I suspect playing any PvP game with random members of the public?

Playing Streetfighter 2 with people you know should still be fun?

As an avid gamer for 35+ years, I have played a ton of PvP both locally and online.

One of those experiences can't replace the other.

I am married with two young children. All of my video game time comes in the hour or two after they go to bed and before I go to bed. I don't have friends around at that time, yet I still want to get some good multiplayer gaming in.

Online matchmaking is amazing these days. You are able to match up against people of about your skill level at any time of day. That experience is magical, compared to the matchmaking from 25 years ago where you would try to find a random lobby, and the players might be amazing or terrible.

For most online games, especially ones without chat, playing against sufficiently good bots is better than online. You don’t have to worry about cheating, connection issues, can quit mid game without issue, etc.

That is fine if you feel that way, but I really don't. I get much more satisfaction playing against real people. It just doesn't get my competitive juices flowing in the same way when I play against bots. There is no psychological aspect when you play against bots.

I know what I like.

But what if you don't know they are bots? :)

Wasn’t that the case for a lot of the .io style games, where they just disguised bots as real players.