[ENG] A Word About Multiplayer Games

(First of all - since this article is enormous, I have decided to make a table of contents so everyone can just scroll through the fragment they aren't interested in!)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) Games - League of Legends and SMITE
3. Hero Shooters - General description, origins and Overwatch
4. First Person Shooters - Rainbow Six: Siege and the enormous toxicity
5. Battle Royale - Premise, Fortnite, brief word about PUBG, Apex Legends
6. Card Games - Hearthstone, Legends of Runeterra and brief word about Gwent
7. MMORPGs - World of Warcraft and it's domination on the market
8. Asymmetric Multiplayer - Dead by Daylight and Left 4 Dead 2
9. Looter Shooters - Warframe and a short word about Destiny 2
10. Rocket League - the odd combination that works surprisingly well
11. Multiplayer Tied to Single Player - Dark Souls
12. The Birth of Auto-Chess genre and it's impact on the industry
13. Epilogue 

1. Introduction

Multiplayer games! They have been around for quite some time now, and as the years have passed – more and more genres started branching out to multiplayer experience. Although I was raised in the times of rapidly evolving technology, where PlayStation quickly turned into PS2 and then into PS3 I can still remember the times, where the peak of multiplayer gaming was inviting some of your friends to your place and playing on a split-screen. I'm not saying that back then there was no multiplayer games, far from it – but two things – often poor net code or/and internet connection and... Multiplayer branch was often a bonus to single player experiences. I am the type of gamer who much more prefers good, polished and deep single player adventures rather than multiplayer games that often lack a deeper storyline (before anyone crucifies me – I am fully aware of deep and convoluted lore of many multiplayer games that is still expanding to this day. I am only telling that I wish there was a campaign of some sort to experience most of the lore by playing it) or PvE (Players versus Enemies) content. Despite being a single player fan, I had my fair share of multiplayer experiences and I still play many of them to this day – both because I like them, and because they are really great time killers.

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2. MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena)

(Following image represents 4 of the most popular MOBAs that are still alive)

a. League of Legends and Why It's Still Topping the Rankings

League of Legends. A multiplayer behemoth, reigning strongly for over 10 years by now. It was born out of Dota 2 – A standalone continuation to Warcraft III mod called 'Defense of the Ancients'. During the 'MOBA Boom' there were really a lot of games similar to Dota 2 formula – Heroes of Newerth, Guardians of Middle-Earth and much more that tried to achieve the popularity of Dota 2 or League of Legends but were quickly forgotten.
LoL was often praised for being simpler and much more new-player friendly than Dota 2 (and after trying Dota 2, I can confirm these praises). There was also Heroes of the Storm that was supposedly even easier than LoL, though I haven't played it so I don't really know how reliable this information is.

The objective of the game is very simple – there are two teams, each consisting of 5 players and each team's goal is to push through the enemy towers to reach and destroy enemy Nexus – a key structure – the game is finished when one is destroyed. Although the objective is simple, there are a lot of macro and micro-elements during each match that decide which side has more chance to success.
I have been playing this game for almost 8 years by now, but it's more of 4 to 5 years if we include breaks from the game, technical issues and all other possible factors. Throughout the years I've experienced and seen with my very own eyes how the game is changing. Back then there was very rough Summoner's Rift (SR for short; basic 5v5 map for LoL) with several characters – each with their unique skills, lore, difficulty and usefulness. The map has been changed as well as many characters were either reworked (both visually and in gameplay) or revamped (only visual change) to fit the game.

(Majestic dragon right before it's landing on the Rift)

Back then there were only Dragon and Baron as the most important jungle camps and... Nowadays it's mostly the same – BUT! Now there are 4 different dragons (depending on the element; each element grants different buffs) and if one team manages to slay 4 dragons in one game, they receive a Dragon Soul – a powerful buff that very often helps to finish the game quicker or turn the tides of battle. Before Baron appears, now it's possible to kill 2 Rift Heralds (Second one spawns few minutes after the first is dead). Herald is a powerful creature that can obliterate even three turrets in quick succession if protected well, though it's often used just to quickly finish off the early push phase on one of the lanes.

Rune system was also changed some time ago – Masteries and expensive Runes were changed into free and varied Runes available to everybody. The fluctuation of Items keeps the game interesting – a lot of Items are often added, removed, balanced – forcing many champions to change their builds which in effect as I said keeps the game fresh and interesting.
Even the turrets were changed, now they have something called 'Turret Plating' that enhance their defense, but if the teams manage to break the platings, they receive gold – 120 if it's only one person, 60 if two and so on. Nowadays the game is much more team-focused – I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, I'm just saying that it's sometimes borderline impossible to win the game because your team can't coordinate whereas enemies can and use their synergies and possibilities to turn the tides of battle.

(Since it's borderline impossible to fit almost all 150 champions visibly into one image - here's some team composition)

Champions nowadays are in my opinion way too complex and broken – look Aphelios, but considering there are almost 150 champions in League, it's quite admirable that not everyone is broken. Though there are only maybe... 40 to 50 champions that I see constantly. And even after all these years, the stigma and hatred towards certain champions hasn't changed in the slightest – champions like Yasuo, Zed or Zoe. Personally I prefer to play really uncommon champions like Ivern, Aurelion Sol or Lissandra – both because they are almost never banned or picked, and because people really underestimate these champions. And since I started talking about champions – I want to set one thing straight. Riot Games is often criticized because of imbalance – but if all champions were super balanced – the game would get boring, and they are doing quite a good job of balancing some things if you ask me. I often tell that the game is 'boo hoo not balanced, boo hoo this is not cool' – but let's face it – every character is borderline broken once you get fed and know how to play this champion. Matter of fact – some characters don't need many kills or anything to be unstoppable broken force, but it's a huge minority. A lot of champions have their unique mechanics or certain skill level to be effective (there also champions with possibly unlimited skill ceiling like Riven)

