It all feels interconnected. You do something that takes away from an experience for an ulterior motive or purpose to suit your own needs as a company. I'm not really into multiplayer games. I can enjoy them from time to time, and it adds a dimension of challenge and a different perspective on a game or its fanbase, but I have never felt immersed in a multiplayer game like I have in single players. I sunk 200 hours into Fallout between Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Do you know what I felt during those games? Terror, desolation, awe. I remember having chills the first time I walked out of the Vault and saw the wastelands. I have never felt so empty and alone as a person than when playing those games, and that's fantastic. I was absorbed, and this has happened in other games as well, where I am in that character and that world and there alone. I felt it playing GTA IV; I did not playing GTA Online. If I had gotten a gun for, say, tweeting about the game, there isn't a doubt in my mind that this effect would have been ruined, because that gun would be always be an artifact of this world. It's something that even if I were not consciously aware of, would still make it fundamentally different. If I had to get emails about the game through a DRM system, or I logged in because they're trying to prevent the experience from being stolen, these additionally break the illusion. There's nothing wrong with game companies trying to make money. I know they already exist on a razor's edge of profits, but have your Farmville and have your Fallout games separate, and especially don't go pulling something like Gran Turismo did today where I am made acutely aware that everything you're doing you're doing for money. Some gamers are truly dedicated to the craft and the world-building, not the perpetuation of a company. Besides, I'm a strong proponent of taking care of your fans. Yeah you won't make as much now in terms of profits, but you'll make a hell of a lot more in the long-run from word of mouth, new fans, and dedicated supporters. Take the Amazon approach.We have the generally understood concept of ‘DRM-free’, which is great. Maybe it’s time for ‘social-bribery free’?
I don't think there will be another game like that for a long while. It combined the best aspects of an single player RPG style game with a FPS, and unparalleled, immersive story telling. I actually felt terror from those ghouls, and desolation in the landscape. When Three Dog started calling me out on the radio, I felt a tense connection and responsibility to a group of disparate strangers that were barely hanging on, even though I was the only one playing. Fantastic.