When buying or reviewing games, is online features a priority?

[Sonic Angel Knight]

There is plenty of people who buy games, only to expect online features to be functional and working fully or just having a lot of good things, i see this mostly in fighting games and the shooting games, watching people buy a game and only mention how bad the online functions while praising other aspects of singleplayer and offline things is far better in some game discussions, it seems like people only by games for the expected purpose of online.

While i'm constantly being told "I'm getting the new call of duty game, i can't wait" Then to ask "What you excited about most?" To be responded with "Oh you know the online multiplayer, getting those killstreaks, and those zombie modes" Well where is the concern about the campaign being good?? "No one plays the campaign, who plays single player, is not a single player game." Is a common thing i disliike being told. Me personally games are worth $60 and i hope it has enough variety to be entertained with for long time. I seen people not like playing the game they say is good and well done with positive comments only to not play it cause of online functions lacking in performance or features.

So tell me is the how much of a priority is the online features when buying multiplayer games or reviewing them? Personally if is for review, i don't think it should be too harsh to negatively impacting a game if you like it for what it is. For casual playing, I understand is part of the game but is not all there is to the game, it serves as alternative to local multiplayer when is not always possible.

 

[tbb043]

Frankly, I prefer games to not have online features. At best, I won't be using them anyway. At worst (ME3, looking at you) it'll detract from the development that could have gone into the offline.

 

[SomecallmeBerto]

Frankly, I prefer games to not have online features. At best, I won't be using them anyway. At worst (ME3, looking at you) it'll detract from the development that could have gone into the offline.

Pretty much this for me too. I almost never play online unless it's with friends.

 

[FAST6191]

Online usually means some fraction of funds were spent on it when they could have been spent on something else. I am not a fan of online games, there is undoubtedly something to them but the amount of effort you need to stick in to get a good game. Not even the option to play with friends as their free time rapidly diminishes for real world play was enough to entice me. That said I rarely see fighting game people care (they tend to accept it is going to be crap), more shooting and driving (or shooting while driving/flying) people that seem to care, and RTS/turn based. My tolerance for turn based stuff goes up a bit, however when even something as well established as civilisation lacks polish to the extent that things like http://multiplayerrobot.com/ becomes almost necessary then I hold out little hope of anything being good.
If I am reviewing something and it is there then I feel obliged to mention it and give it a go to see how functional, or not, it might be. Most of the time it is a cold and clinical thing, how they handle lag and such like, and maybe a comparison with how the single player plays/might prep you with the only exceptions tending to come in things like Watch_Dogs which attempted to weave it into the single player game. For the most part though we don't give me online only games to review much like we don't give me sports games.
It is not like I have not put the time in either, I am quite happy to join in to be sociable and thus have hundreds of rounds of cod, halo, battlefield and Rainbow 6 vegas to my name.

My favourite thing was probably destroying scores on Tetris DS. My flash cart would reset the score after online play for whatever reason and decades of tetris playing have left me fast on the old fingers here. I would then cause people to lose thousands in score when at that level hundreds was a feat worth noting. Good times. Though for the aggravation of sorting out games of it I would sooner play against the AI.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

To be honesy, i dunno how tetris is such a addicting game, but that just me. I always found it hard to stay attached to when the only goal is highest score, It just something i'm missing, seeing my name on the leaderboards? i dunno, i guess is just for challenge aspect of the game.

 

[puss2puss]

I hate games that are 'online only' , but when its just a feature its nice. Exemple Mario Kart 8, stays a true Mario Kart8 game without having to play online, but we can if we want to, wich is pretty nice.

But games that makes us feel that without playing online it is nothing, its bad..

TheDivision is a game 'online only'..you cannot launch the game if you are offline..you can play single player but you cannot launch it when being offline..i think its a retarded restriction! I understand the reasons, but they could have made an option in the main menu to choose offline or online..but they didnt..
The online gaming on this game is pretty cool and its in an open world..but tons of disadvantage comes when its online-only..thats just one exemple..

So, having online features is great when the main OFFLINE game is good, but when the online features are necessary to enjoy the game, nah..
Online features shouldnt be a priority to be able to enjoy the game, just an 'extra' feature to enjoy the game on a different level.