People often split Riot Games into Riot Balancing Team and Riot Animation/Music Team (though it's not that simple) because their animations and music is really well made – check out the most popular K/DA – POP/STARS or True Damage – GIANTS which were both stunning hits, reaching millions of views and selling a lot of their respective skin lines. Back then there was also Pentakill music band. Their Worlds' Championship songs are always annual hits – RISE, Phoenix or Ignite are few of the examples but... The music, visuals and animation is simply beautiful and I can understand people wishing that the actual game would be that polished like animations. Or the most recent 2020 Season Cinematic (though I much more preferred 2019 Cinematic - Awaken) with beautiful cover of Warriors by Imagine Dragons (which was 2014's Worlds' Championship song)

Riot Games often makes various annual events, as well as some new PvE ones like Odyssey or Star Guardians; many new, experimental or time-limited game modes as ARURF (All Random Ultra Rapid Fire), Nexus Blitz (which was much shorter game, whereas typical Summoner's Rift match lasts 30 to 45 minutes, Nexus Blitz was 20 minutes maximum) and many more. They even announced many games on their 10th League of Legends Anniversary like – Card-game (Legends of Runeterra which I play for a bit now and it's quite enjoyable), FPS, Fighting game (Tekken/Mortal Kombat style) and an RPG. Say what you want about Riot Games, but they are doing their best to keep the game fresh and welcome to new players – I even made a new account on EUW server and... After playing for 3 days, I have – 40 champions, 12k of Essence to buy champions and 16th level. 3 Days. During Season 2 (when I started playing) you had to play for good several months to reach 30th Level and be able to play Ranked matches.

(Some time ago Riot has released an enormous interactive Runeterra map filled with lore - it's publicly available here)

The Lore in this game, the lore of Runeterra... It's deep, complex and incredible. I haven't delved into this a lot, but from my friends who really are into the lore I know it's amazing. And their new games – like Legends of Runeterra – will probably bring new scraps of lore here and there to piece together.
I am not a very good player, I almost reached Platinum through few seasons but for quite some time I stopped caring about rank and I just play to enjoy the game. But the E-Sport scene is incredibly powerful, as the years passed, the Worlds Championship has evolved into a massive E-Sport event, probably one of the biggest if not the biggest in the entire industry.

The game has this addictive factor in it, or rather 'One More Game' syndrome because – when you win, you feel like you are on a win streak and you're determined to play once more and win once again; but when you lose – you are desperately trying to win another match to 'even' this win/loss ratio, when you lose again – you get angry, still trying to even the ratio and so on. And the community in this game doesn't make it any easier (at least on EUNE server) – it's one of the most toxic communities I have ever seen in any game to be honest, in almost every single match there is someone flaming and being incredibly toxic to each other.

Yes, the game has changed a lot and is constantly changing, once for better, once for worse – but if not for these changes, not for the freshness and not for the incredibly devoted community – the game would die long ago, but it's nowhere close to that state. Millions of players play this game constantly everyday and even more play it at least once a week or month. Be careful though, once you start playing this game and enjoying it – it may be really hard to break up with it so... Just do it if you have plenty of free time – learning all the champions and reading about lore will effectively take your time.

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b. SMITE And An Unexpected Combination

Since we are already on MOBA topic, I want to briefly talk about SMITE – a brave attempt at third-person MOBA. I have put quite a lot of hours into this game and... I often get back to this game to play some matches or check out the new Gods – yes, there are no champions in this game, there are Gods from various pantheons – Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Thanatos, Mercury, Nu Wa, Daji, Nemesis – you name it. New Gods are released constantly, new items are added and some are removed, everything is constantly changing and thanks to this game stays fresh.
There are also a lot of game modes in this game – basic 5v5, but also 3v3, 4v4 and many other 5v5 modes like 'Assault' which gives you a random God and the whole gameplay is focused on one singular lane. The only way of going back to base and buying items is dying.
The game is nowhere as popular as LoL or Dota because... It's niche, I often see maybe 10 to 20 thousand people playing daily at the maximum, BUT! LoL is available only on PC – SMITE is also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. This is one small advantage over LoL since it's only available on PC (Well... At least for now, from what I know there are plans of porting LoL onto consoles and mobiles). And thanks to much smaller community, there is also much less toxicity overall, personally I have met only few truly toxic people, whereas in LoL you can meet few toxic people each match!

(This screen is old but it's still amazing how they managed to mix MOBA and Third Person Perspective, despite having a lot of hours into it - I can't help but be in awe of this)

From what I can remember (though I can't remember titles of these games) there were a lot of tries to make a third-person MOBA but every single one of them died relatively quickly, but SMITE remained. An it remained for two reasons I think – it was one of the first if not the very first quite successful attempt of making a third-person MOBA (I have played it during closed beta times and I have seen many people enjoying it pretty well) and – the freshness, the developers didn't allow the game to be stale and boring for a longer time. Plus maybe the fact that every God has quite a piece of lore attached to him/her made people who played games like God of War (I am looking at myself) interested or just people who were interested in specific mythology.
The gameplay is a bit unintuitive, but once you get used to it and start playing with many different Gods – it's incredibly satisfying to pull out some tricks (especially when you find your main, favorite God and learn how to use him/her most effectively).

Despite being quite niche game and with a much smaller community, this game has also made some name in the world of E-Sports, I am not really sure if it's harder to be a professional League player or pro SMITE player, but comparing them doesn't make a lot of sense since both titles need a bit other micro-skills to learn and master.

(These all are playable gods - seems like a lot? Want to try each and every one of them out? Well... It will take a bit of your time in this game, but it's worth it!)

Just like in League of Legends – there are many easy to pick up Gods as well as much harder ones, I would risk saying that the game is really beginner-friendly, plus – you don't have to buy a God if you want to play him/her – SMITE offers possibility of 'Renting' a God, for small loan of Favor (earned after each match) for a Day/Three or Seven – to check the God out and then decide if you want to buy him/her permanently. This is beautiful concept and I kind of wish there was something like this in League of Legends, that you could spend a bit of Essence to check out champion you're interested in. There are also daily rewards in SMITE and thanks to that you can earn a lot of micro-currency (Gems) in the span of several months, it's not a lot when you consider it on a weekly basis, but you know... Several weeks pass by and you suddenly have yourself quite a nice stash of Gems!
Anyway, if you're bored with LoL or you're looking for some interesting alternative to typical MOBA genre, I really encourage you to try out SMITE – it may be very hard and unituitive at the start, but once you get a grip on it and start understanding the various mechanics of Gods and gameplay itself – there's a high chance you'll like this game. SMITE has a certain magic and touch to it that makes this game so unusual experience (except the obvious third-person MOBA factor).

