A lot of developers have been leaving local multiplayer out of there games lately, which has gotten me thinking about a couple of questions.

First--for those who are knowledgable--which one is easier to program.  Does it take more processing power for online or for split screen?

And secondly--which one would you rather have in a game if you had to choose.. local or online?

For me, I think I have to say local.  More developers should really try and do both, tho imo.  It feels like they only do one or the other for Casuals or hardcore.  I.e.  you are either casual and only play locally, or your hard core and only play online... it just seems like developers see things in black and white too often.

I'm not very knowledgeable, but I'd say online is definitely easier than split-screen. Split-screen requires lowering graphics in order to allow for 2 or more people to play on the same system on the same screen, while still making the game look good and easy to play with less screen space.

With online you just need to worry about certain objects and textures ingame causing lag, but I think that's a much easier problem to deal with.

From the perspective of processing power, split-screen is more taxing. From the perspective of keeping things in sync and providing a consistently playable experience, online is harder.

Split Screen requires some additional processing power because you need to manage multiple view-frustrums and manage clipping and culling (including occlusion culling) for all of these views but you can save a lot of processing power by scaling back on the quality of image generated because the screen is smaller and most of the lost detail will go unnoticed; at the same time online-multiplayer for consoles tends to involve one console running as the master which eats up a ton of processing power on that system.

...

Honestly, developers are focusing on online multiplayer partially because of pressure from console manufacturers and partially because the most vocal group of gamers is also the group who wants online gaming the most (with the largest and least vocal group tending to favour local multiplayer).

for q1 refer to ^

for q2. I like the imersive gameplay for MMOs and the multiplayer stuff where from time to time yu can just chime in to a game (like battlegrounds). For the most part online stuff multiplayer can also be a real pain. If someone just want s to be a dickwad and ruin the XP, or a whole group (hack, cough*, PAIN TRAIN on WoW), then the fun becomes extinct. I think all in all I prefer Local because its a lot more fun to have friends over and laugh and stuff and no one gets pissed because you know each other.