A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of😗 the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player😗 mode" is usually a game mode designed to be played by a single player, though the game also contains multi-player😗 modes.[1]

The earliest video games, such as Tennis for Two (1958), Spacewar! (1962), and Pong (1972), were symmetrical games designed to😗 be played by two players. Single-player games gained popularity only after this, with early titles such as Speed Race (1974)[3]😗 and Space Invaders (1978).

The reason for this, according to Raph Koster, is down to a combination of several factors: increasingly😗 sophisticated computers and interfaces that enabled asymmetric gameplay, cooperative gameplay and story delivery within a gaming framework, coupled with the😗 fact that the majority of early games players had introverted personality types (according to the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator).[4]

Story [😗 edit ]

Single-player games rely more heavily on compelling stories to draw the player into the experience and to create a😗 sense of investment. Humans are unpredictable, so human players - allies or enemies - cannot be relied upon to carry😗 a narrative in a particular direction, and so multiplayer games tend not to focus heavily on a linear narrative. By😗 contrast, many single-player games are built around a compelling story.[16]