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3. Hero Shooters

a. General Premise and Origins

The genre of Hero Shooters can be traced back to still popular Team Fortress 2, I have played it for a while back in the day but unfortunately I just couldn't get a grip on this game so I abandoned it after several hours. And though Team Fortress 2 was first or one of the first widely known Hero Shooter, there is one game that is heard about almost all the time when it comes to Hero Shooters – Overwatch. A game released way back in 2015, personally I got myself a copy of it in 2017 and... One difference – Team Fortress 2 is completely free (although it was in the part of 'The Orange Box' back in the day that included Half-Life 2 and both it's episodes, Portal and Team Fortress 2. So... It was once available to buy instead of being free) and Overwatch isn't... Though today the price to get it is really low in contrary to 4, 3 or even 2 years ago. Aaaaand there is also Paladins which was often called a Overwatch rip-off since it's free as well (Fun Fact: Paladins are from the same guys that made SMITE... These guys were catching the wave – during the MOBA boom – they made SMITE; during the Hero Shooters boom – they made Paladins; and even during the infamous Battle Royale boom they made Realm Royale). So... If you still don't want to spend money on Overwatch (especially with announced Overwatch 2), you can check out Paladins or Team Fortress 2 to see what is this whole Hero Shooter genre is all about. Anyway, back to the topic.

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b. Overwatch

Overwatch in it's basis is pretty simple – you have two teams consisting of six people, several different heroes to pick from and then you have to perform better than the enemy team. Well... Here's the complex part comes when the match starts – team composition and teamwork is pretty important, but if enemies are disorganized it's possible to wreck havoc while playing like a lone wolf. I mean, there are heroes that when used well can wreck havoc without caring if your team is working with you or not really. And each hero has a different skill ceiling – Widowmaker for example reaches her peak when your aim is borderline flawless and map knowledge (for using hooks and sniping positions) is pretty rich; Doomfist has few different skill combinations and balancing between them, between cooldowns and general knowledge about other heroes is... I think Doomfist is like Riven from LoL – there is no visible skill ceiling as there are always small things to improve in your combinations (That's not saying that you can't constantly improve your aim on Widowmaker). Support champions like Ana, Zenyatta or Moira on the other hand often need to balance between weakening the enemies/dealing damage to them and healing your allies. There are three roles in the game – supports, tanks and damage dealers (often referred to simply as DPS), each with it's distinctive functions and good team composition usually consists of 2-2-2. Depending on the match this default formation can change a bit.

(It may seem like a lot, though in fact there are somewhere around 30 heroes in the game)

New heroes are released in a pace of around 3 a year, some of the new heroes were questionable and a bit hated in the beginning (and some are still hated to some extent – I look at you Brigitte.), but as the weeks passed and people learned how to play them, how to counter them and how to use them as a reliable team composition member – the hatred and prejudice has weakened a lot.
And if you are a fan of lore and exploring the story – Overwatch has quite a lot of it, combine it with constant new PvE story events that are available from time to time; events like Retribution or Storm Rising. Animations available on YouTube and comics... There's a lot of it, and with Overwatch 2 on the horizon (which is supposedly going to be more focused on story and PvE gameplay) I am sure there will be even more lore to piece together and admire.

The game is in a bit of a weird place currently, some people say that it's dying (for like 7th time in the entire lifespan of this game) and some just agree that it's just a temporary stasis due to latest BlizzCon announcements like aforementioned Overwatch 2 or Diablo 4. Personally I haven't touched this game for about half a year now, not because I don't want to play it or I got bored (although it was the original reason to take a break), my PC is on the verge of it's lifespan and I really don't want to torture it more (considering that I needed to wait like 10 to 15 minutes before all textures load properly, before all sounds load properly and all models are visible... I consider putting this PC through this once again a torture).

(See all these people in the crowds? That should shine a bit of light on how big E-Sport business is)

E-Sport scene is strong as well in this game, with Overwatch League reaching hundreds of thousands of viewers annually, very often meta is defined by professional scene (like the infamous Goat Meta which involved playing in a team consisting of 3 supports and 3 tanks – this meta has been around for way too long and it was one of the reasons many people just stopped playing overall. This meta was boring and really unfun to play against)

The game has a lot of cosmetic items and there are constantly new ones added with constantly returning or new events, and... You don't have to spend a single penny on it! Overwatch rewards you with free lootboxes during new gamemodes or events, but you can grind up to 3 lootboxes per week (or more if we consider level ups)! And even if you're getting a lot of duplicates – it means you get a lot of in-game currency that you can spend on skin you like without having to wait for it to drop from the lootbox! BUT! Lootboxes in any form aren't good. It's a curse of modern gaming and a 'feature' that shouldn't be widely accepted. Even if they are available for free, even if they don't force you to spend money – we shouldn't accept them as a vital part of video games (though there are Hextech Chests and Keys and much more in League of Legends, no one seems to make that big of a deal from it. But my point stands – lootboxes are curse of modern gaming).

(Ahh... Lootbox - the bane of modern gamers and a curse that it still devouring the industry)

Despite slowly reaching 5 years since it's release – Overwatch is still a reliable Hero Shooter that can bring a lot of fun and... Well, dare I say this – possible friendships and relationships. The community is a bit toxic but it's nowhere close to League's level, I would say that there are much more kind and warm people in this game (I mean, there are still a lot of pure assholes and toxic people). But it's not the longest, still living Hero Shooter in the industry – this title has to go to Team Fortress 2. A game released in 2007. Over 12 years, and this game is still heard about, people still play and enjoy it, will Overwatch have the same level of popularity after another 5 years?
It's really hard to say, there will be people playing it – sure, but it's hard to tell if there will be many people enjoying it; it is pretty nice game, the first several hours you will spend on playing with various heroes and on huge variety of maps, and after that there are possibly countless hours you can spend on getting better, learning more about lore of this world, on climbing ranked ladder, on learning the skill ceiling and capabilities of your favorite hero.

