The continued march of social integration has added much to modern games, but also arguably robbed them of their single player prowess. It's tough to stay a solo player in today's gaming sphere what with every shooter, RPG, sports and racing title and their dog plugging networks at every opportunity. Racers have felt the decline of single player content more sorely than others (laughably stumpy FPS campaigns notwithstanding) and seen their once lavish campaigns dwindle, now a token gaggle of circuits amounting to a pre-multiplayer appetizer. Military shooters have been in a similar position for years, but the effects are more pronounced with racers. Shooter fans often wind up investing the majority of their play time in multiplayer interactions regardless of how focused the campaign is, whereas many racing fans relish challenging their own records, playing their races and, again, revisiting their cars. There's no stopping the growth of multiplayer gaming, but there's no need to strip single player content to its bones either. They do not exist in the absence of the other, after all.
A freelance games writer, you say? Typically battling his current RPG addiction and ceaseless perfectionism? A fan of horror but too big a sissy to play for more than a couple of hours? Spends far too much time on JRPGs and gets way too angry with card games?
Well that doesn't sound anything like me.
