Do you prefer to game alone or with friends?

[shateredsoul]

I prefer with friends, even with single player games.

[lilshawn]

i don't play with my wife, she wants me to do all the hard bits for her...then she wonders why she can't do something later on.

[SavannahLion]

Nineteen times out of twenty. By myself.

When I was younger, gaming with friends was the norm. I remember holding all 36-48 hour NES gaming sessions with my friends.

As I got older, those kind of sessions eventually all but disappeared. The last was an all weekend FPS party playing games like Quake and Duke Nukem 3D using null modems while I was at a college.

The Wii encourages my family to play with me, but generally speaking I prefer to play alone. It's annoying and distracting having to explain whatever is going on in the game.

[Malenko]

both, depends on what Im playing. Solo campaigns in RTS, leave me alone. Castlevania on xboxlive, hop on in!

[ahofle]

I'm a sucker for cooperative online games, so just about everything I play on the PC (Borderlands, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2) involves friends.  Pretty much the only time I play alone is on consoles (Wii/XBOX360), mostly because I can't stand to play those types of games with a gamepad.  

[TOK]

The main reason I built a gameroom was to be able to actually have people over to hang out and enjoy games. A couple nights a week I'll either play single player PC games or just have a couple beers and play Defender or something.

I used to play stuff online with friends, but kinda got away from it after my kid was born. It always involved 2 or 3 hours, and after kids free time feels too valuable for that. They are a poor substitute for actually getting together. 

[Rick]

When I was really young, in the arcades I played on my own.  When I was at my parents' trailer, they had a game room with a stand-up Kangaroo (woot!) and a Pac-Man cocktail (woot!).  I liked to play them with friends, but found I had none.  (Heh. Actually, most of the time, my friends weren't up at the same time I was.)  When I got older, I played Coleco-Vision mostly alone, as my sister was 3 years younger and my brother was 4 years younger.  It was either alone, or else, play "Lady Bug" and listen to them cry when they lost.  Older still, I played Wolfenstein and Doom alone (obviously) and then got into games like Command & Conquer.  Buddies of mine all brought our comps (with 15" CRTs) loaded into our cars to a cottage and played head-to-head for about 18 hours straight one day.  (AWESOME!)  Then, I got into FPS like Duke Nukem (alone) and Counter-Strike (net play) on the PC, but never quite got into console games or the like.

When I finally build my cab, it's going to be placed in my kids' toyroom (they're 9 and 3, respectively, and more importantly, both BOYS - woot!) and we're going to play them all together, I'm sure.  I'll be making certain to have the best of the best available - Pac Man, Galaxians, etc. - so that they get the feel for what real gaming is about.

[Otifrank]

Given my druthers, I'd love to game with others. Reality of the situation is such that my Wife and Daughter only have a passing interest in gaming at any level. I live a bit rural so there isn't to much in the way of others in my (ahem) advanced age bracket. Most of my buds are all "grown-ups" with familes and "lives" to get on with so, the chances to get us all together for a pure gaming session are far and few. 

[Ginsu Victim]

All the games I like to play that do have more than single player, I never know anyone that can play it well enough to enjoy playing it with them. Back when I was big into the Fire Pro Wrestling games, I didn't know a single person that understood the play mechanics.

I did get to play some UFC 2010 with a friend of mine recently, and that was fun.

Now I just play Trials HD over and over trying to beat the times of my friends list.

[Mikezilla]

It kind of depends on what Im playing, I like to play Starcraft 2 online with my friends, but any type of Co-op game I love playing with friends. Actually, the only games I like to play alone are RPG's. Everything else I like playing with friends. Now a days, since everyone kinda spread out and has girlfriends, its hard to get everyone together for a game session.  

[AtomSmasher]

I'm a sucker for cooperative online games, so just about everything I play on the PC (Borderlands, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2) involves friends.  Pretty much the only time I play alone is on consoles (Wii/XBOX360), mostly because I can't stand to play those types of games with a gamepad.  

I'm exactly the same way.

[shateredsoul]

Yeah, I feel I enjoyed playing with my siblings amd mother on the NES, when friends came over even solo games seemed interesting.  I only had one friend who actually enjoyed playing RPGs and taking turns.  That's was pretty great, but in general RPGs were a solo affair.  Once in college I found my self playing mostly competitive games.... FIFA, Halo 2, Street Fighter alpha 3, snk vs cap 2, burnout.  I lived with a bunch of guys and they always smack talked, and this made it fun to me. There was this one guy though I met recently who i tried playing Halo 3, but his smack talk was too ---fouled up beyond all recognition--- up. I'd die and he'd say something like, "You ---smurfing--- worthless piece of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, you thinking of playing sometime or keep dying?" and I had just met the guy. i was used to gloating, put downs, cursing, all that.. but for some reason this guy was a completely different person and took it too far.  I think it was because I took the tank he wanted or something. We were playing cooperative.

I'm almost finished with my cabinet, so I can't wait to invite people over.

[flashiv]

Mostly with friends.  Even though most of the arcade games are 1 player, there is something about talking smack or sharing a high score with buds. 

Unfortunately, also like many others here have mentioned, many of my friends are "grown-up" with families and kids.  Still about every 3-4 months I get a small group of 5 or 6 of us together for a game night.  Speaking of, it's about that time of year again.    Sides you haven't played NFL Blitz (PC Version) until you've played it on a 105" screen.  (1. Yes that was a self serving brag. 2. What good are all our toys if we can't brag once in a while.) 

[Frigo]

Online and competitive play are the only two aspects of gaming that I have NOT wholly embraced. I like my games single player, and if there's an online mode, I ignore it entirely - there's no point to playing it if it doesn't get you anywhere closer to the end of the game!

That said, I do tend to be a more solitary person overall, so it's no wonder that aspect of my life influences my gaming habits.

[Ginsu Victim]

I would play more stuff online if my friends had the same games as me. I'm not as big on playing against random strangers. I did upgrade to gold on live yesterday, so maybe I'll try to play more online.

[danny_galaga]

I can be a bit of a loner, so I tend to play on my own. But i prefer to play with friends. Best sessions in the past few years always involved Goldeneye on a projector screen and four players 

What Ginsu says about random strangers applies with me as well. I'm not too keen on online games where I just know I am going to get my arse handed to me by a 12 year old...

Having said that, I want to get back into playing Go. The only dude I know who plays was taught by a master and he's always busy with his business anyway. So online is the easiest way, and there are proper rankings.

[Edwards80]

I'd choose multiplayer over single most of the time. No we're all older though and some folks don't really play any games any more, we tend to go for simpler puzzler type games.

Chu Chu Rocket still gets a lot of time after nights out etc. Any game that you can quickly pick up and allows you to grief people who are in the room with you are always a winner

Usually I will fire my 360 up to play something in single player and will end up joining in with whatever my mates are doing online.

[Mikezilla]

I love buffets. Im a sushi fanatic and they have an all you can eat sushi buffet that is actually really good. I swear they lose money when I go. 

[Smeghead]

Alone






and naked 

[DaOld Man]

When I game alone... I prefer to be by myself.