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4. First Person Shooters. Rainbow Six: Siege and The Toxic Hellscape

From Hero Shooters to simply – Shooters, or rather First Person Shooters. Rainbow Six: Siege. (Okay, before venturing further – I have a literal tonne of hours in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. But I haven't played it for 2 years by now and I have no plans of returning to this game so I'd rather briefly talk about game I have played more recently – keyword here just like in SMITE case – briefly.)

It's a tactical shooter where once again two teams clash against each other. The game has a lot of really interesting mechanics in it's basis – barricading walls and doors and spying drones are just two examples. I think it goes without saying that teamwork is a key here, even a bit of disagreement or conflict within team members can snowball down to quick lose.
Once you start as an attacker, you will be the defender in the next round – and such formula will repeat until one team succeeds.

You can use walls and covers for your big advantage – you can peek from them to check something out or annihilate an unsuspecting enemy, but remember – it works both ways, you may burst into room feeling you are safe and then... The very second you turn your back to move out – you get mowed down by a singular enemy hiding behind some fricking desk! It's not unfair, however you look at it. You know mechanics of the game and you should have checked everything twice before getting out – and remember, you could be in the place of your adversary, laughing and enjoying that you took out an unsuspecting enemy – he/she could think it's unfair but... The game works the same way for both of you.

(As I said - there are quite a few Operators to choose from)

There are quite a few of Operators to choose from – some strictly created for attack, and some much better suited for defense; some more prepared for sneaky, covert operation and taking out foes that split from their team, and some ready to just place a mounted machine gun and block the entire corridor with hail of bullets. I am almost sure everyone will find someone for him/herself. For example my favorites were Jackal and Glaz – former having ability to track footsteps of enemies and latter equipped with sniper rifle with thermal scope.

Next to having your primary and secondary weapons, you can also choose from quite a set of gadgets – from smoke and frag grenades to trip wires and bonus wall barricade – these are gadgets every Operator (well, depending if he/she's considered an attacker or defender) can pick, but there are also unique gadgets some Operators carry with themselves – like Sledgehammer or Armored Panels – which are much stronger barricades.

(Map example - there are a lot of possible entrance points which allows for more diversity in both attack and defense)

There are various maps, with each one providing more than one entrance point – forcing both attackers to coordinate and plan their 'siege' accordingly as well as defenders to be sure that every possible entrance point is covered or protected by something (like a spying drone or a claymore mine)

Despite my really low time engagement into this game – I had my fair share of experiences with cheaters, since I was playing on PC – I can't really tell how the situation looks on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, but I think there are barely any cheaters to begin with.

BUT! I think this game has the most toxic community I have ever seen in any video game. When I started playing it, when I was learning mechanics of the game and possibilities of various Operators – In every single match there was someone either screaming all his lungs into the voice chat with multiple paragraphs explaining why I suck and why I shouldn't play this game or spam on text chat. I took a break from the game as both – my friend stopped playing, and I wanted to take a break from all this toxicity – like, really, I haven't seen so much toxicity in any other game, even in widely acknowledged for it's toxicity League of Legends. I got back to this game few months later and... Maybe I am wrong, but the community has became even more toxic – like, no one could understand that someone just bought this game (I had somewhere around maybe... 11 hours on the counter?) and still tries to get a grip on it. I have played for a while in this pool of toxicity and... I stopped playing after hitting something around 30 hours. It's not like I didn't enjoy this game, it's not like this game is bad or anything – but this community is... Okay, benefit of the doubt – maybe it was just my bad luck, maybe it's just a small part of the community that just so happened to play with me, but since I didn't get to experience the other side of the community – I can't really tell. I will probably get back to this game one day again to see if my experience with this community will change or not really, until then – I... Have a hard time recommending this game, since... it's amazing tactical shooter that highly rewards team cooperation but at the same time community may force you into quitting it after just few hours (just like it did with me).

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5. Battle Royale

a. General Premise and Fortnite

Let's keep in the genre of shooters in general, shall we? Accept it or not, but the Battle Royale genre had the enormous impact on the entire industry, and there was no other game that has shown it better than – love it or hate it – Fortnite.

(With Chapter 2, the game was changed in few places - it was refreshed and thanks to that - it's possible that it saved a huge chunk of the community that was getting bored with the repetitive formula of seasons)

Battle Royale has a very simple premise – you are dropped on an island with certain amount of other people and your objective is to be the last man standing on the battlefield. And there's some storm, a big no-no death zone that keeps shrinking as the game progresses to force the last survivors to finally clash. Even if you truly despise Fortnite and it's very existence – no one can deny the fact of impact Fortnite (or rather it's free to play Battle Royale segment) had. The discussions and questions it raised could be counted in thousands and... A whole lot of memes and hatred; hatred pointed partially towards kids that do their favorite Fortnite dances in the public... I mean – I understand that it's stupid, that it's enraging to some people... But for fuck's sake – they are just children. Okay, it may be described as a bit of a poor parenting that young children got access to the game where you shoot others, but... Let's face it, huge majority of the parents just look if the graphics are acceptable for their young ones and in the case of Fortnite's sweet, sugary graphic – it's not a surprise a hell lot of a children got access to this game... Which brought the discussion of microtransactions and children's safety in online games – many children around the world were 'borrowing' their parents' credit cards to buy themselves a huge stack of V-Bucks to buy themselves skins, emotes, dances etc. So – even if the game wouldn't have that much of a popularity it received, I am sure it would spawn these kind of discussions anyway.

