Why are so many multiplayer games sucking ass, these days?

[Kane Knight]

One of the major selling points of Army of Two was online multiplayer and the like. And while I'm one of those neanderthals who still thinks making a game multiplayer and then skimping on the solo player experience is retarded, they're now skimping on multiplayer, too. AoT's online mode sucks. It wouldn't be so bad if online was an afterthought, but it was one of the big focuses of the game.

Now I'm reading all sorts of reviews saying that Mr Driller Online also has problems with the online. I haven't played online yet (And to be honest, I didn't buy the game for online), but it seems a common enough complaint right now. And again, they sold the game on an online mode. It's even right there in the title.

These aren't the only games I have heard these things about, but they are the ones that I own/have played, so they're the ones that stick in my head. It's bad enough that they often screw us out of a single player experience, but now they're screwing us out of a multiplayer experience, which is how they justified treating single player as an afterthough in the first place. Now, there's talks about fixing AoT, and maybe MDO gets patched, but this is pretty dumb.

And while I personally don't feel ripped off by either game (I bought AoT for local multiplayer as a fun way to dick around with friends, and I bought MDO for the dingle player primarily), a lot of people do feel ripped off, which brings me to part two: Why are consumers so goddamn dumb, anyway? How long will people shell out for games that they admittedly hate, despite the trend of nto living up to the promises that sell them?