Single-player games have always been a draw for me. Maybe I’m just a lonely type of person who needs a lot of “me” time, but the inclusion of multiplayer has rarely been something I would classify as enticing.

You can imagine then that I was less than enthused when I found out the Assassin’s Creed series will be getting a multiplayer installment.

As seen on IGN, Ubisoft plans to release an episode of Assassin’s Creed with “an online multiplayer mode.” The title apparently features Ezio from Assassin’s Creed II in some way, though I struggle to see how the feature is going to be implemented.

I mean … You’re as assassin, right? Shouldn’t you be sneaky in your assassinating? All I can picture in my head is a dozen white-robed murderers leaping dramatically from rooftop to rooftop, corpse-humping their target once it’s fallen lifeless to the ground. That sound historically accurate to you?

“Aye, ‘twas the Minister who was murdered. We saw the fiend, gliding through the moonless night like a shadow darker than pitch, yet his cloth burning bright as any star. We only caught a moment of the horror he committed upon the body as we came ‘round the corner. He was … well … he was … repeatedly kneeling and standing above the Minister’s face, howling like a madman ‘Tea bag! Tea bag!” he screamed.

To be fair, I would never have thought the Metal Gear Solid series capable of a strong multiplayer experience until I bought Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. And of course, that only got better with the release of Guns of the Patriots.

But still, I’m not sure I understand this drive for multiplayer. Playing with some angsty tween over Xbox Live as they shout into their headset about how much [edit] I [edit] because my mother [edit] with [edit] car battery isn’t exactly my idea of a fun time.

It’s not that I dislike multiplayer itself, but as someone who grew up scrunched up on the couch next to the people I was playing with — you know, close enough to physically touch them — I can’t say I get the same joy from playing online.

More and more developers are ditching split-screen game play in their pursuit of the online demographic, and it leaves a lot of us who grew up with NES, Genesis and the like in the cold.

Developers have to spend plenty of extra time to create a polished multiplayer experience, and I don’t fault them for that. If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it well. But what about games that didn’t need multiplayer in the first place?

Bioshock was critically-acclaimed for its well-written story, intriguing and well-conceptualized setting and solid game play which was both engaging and intuitive in a genre stuffed to the gills with generic crap.

It wasn’t the lengthiest game out there, but it certainly held your attention and was more than satisfying. It didn’t need multiplayer.

Similarly, Resident Evil 4 turned the stale, nigh-abandoned horror series on its head, bringing new twists and fresh game play to the table. It slammed the game down upon the dinner plates and shouted with almost terrifying glee, “Eat!”

It didn’t need multiplayer.

But enter Resident Evil 5, complete with ‘roid-rage’ Chris Redfield, eye candy — and dumb as rocks — sidekick and co-op multiplayer.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I’m playing a survival-horror game, I like to get in the mood. I like to let myself get scared. I like to feel alone and vulnerable. It’s a sensation you just can’t get with someone buzzing in your ear via headsets.

Not only that, but Resident Evil 5’s story campaign was considerably shorter than its predecessor’s, likely due in part to development time necessary for implementing a second character and the online multiplayer function.

The future for gaming lies in harnessing the power of online. That much is beyond a doubt. But not every game warrants the inclusion of a multiplayer component — and of those that do, not all remember some of us prefer the company of live human beings — and I hope developers who choose to pursue this goal remember they still have an audience of one eager to sit at home, relax and enjoy some quality entertainment.

This column appears courtesy of Sophie Prell’s blog, “G3 — A Girl’s Guide to Gaming.” You can find links to “G3” on iowastatedaily.net or via her Facebook fan page.