I admit, I was one of the haters of Fortnite – but one day I thought to myself 'Well... If I am going to hate something, I should at least check if there is anything to hate about' and... I actually started enjoying the game, playing it for hours on a daily basis and recommending it to my friends who were also a bit... Skeptical about this game and – who would've guessed it, they started enjoying it as well! There is a lot of hate on Epic Games nowadays (Okay, here I am one of them and this time it may be a bit harder to change my mind) – but you can't deny their effect on the industry. Plus – they milk Fortnite because they see it brings a hell lot of money, despite being free to play. All these collaborations (like the Marshmello x Fortnite collab or Avengers: Endgame x Fortnite – you think these come cheap or easily?) - I... am not even going to mention the V-Bucks revenue as I don't want to think about all these poor parents that got their huge stash of money just drained. I am admit, I spent a bit of my cash on V-Bucks when I started playing to buy myself a Battle Pass – but here's the amazing part – once I bought the Battle Pass, I could easily earn enough V-Bucks to buy another one when the new season shines upon the game. I paid once and by simply playing I could earn myself enough currency – it was a one time purchase and I didn't have to pay anything more throughout the next 5 or 6 seasons I kept playing (Seasons shift after around 2 months so with this simple math you can deduce I have been playing Fortnite for about a year, and I would probably play some more if the game didn't become too demanding for my PC).

(At some point the game became a bit darker and edgier in it's presentation of skins and season themes - but I don't think many people complained about it)

Fortnite has drawn such a large playerbase not only because of it's cartoon-ish graphics, the fluidity and constant change of the entire map and weapons, the simplicity of the premise and goal of the game, the repetitive nature of Battle Royale genre but mostly because of it's accessibility for free on many devices – phones, computers, consoles – everyone could check the game out whenever they felt they want to. And – okay, many Battle Royale games are free nowadays or laughably cheap, but Fortnite (next to PUBG which we'll talk very briefly about in a while) was one of the first during the entire boom and thus – retained much of it's popularity to this day whereas many games that tried to just get some easy money from the new genre - quickly died.

And remember, the same controversy surrounding Fortnite and it's unending popularity caused the masses to get tired and bored with it and thanks to that... Minecraft has been literally resurrected in the wider audience which... Is simply beautiful.

The biggest Fortnite boom is probably long gone, but there are still millions of players weekly or sometimes even daily and trust me on this one – if you really want to hate this game, just... Give it a chance a'ight? Do not hate something, you don't even know anything about (well anything other than it's a 'boo-hoo children game; boo-hoo money sucker; boo-hoo Epic Games bad') – I have learned from my mistakes and now if I hate something – I do my best to check it out and double-check if the hate is deserved or not – in the case of Fortnite, it really wasn't (okay, at least in the terms of base game and premise, the V-Bucks and children controversies are the parts that deserve at least a bit of disgust).

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b. A Brief Word about PUBG and Apex Legends

When the PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds and Fortnite were clashing at the peaks of popularity and the latter started to wear the crown – the new challenger appeared; a game no one was expecting and no one knew about. Apex Legends. Creators of incredible and critically acclaimed Titanfall games decided to develop their own Battle Royale game that includes weapons and amazing fluidity of movement from the aforementioned game franchise and... It was accepted quite well despite being released in the aftermath of 'The Royale Boom'. I have played three BR games and each one of them was in the different 'boom' state of the industry.

I have played PUBG when the boom was starting and played it for quite a long time, I liked the realism and satisfaction it provided (satisfaction from winning or reaching top 5 without hiding in the bathroom for the entire match) as well as the fact I was almost constantly playing duo with my former friend. The teamwork and coordination when we were the last ones left alive stacked up against some other duo was amazing.

I have played Fortnite for quite a long time during the entire boom happening and... I talked about it a bit before so there's really no point of repeating myself here

And I have played Apex Legends after the boom was slowly fading out (since the game was released when the boom was fading out) – the game wasn't anything really innovative at first glance – you know – big map, people fighting to death, loot spread around the map... But! It is a combination of Battle Royale and a Hero Shooter. Hear me out. Each character in Apex has different set of skills and an ultimate skill that is charged up through the match. And when the game released (from what I know there are already solo/duo modes or at least they aren't far away) there was only team mode available, which more or less meant that you are paired with two random people (unless you were playing with friends). And since the 'three-player-team' formula was default, there weren't 100 people fighting to the death like in PUBG or Fortnite but only 60, 20x3. The gameplay and combat was much more fluid than in other games due to various movement skills – wall climbing and running, sliding, using zip-lines. Okay, you have your building part of Fortnite but there is a certain difference between building a fort no one can penetrate and using given environment to outsmart and outplay your enemies.

Just as with PUBG, I haven't played Apex that much – although I spent a good month or two enjoying these games, paradoxically the game I initially hated was the game I put the most hours into – Fortnite has this charm to itself, but maybe it's just me – and that's not saying that PUBG or Apex aren't good or enjoyable – far from it, but it's subjective. Some people will get attracted more to games like aforementioned titles and some (just like me) will get more attracted to Fortnite.
Love me or hate, love Fortnite or hate – this game has brought many problems about modern gaming back into the spotlight, while at the same time retaining it's growing popularity.

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 6. Card Games

a. Hearthstone and It's Long-Time Domination

(The game looks a bit complicated at first glance, but the very basic are really easy to catch and then it's only a matter of time before you will be able to craft some amazing decks!)

There is a niche in multiplayer games genre, a niche that was for a very long time dominated by singular game and that is – card games. And the dominating title is – Hearthstone. (Okay, there is also Magic: The Gathering but it's quite complicated from what I know and Hearthstone gained popularity thanks to it's relative simplicity, a'ight? A'ight.) And – I'm gonna be honest with you, I tried to get used to this game a lot of times but I just couldn't until friends made me aware of... Solo Adventures. Yes, however that sounds – Solo Adventures against PvE adversaries was what brought be to this game and what managed to actually give me fun and help understand the game better. Since Kobolds & Catacombs – I have been regularly playing Hearthstone, getting myself every single adventure up-to-date. But... The game isn't really Free-2-Play friendly. Don't get me wrong, I am F2P player and this isn't going to change any time soon, but if you're starting your adventure with Hearthstone... You may get quickly discouraged by the decks that require a lot of Dust (crafting material for the cards that comes from... Well, scraping additional copies of cards or scraping cards you're sure you aren't going to use) or general feeling that the game doesn't help you as a F2P player (Okay, they have changed daily quests formula so it's much easier to complete them, there are often events with free packs and all, but this doesn't change the fact you would have to continuously play for at least half a year to create yourself a first, truly good deck without spending any of that sweet sweet money of yours). The basic goal of the game is pretty simple – destroy your opponent. But that's where the variety of decks and micro-managing your powerful cards that come into play. Plus the meta is always rotating in and out every year, long story short – there are 3 adventures/expansions each year and after 2 years pass – cards from these 3 adventures/expansions cannot be used in Standard mode. But they can be used in Wild mode which is... Well – Wild, all past cards are there and I am not even going to try and understand what's going on there, call me a weakling but I will stay at Standard ladder.

