I don’t like playing games with other people. There, I said it. For whatever reason, I just never got into it. I grew up at a time when playing co-op games meant inviting people over to your house, and as a poor kid in the country I rarely had the games to play or the friends to invite. Thus my earliest gaming experiences were mostly solo. By the time that perhaps the biggest social gaming phenomena—MMOs—rolled around, I was already set in my ways. And despite the popularity of the genre, and multiplayer in general, I’ve never felt left out. It’s hard as an adult to start scheduling your life around other people, and even more so if you have back problems and a limited attention span. Most games have decent single player campaigns even if they’re primarily meant as a group experience, so I’ve gotten by without missing out on the big stuff. But mostly, I’m just a bit of a loner. I have neurological issues that make overstimulation exhausting, so I take most things, including socializing, at my own pace. It works for me.
But then came Destiny 2, a first person shooter with MMO sensibilities, whose multiplayer features I vowed never to participate in…and I. am. loving it.
In Destiny 2, when it comes to co-op play, you can take it or leave it. You’re surrounded by the hustle and bustle of people on a mission, but you’re in no way obligated to participate. If you want to jump into a Public Event and help some folks take down a monster, or run around the ruins of European Dead Zone killing Fallen with a bunch of strangers, you can. But if you don’t want to, screw it. Ignore ‘em, run around, mill about in The Farm and pretend they don’t exist. Let them fall in battle, and don’t revive them. No one’s making you play nice. It’s a participation level I can get behind, allowing me to jump in and out as my schedule demands, without the nastiness of being called a whore in voicechat.
