Single Player Rant

[Saxon]

<Rant warning>

Yes, it is commonly understood that many people find single player too easy. In this, Dominions is like pretty much every other strategy game out there. Once you play for a while, learn the basics and some advanced information, you will win most of the time, unless you give the AI large advantages. Once you reach this stage, you either quit the game or take the next step, which is playing other humans. The main variation between games is how much time learning you have to put in before you can beat the AI and how long you, as an individual, are willing to accept the diminished challenge.

Dominions is very deep and one of the best parts about it is that there is so much to learn. This has the advantage of making the learning curve longer and making the game more robust for the AI. If they humans take a longer to learn the game, the AI looks better for longer. However, once the human gets the deep knowledge mastered, the AI looks pretty stupid.

Now, why am I going on about this, which is nothing new to strategy gamers? It is simple, I have a pet peeve. I am tired of hearing people state something like “I beat the AI like a drum unless I really handicap myself. Single player is pointless, the game is only about multiplayer.”

What I hear the person saying is something a bit different. “I have tons of free time and have mastered the basic and advanced stages of this complex game. I must have had fun if I played that much, so it is a pretty good game. I am a competitive personality and want more challenge. However, I don’t recognize my first three statements are true, so let me tell everyone who has not invested that much time that they are bad players and the fun they are having in SP is akin to masturbation.”

Yes, I am jealous folks like this have so much free time to play Dominions! I wish my job gave me more time off and sometimes I wish my wife and daughter would understand that playing with the computer is more fun than playing with the dogs. Yes, I wish I had the time to master this game and compete with the ‘big boys.” Maybe I would never win at that level, I am not particularly gifted, but in over 20 years of playing strategy games, I have yet to meet a game I can not beat the AI in. Given some time, I would make that level and so would 95% of players. (For the other 5%, I suggest The Sims)

What I am asking is if we can leave off the repeated announcements of how useless the AI is and the implication that people who are playing SP are not much good. I propose to you that it does not make the boards a welcoming place for newbie’s (the future of the MP community) nor does make the poster look good. It just shows the posters have a lot of free time!

Dominions is a game of two halves, as they say in English football, and both are important. SP is the recruiting and training ground for MP, a place where a lot of us have a lot of fun and a good source of income for the developers. MP is the place where the limits are stretched, the best strategies are created and the hard core, long term players keep the soul of the game alive. Both are needed and both deserve respect.

So, thanks for listening to my rant and I hope it makes you think about your opinions on SP. Even if it didn’t, have a good weekend. I hope to get two hours of Dominions played this weekend, but it depends how long we have to wait at my daughter’s doctor. She is fine, thanks for asking, it is just a regular check up. Yes, you are right, I will try to get her playing strategy games, but she is only 1.5 years old, so it will probably be Dominions 7. And yes, she will start with single player!