(Thanks to the relatively slow nature of card games - it's not a problem to play two at the same time! The game on the left is a title which we will talk about in a second!)

Seasons switch monthly – every month, on the first day, on midnight – new season begins, and depending on what rank you have achieved in the past month – the better rewards you get. Oh, and you have a 'safe spot' on Ranked ladder every 5 Ranks. For example when you hit Rank 10, you can't fall below Rank 10 in this season. And you start each season 4 ranks lower from your highest rank in the past month – If you managed to climb to Rank 11 in November, you will start December Season at Rank 15 – simple? Simple!

And if you are a fan of Warcraft or it's lore – you will meet many recognizable characters portrayed as cards here – Sylvanas Windrunner or Anduin Wrynn are one of many examples. Plus every card has a description tied to it as well as who designed a graphic for the art.
The game is available both on PC as well as phones with Android and iOS and... This is my 'go-to' game whenever I don't know what I want to play or I am just bored – I just plug Hearthstone on my computer or phone and play few matches before deciding what I want to do or someone asks me to go out with them or play something with them.

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b. Legends of Runeterra - A New Challenger in the Industry

But the Hearthstone dominance is slowly fading with the Beta Release of Legends of Runeterra – this game is more like Magic: The Gathering, but it's much easier to learn and get a grip on. It's been openly out for what? Like two weeks by now, and contrary to Hearthstone – I got engaged into LoR pretty quickly. Since there isn't really meta set in stone yet, everyone experiments, creates own decks to check how good they are... This is something beautiful!

There are 6 factions widely known from League of Legends and lore of Runeterra – Noxus, Demacia, Ionia, Shadow Isles, Piltover & Zaun and Freljord – and here's where the deck-building places it's limits. You can't just throw all 6 factions into one deck and be happy, you need to build a deck from cards of two factions – Noxus and Ionia; Demacia and Freljord – go wild!

(Here you can see Kalista being played and right above her health and attack there is a Quest that needs to be completed for the card to 'evolve')

Champions are quite an interesting mechanic since they have their own 'Quests' to complete – for example Garen – a 5 mana 5/5 card (5 attack/5 health) with quest – 'I've Struck Twice' – upon completing it, Garen 'evolves' into 6/6 that grants you Rally (which is simply an availability to attack during a turn you're supposed to be blocking an enemy's attack for example - yes you've heard correctly, you can't attack each turn here like in Hearthstone)

For now, we can just wait and look how the game will evolve and change - and hopefully it will become a strong alternative to Hearthstone which is slowly getting more and more hostile towards fresh, new F2P players.

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c. Other Card Games - Gwent and More

There were a lot of tries to milk a bit of cash from card gaming – There is a Gwent which... Was a nice gimmick in Witcher 3 and did pretty well as a standalone game, but it couldn't retain a stable popularity and playerbase. There is The Elder Scrolls: Legends – which I haven't played but from what I know the game still lives and people enjoy it more or less. Back then there was a Might & Magic Duel of Champions which I have played for a longer while until it became a victim of microtransactions.

Long story short – card games are still niche genre, with very few games getting attention of wider audience for longer, will the Hearthstone Hegemony truly end? I... It's arguable, though Legends of Runeterra is a decent game with a lot of potential, only the time will tell if it's going to get more popular than a long-time veteran in the industry.

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7. MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) - World of Warcraft and Effects of it's Long-Time Dominance

But there is a certain game genre where a particular title holds domination for quite a long time and caused many potential hits to flop before they were even released – MMORPGs And this game is – World of Warcraft.

I think it goes without saying that WoW is still standing strong after over 15 years on the market. You hear me? 15 years. A single game. Do you know how much 15 years mean in the gaming industry? A lot to say the least! A multiplayer game – it's more than League of Legends! And this game introduced the curse of subscription as... Well, you see – to play WoW above 20 level (You can reach 20th level playing for free) you have to purchase a subscription, either monthly or refreshing every 3 or 6 months. But the content this game offers continuously expands and despite me not going to pay for this – I think it's worth the price. (I mean, there also private servers which are free to play but often run on much older versions of the game).
With a lot of classes, raid bosses that very often without guild/team coordination and accordingly composed team cannot be defeated and community that is devoted and continuous support in the form of new expansions – I think World of Warcraft will dominate still for years to come.

I am not saying that there aren't other MMORPGs like Black Desert, The Elder Scrolls Online, Guild Wars, TERA, AION and much more, I am just saying that there isn't a game that came even close to WoW's level of popularity – and... Though I played a few MMOs back in the day... I never could understand the 'magic' and couldn't enjoy it that much. Partially because MMOs are fricking time consumers, like for real – from what I've heard people are playing multiple hours on a daily basis just to keep up and get better... I am playing multiple hours on a daily basis too, but I'd rather spend it on various games rather than slaying 49th fricking... I dunno, some elemental or murloc for a quest or very specific item drop - I know it's a huge generalization, but at the core MMOs come to that, don't they? Grinding for better equipment so you can get into a guild and then do raid bosses to get even better equipment. (and that comes from a guy who farmed every possible thing offline in the Souls series... It's just I wanted to do this in Souls series but I don't want to do this that much in MMOs, a'ight? Aight!)

