Just a quick thought; for competitive multiplayer games (where you play against other humans doing something, and is generally equal sided – so, RTS, FPS, etc. games), it always seems to be a nagging feeling of it being a problem when I’m enjoy a game because I am [i]beating friends at it[/i].

Generally these games work better when you fight unknowns. Generally. Sure it’s fun playing against (and usually with) friends, but I certainly feel if I am beating someone at something drastically, it’s a little less fun – after all, they can’t be enjoying it as much as me.

This is an even greater problem in some games when you are playing to win and actively taking something from the enemy when you do – respawn times (especially in round base games like Counterstrike), or games which you loot your enemies in (some MMO’s) always are a bit poor in this regard. Most of the time you don’t know the people involved, but it sucks if you do.

There’s little to get around the problem. Co-op in some games is a solution – you will score more in Guitar Hero in two player if you are better then your friend, so the co-op is great, since it allows you to choose difficulties independently, and still play together. This won’t work for competitive games though. When winning is the main route to fun, it seems a tough thing to get around.

Not to say that only winning will be fun in these games – the pressured defeat, the close loss, the great effort involved in almost being as good is sometimes more fun then an easy victory, a walkover or winning with one hand tied behind your back. Generally having a staged set of objectives both teams can complete is nice (so there are mini-objectives to the grand one of ultimate victory) – this has occurred in FPS, RTS and TBS games (such as Team Fortress 2, Age of Empires and Civilization). Mini battles which are constant in some games, help it out. The tipping point is usually crushing though – the inevitable defeat, the mass of troops waiting to storm the castle, or the sheer dominance of your best teammates or troops by the enemy.

MMO’s luckily can get around the problems of defeat (since there is always someone better then you out there) by either allowing the organisation of larger more powerful player run bodies (guilds, etc.), allowing Player versus Player combat only by consent, or having no looting of players or camping of respawn areas. It’s more difficult to apply measures like this in other game types though.

Maybe I just shouldn’t care so much, and go with the flow 🙂