
The tricky part of all of this when developing a game is that the online features need to be compelling, while not necessary to the game (so as to not screw over offline players). If my internet cuts out, I do not want to be stopped from playing a single-player game.
What do you think? Do you want features like these in single-player games? What other features do you want included? Let me know in the comments section below.
My posts are availible on both MyIGN and 1UP.
MyIGN- bradrocks777
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