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8. Asymmetric Multiplayer

a. General Premise of the Genre and Dead by Daylight

And then there are asymmetric multiplayer games like Left 4 Dead 2 (as well as the original but since I haven't played the first entry... You know how it goes) or Dead by Daylight (once again – there are more examples but I am talking about games I have played). Asymmetric multiplayer games – as the name suggests, put one side in a seemingly unfair situation to the other as... You are only 4 in Left 4 Dead 2, where as zombies come in hundreds and thousands; In Dead by Daylight you either take a role of a ruthless killer or a scared survivor. The difference? Well... There are 4 survivors and only 1 killer, so at the first glance killer looks like he's on a disadvantage here, right? Well... It's not so simple – survivors are very fragile and their only possibility to slow down the killer are wooden palettes that survivors can drop in path of the killer (if we exclude tools like flashlight).
Both survivors and killers available for the players have their sets of skills (each survivor and killer has different skills which allows for quite a variety in gameplay), there are items as well that help survivors to... Well – survive. Items like aforementioned flashlight or toolboxes that help repair the generators quicker.

Aaand since I already mentioned generators I may as well explain the point of the game – survivors have to repair generators spread around the map (And there are skill checks when... If successful – repairs generator faster and if failed – it not only slows the progress for a while but it also reveals your possible location to the killer) and killer, well... Tries to stop them – and it's as simple as that – Survivors win when even 1 survivor makes his/her way out of killer's paradise, and killer emerges victorious when he manages to hunt down all survivors.
I played Dead by Daylight long ago in the times of beta but... Since a particular plague started affecting the game, I stopped. The plague of monetizing the game multiple times after initial release, just... Go ahead and look at the DbD's Steam page for yourself. The amount of DLCs (which often contain a new map, new killer and new survivor so... Essentials if you don't want the game to become stale – you are forced to spend money) is horrendous. This is fricking Payday 2's style of monetizing the game. I really enjoyed this game – both as a killer and as a survivor, but I am not going to spend god knows how many money to have a full game with all characters and maps... A shame to say the least.

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b. A Brief Word About Left 4 Dead 2

But wait a second, I have mentioned Left 4 Dead 2 but I quickly went to talking about Dead by Daylight, so... Left 4 Dead 2. Game where you play either alone and other companions are controlled by an AI or you just play with random people or friends. There are a lot of scenarios to play through as well as Steam Workshop that causes the game to still be alive after so many years. And on higher difficulty levels teamwork and coordination is crucial to survive against hordes of zombies whereas on lower ones... Anyone can pretty much do their own thing and still be successful.
A wide array of melee and ranged weapons make for nice collection to annihilate zombies – I admit, I played it for a while but... Just like with MMORPGs – I couldn't get a grip on this game nor really understand why people admire this game... Or rather – I understand why people admire this game, but I don't understand what keeps them playing (And yes, I say this including workshop)

Asymmetric multiplayer games is a genre that can still be nicely explored and exploited - after all we had Evolve back in the day and now we have GTFO which seems to be accepted by the players - it's praised for it's hardness and for requiring good teamwork to succeed.

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9. Looter Shooters

a. Warframe

Warframe. Have you heard about Warframe? I am almost sure that you had, but if you didn't – it's a game that is often considered as a Holy Grail of Free to Play games, with a lot of content that is constantly updated for free, fricking cyber ninjas (Let's be honest, what's cooler than that... Probably a lot of things but shhh!) and a world with lore so deep and twisted that the true meaning of the game isn't revealed to you until you put several dozens of hours into it! Well... If I had to complain about something it's grind and sometimes boring repetitive missions... But other than that – we're golden! Warframe represents a looter-shooter genre of games... You recall something called Borderlands? Well if yes – just give it a more space-y look and gameplay and make it fully online. If no – long story short, you kill stuff, stuff drops stuff, you use dropped stuff to create your desired stuff, but if you don't have enough stuff you have to drop more stuff. And there is so much stuff that you often need to manage your inventory to determine which stuff is worth keeping and which is better suited for termination.

You can complete a lot of missions in the entire galaxy of the game either alone or with randoms/friends. You can approach missions stealthy (well... for the most part) or just go wild and start jumping mid-air between bullets sent to kill you and replying with your own, superior bullets (or arrows... depending on what you prefer) back to your adversaries. And if that's not enough there are 'Archwings' available relatively early which allow you to do missions where you literally fly in space and do all the cool things you did on ground... But in space!

(The very first choice you will make - your first Warframe - you can see how it looks, what playstyle it offers and what skills it has. Here you have an example of Volt)

There are a lot of titular Warframes you can choose from – each one with it's unique playstyle and set of skills that are either more useful when playing in a certain team and some of them are as good in team as when alone. A matter of fact is that you will have to choose from one of 3 Warframes at the start, each of them needing certain level of skill to used effectively. And you better get used to your first Warframe as you will be stuck with it for a while... But don't worry about it, the game is created in such a way so you kind of forget that there are other Warframes in the game... That is until the game starts giving you blueprints of other Warframes.

A shame to admit but I had many approaches to this game, with each one ending within a week or two. The game is amazing, the fluidity of movement is wonderful and the entire storyline (which let me remind is constantly updated for FREE) is pretty mysterious and yet... I couldn't engage in this game for long – and I am almost sure that it was because that I was playing alone for the most part, but whenever I tried playing with someone else – they either messed up my tempo of exploring the entire level and collecting as much as stuff as possible while remaining stealthy. I don't want to keep up with the twisted tempo of even my friends who don't care about being stealthy or don't care about collecting anything.

If you're interested in being stealthy space cyber ninja that cuts through his foes with ruthless precision and in the meantime learns about the world – Warframe was, is and probably will be for free so there is nothing stopping you from checking it out! Even if your computer isn't one of the high-end ones – Warframe should work just fine, well... At least it did when I checked last time on my Intel Core i3 and nVidia GeForce GT640 with 6 Gigs of RAM packed up into this oldie.

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b. Short Word About Destiny 2

But there is another pretender for a while... Well, longer than a while but it became free to play only a while ago – Destiny 2. And I'll keep this brief since I played it for a short while. If you manage to survive the gargantuan download size of above 90 FRICKING GIGABYTES – you're welcomed with pretty nice game packed with content (well... there are expansions but you have to pay for the newest one from what I understand)... At least for the new players, I can't really tell how the content stands when you invest several hours of your life into this game. But these very few missions I have played have introduced me to pretty satisfying combat mechanic with various weapons and skills to choose from. And I could actually have fun while playing this game with a friend since I didn't have to keep up and could just rush through with him and wreck havoc!

