Why I Won't Play Games Solo

Nearly every game that comes out now has a solo mode bolted on, an automated opponent deck, a flowchart bot, something you can run through the motions against by yourself. I mentioned in the Dune Imperium review that the solo AI there basically cheats and plays close to randomly, and that’s true, but honestly even a well-designed solo mode wouldn’t fix the actual problem I have with playing alone, which isn’t about how smart the bot is.

The whole reason I like this hobby is the table, the specific people sitting around it, and the fact that I genuinely don’t know what any of them are going to do next. A bot follows a flowchart. Even a good flowchart, even one with enough randomness baked in to feel unpredictable on paper, isn’t actually thinking about me the way a person across the table is, isn’t bluffing because they’re nervous, isn’t going for a worse move because they’re annoyed at me for something that happened two turns ago and want to make a point. Half of what I actually enjoy about a strategy game is reading a person, not solving a puzzle the box handed me.

I don’t fully get the appeal myself, but to each their own, I guess, some people genuinely prefer it, decompressing after a long day with a game that doesn’t require wrangling a group’s schedule sounds like a real, legitimate way to spend an evening. My own schedule’s flexible enough, self-employed, I set my own hours around house calls, that I don’t have the excuse some people have about never being able to get a full table together. If I’ve got an hour free, I could solo something. I just don’t want to.

There’s also something a little precious in me about not wanting to “beat” a game that isn’t really trying to beat me back. Chess against a bot that plays perfectly is a real intellectual exercise. A board game bot pulling cards off a fixed deck isn’t that, it’s closer to a puzzle with extra steps, and I already read plenty of books that are more honestly a puzzle than that. If I want to be alone with a challenge I’ll pick up something like Gödel, Escher, Bach again, that’s honest about what it’s asking of me. A cardboard bot pretending to be a rival isn’t, quite.

Maybe I’ll come around on this eventually. Maybe there’s a solo mode out there smart enough to change my mind. For now my shelf is full of games I own and genuinely love that just sit there most weeks waiting on enough humans to show up.