Experiencing a well-designed, well-executed, well-acted, and well-balanced FPS game’s story mode is like living through a great action novel as the main character. With the “you are there” perspective of an FPS, telling a compelling story with emotional investment can be engaging in a way that online PvP matches can’t match. You can get a longer, deeper game-play experience that is sometimes even more satisfying than a great round of online play: The “offline FPS.”

But the first-person genre can deliver another kind of experience, too. There’s always a trade-off of the possibility of bad-faith playing by trolling players when a game’s main design is all around pools of strangers also playing. Those so-called “Griefers” camp out in unfair spots in games, knocking out players as they respawn for cheap points, kill-stealing, being away-from-keyboard (AFK) in a squad, and just collecting experience from others’ efforts. Like Jean-Paul Sartre said in No Exit, “Hell is other people.” Sometimes it is frustrating to be playing against folks who take delight in ruining other people’s days. Battle royales, team battles, capture the flag battles, all in an endless series of skirmishes and rounds. Online first-person shooter (FPS) games deliver an adrenaline rush and millions of players log in each day to do battle to get it. Nothing beats jumping into a game against real-life people, connected through signals and wires across the internet, all in a shared virtual space to see who is better than whom. There’s no denying the thrill that comes with human competition.

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