This game is even more of a looter-shooter than Warframe is in my opinion, since the loot is literally everywhere here. And it's not only materials, weapons and armor pieces are raining as well!
Aaaand that wraps up everything I know about Destiny 2 – as I said, I have played it very briefly but maybe somewhere in the future I'll devote more time to it.

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10. Rocket League - Odd Combination That Works Surprisingly Well

For the last part I left the singular examples. Like Rocket League – it's an incredibly weird mix. You play soccer... with cars? Oh, soccer isn't your cup of tea? Well then guess what! You can also play ice hockey and basketball in the very same game! I am not a big fan of sports, that's why I thought I will quickly get bored with Rocket League but... Oh how wrong I was. I have invested over a hundred hours since I bought this game and only for a weeks I am having break – I got exhausted with the game, but I am sure that when the time comes, I'll spend another hundred or more hours bumping the ball or other cars! The matches are short, packed with fast paced action and sometimes incredibly tense when the match is coming to an end and your/enemy team manages to even the score forcing you both to play overtime. The ranked seasons stay for a varied duration, one season can stay for 3 months whereas another for 5. And if you don't play certain ranked mode for a while (for example you play a lot of 3v3 but not so much of 1v1) – the game will take the rank away from you and will ask you to play two or three games in that mode to get a new/better rank back. Peak of my skill was reaching low platinum in ice hockey and basic 3v3 and... I consider this a success – since you have to have a pretty decent air control and movement as well as know how the ball bounces back from various angles.

(Chaotic Fun - that's the shortest way I can describe this game)

Rocket League also was one of the very few games to get rid of lootboxes completely once the regulations about them were put into effect. And... New system has a lot of mixed opinions, because now you can get blueprints which basically... Well, to put it shortly – you know what item you will get, but people seem to complain that they are either too difficulty to get or too expensive to buy. Though I am sure everything will be fine when the dust settles, let's be honest – every major change in our favorite game or in gaming industry in general is almost sure to force a lot of discussions and mixed opinions (well... for the most part, some news are received incredibly well and some excruciatingly bad)

Nonetheless, I recommend you get this game and maybe even convince your friends to get one as it brings a hell lot of laugh, fun and (when you start understanding the game and coordinating your actions) really satisfying!

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11. Multiplayer Tied to Single Player - Dark Souls Phenomenon

I want to talk briefly about... Multiplayer module implemented into single player game without many options to turn it off (except of cutting your internet supply temporarily) – and there is no better example in recent history like Dark Souls. (Sorry Demon's Souls! You were the first but more people recognize Dark Souls!) In this game, when you walk around chilling in single player – you may get suddenly invaded by a random player and then suddenly PvE singleplayer gets itself a PvP multiplayer factor at the same time.

(Invaders appear as a deeply red characters in your worlds - just so you know that they aren't here to help you)

You can also summon friendly phantoms (both NPCs and other players) to help you get through the location, boss or deal with the invader (though... It's not very appreciated in the Souls Community). Of course people can't invade you during certain circumstances (if you're in hollow state or if you're fighting a boss for example) – but back then it was something unusual, nowadays it still may surprise some people but it seems that such implementation of a multiplayer module has been widely have accepted...

Due to the success of aforementioned module, it was used as well in future installments of the Souls franchise as well as in many 'Souls-like' titles. The only exception is Sekiro which was purely single player experience which was... A nice change to be honest, to be able to explore the land of Ashina slowly without fear of getting suddenly invaded and ripped apart by some PvP virtuoso (Yes, I sucked at PvP very much)

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12. The Birth of Auto-Chess Genre

Aaaaand it's the time for grand finale of this. The most recent trend that took the industry by storm, just like MOBAs long ago and Battle Royales not so long ago. And that trend is – Auto-Chess (or just auto-battlers, pick your poison) games. They look very simple – you buy units from a selected pool of available ones, upgrade them if luck favors you and try to synergize as well as it's possible, then you place the units on a battlefield that looks like a chess board (thus the Auto-Chess genre name) and... It's mostly it, you have no effect on the actual battle – the units fight automatically and the best you can do is create synergies and a team that can stand against most enemies.

(Though it doesn't resemble chess board at the first glance, it's much more similar than you would think)

The first auto-chess game seen the daylight at the very beginning of 2019 – Dota Auto Chess. It was that game that would create basis and standard for all future auto-battlers to come – 8 players, upgradeable units, battlefield similar to a chess board (okay, there were few exceptions to that). No one thought that much about this game, everyone just agreed it's a cool new game mode and a nice breather... Then the Teamfight Tactics came and the genre began spawning more and more. Teamfight Tactics (or TFT for short) came out as an unexpected new game mode in League of Legends – and it was an enormous success. I played it for a while before I got bored, but it seems more and more people seem to enjoy this mode and some even play the game solely for this mode!

(Here's the exception from the 'chess board' rule - you have your standard Hearthstone board here but due to genre the battles are made automatically - but before each fight you can control the order of your units as well as get your hands on some new ones)

From the top of my head I can also think of Hearthstone Battlegrounds – no one asked for it, but now not many people seem to complain. They just accepted the new gamemode.

The infamous Might & Magic: Chess Royale which is a mix of Battle Royale and Auto-Chess. Yes, it's Auto-Chess for 100 people at the same time. It also shows that once incredibly strong and recognizable Might & Magic franchise is just a shadow of it's former glory...

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13. Epilogue

Well – I think that wraps up my thoughts, feelings and experiences with multiplayer games I have heard about; games I have played for a longer or shorter amount of time and games that flipped the entire industry upside down. As the technology evolves, I am sure there will be much more multiplayer games (such as announced Overwatch 2 and few other games from Riot Games). Some of them will fly under the radar and will eventually be forgotten, but some of them will flip the industry many times for the years to come. We have a lot of brilliant titles to enjoy nowadays while we wait for some new, fresh and interesting ones to appear.

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It was a long journey, if you reached here and you're reading this – thank you, it means a lot.
Anyway, go ahead and test some of these games for yourself as many of them are free, and if you're feeling fancy consider buying some of them!

Kind Regards,
Wing.