Through the years I have played an ungodly lot of multiplayer matches. I've rushed objectives in Vietnam, destroyed weapons caches in Afghanistan, and neutralized terrorist cells across the globe... and yet... each accomplishment has faded quickly -- approx. 2 to 5 minutes -- as a post-game lobby bleeds into a new, identical round. I do have a lot of memories of "that time when..." but it never goes beyond the most basic feelings of excitement. Certainly there's little accomplishment to feel pride over -- no larger goal being achieved. Can there be accomplishment when an identical round starts every 10 minutes? And that's why I've turned away from multiplayer games... for me at the end of the day, the slight accomplishment feels pointless. Multiplayer feels like the movie Groundhog Day on an endless loop.

Co-op may be slightly different, since teamwork can be done in the context of a story (goal), but even that leaves me a bit non-plused.

So as I look back on years of mulitplayer, I start to wonder if there was a point to it all?

...

Enjoyment of an exercise only lasts for a short time without greater context.

Throughout the years, I've played multiplayer/co-op with friends and family (long term friends, cousins and more recently my wife).

It is different when you play with loved ones, especially in person. It is a bonding experience that might be missing if you just play with strangers on the internet, unless you regularly play with the same group of people and they become friends of sorts (I've had that experience with the Utopia browser game, though I had to give it up after about a decade playing the game, because I couldn't invest the time anymore, but I played with some of those people for a decade or so, same people).

Gaming can be about endless rounds of competition with whoever for bragging rights, but it can also be a genuine social experience.

Yes, I agree. Good point.

I used to play tactical shooters with some friends... and I did have a legitimately great time playing Red Dead Redemption Online (the first game) where the experience was free-form and not round-based.

I always did want to play a flight sim with my father, a former pilot. His favorite plane was a P-51D. That would have been a great experience.