What’s up with almost every modern gamer trying to skip the story mode just to jump straight into multiplayer?
This whole discourse popped up on X (formerly Twitter), where a lot of folks are already setting their sights on diving headfirst into Grand Theft Auto Online instead of starting with Grand Theft Auto VI’s single-player campaign. But… what’s the big deal?
In today’s gaming landscape—especially with games released post-2020—a lot of players seem to have developed shorter attention spans when it comes to story modes. Maybe it’s the rise of short-form content like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Facebook videos, but the effect is clear: many gamers skip the story entirely. This trend is especially noticeable in modern shooters like Call of Duty or Battlefield, where people just want to squad up and jump into the action as fast as possible.
While that might seem totally normal for some, it does raise concerns about how this affects the overall gaming experience. More players are choosing to dive straight into multiplayer with friends rather than experiencing the narrative the devs poured their hearts into. And sometimes, even games which had a dedicated single-player mode will no longer have them in their future entries due to players refusing to play it. (See: Bungie’s Marathon and Black Ops 4)
Take Monster Hunter Wilds, for example. Players often skip cutscenes, ignore dialogue bubbles, and blow past key story moments just to get to the monster hunting with their friends. Most of them don’t care about Nata’s emotional arc or the looming threat posed by the Wyverians—because they never even bothered to understand it.
Even in other Rockstar titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, some players breeze past everything Arthur Morgan goes through just so they can hang out with their RP crew in Red Dead Online. It’s a strange choice, but one I totally get. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize that not everyone plays games for the story. Some players simply want to have fun. They don’t care if Arthur’s dying or if Nata’s crying again—they just want to get to the good stuff.
And that’s completely understandable.
But modern games have gotten sneaky. A lot of them force players into the story mode before they can access multiplayer. Monster Hunter does this all the time. You’ve got to watch cutscenes and reach a certain Hunter Rank just to take on the big hunts with your friends.
With GTA VI on the horizon, we’ll definitely see this divide again: one group wanting to soak up every bit of story and the other ready to raise chaos in online mode from the get-go.
At the end of the day, as long as you’re enjoying the game and getting your money’s worth, it’s all good. But come on—maybe give the story a chance. You might be surprised at how much you end up loving it.