Actually play games with other people

I'm a resolution fiend. Just like my dog can't resist food left on the table, I can't resist the urge to set a bunch of ambitious goals for next year. As a kid, getting a bunch of Christmas presents was the most exciting part of the holiday season. But in an adult way… Well, these are still gifts. But the opportunity the new year brings to imagine how life might change in the next 12 months is the second best gift I could ask for.

And so every year I decide how many games I want to win in the following months.

My goal this year was 60, and now I'm 41. This month, PC Game Pass's “Take a Game Break” tab, which recommends games that can be completed in under five hours, is going to be hard at work.

How to finish the unfinished

Multiplayer games are added to this list when I cross a certain time. The time to achieve was originally 50 hours, but I lowered it to 30 because that's how much time I spent with XDefiant before it became clear that all of its players had switched to Black Ops 6. I wasn't going to play 20 more hours against bots. I added this rule as an incentive for multiplayer games, because for the first few years I participated in this gaming ritual, making the decision to finish games distracted me from games that were, by definition, underplayed.

But even with that goal in mind, I only played multiplayer games that I could play alone. No co-op games like Content Warning or Black Ops' Zombies mode, and no team-based shooters like Apex Legends, Overwatch 2 or Valorant. I put 30 hours into XDefiant, but I did it entirely on my own.

It's always been my passion for modern games. I enjoy playing with other people, but I've never had a regular playgroup. As a child, it was something you stayed up for. On the GameCube, me and my friends spent endless hours playing multiplayer games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Kirby Air Ride, Sonic Riders, Mario Kart: Double Dash and Worms 3D. I didn't play the game in college, but I would go into the stadium for melee or Pokémon when people on my floor were going to play. After school I moved in with my friends from high school and we played Smash Bros again and passed the controller around during Until Dawn.

These were all personal experiences that are still the preferred form of multiplayer gaming. I enjoyed playing Fortnite the most when I got together with friends in the same room on PS4, Switch and laptop.

Collage image combining content warning, Valheim and Among Us.

Relatives

The future of multiplayer is indie

A successful indie game is like winning the lottery for a developer, be it single player or multiplayer.

As a gamecritic, I obviously had to deal with multiplayer – especially when I was freelancing and taking whatever project the website offered me. I watched Risk of Rain 2 with a friend from college and had a great time with it. After that we got into Left 4 Dead and really enjoyed it. But he lives in Thailand, and after a while the 13-hour time difference became unbearable.

Changing gaming habits in the New Year

So, as I look to 2025, I want to finally change that. My goal is to make playing with friends a weekly part of my gaming diet.

The timing for this change is great. Baldur's Gate 3, which adds crossplay, will change the game; I know a lot of people who play this game, but not all on the same platform. My wife will be able to play on the PS5, I'll take my laptop, and our friends will be able to play on whatever version they have. It's a game I love, and playing with other people is a good reason to take the time to play through it again.

I also want to use gaming as a way to keep in touch with my friends in high school and college. I try to text my friends once a week, but guys usually don't like talking on the phone. If I'm going to really know what's going on in their lives, multiplayer games are the best way forward. So I also decided that in 2025 I would say yes to any game any of my friends wanted to play.

I have a pathological aversion to being on the mic with strangers, but in 2025 I will at least commit to regularly being on the mic with my friends. And if some of these games can happen in person like in the old days, even better.