Multiplayer Gaming

An addiction that has such a huge hold on you that you dont even want to get rid of it !
Be it quake , doom , duke3d , aoe , etc - love them all !
(Hmm maybe I will add bomberman and paddlegame to this ? ;) )
But why is it that multiplayer gaming is so much more popular , more fun than the single player versions ?

Is it that you try to pit your wits against some other human - who "might be" better than you ?
Is it that the bots in the game become repetitive and easy to beat ?
Is it another oppurtunity to meet other people ? (Ya right - I am talking about geeks like me who spend upwards of 12 hours in front of the comp :-) )

Dont know the answers - maybe it is combination of all these and more reasons - but they are indeed great fun !
Speaking of which , not all games are fun in multiplayer mode.
Perfect example of a game that sucks in multiplayer mode as compared to their great single player versions are :
1) Heroes series.
2) Civ 3 PTW (earlier versions dont support multiplayer afaik).

Common thing thing about these are that they are turn based - and so basically you sit and rot while the other dudes battle it out in their turn.
This very soon becomes quiet boring - especially if the game becomes long and involved.
In Civ 3 , the developers have tried and made a creditable effort in minimising these effects - but this cannot be eliminated and so these effects do rear up its ugly head quiet soon.

Compare these with no-brainer trigger happy games like Q3 , unreal ,etc - ah perfect bliss !
These games are almost as though "designed" for multiplayer !

Ok , enough typing time to get back to Quake - err work.