I see all these games coming out with special content if you preorder through specific stores. What the fuck is the point if it is only a single player game? Just to make the game easier to beat? I admit I preordered Deus Ex: Human Revolution from Best Buy just so I get access to a special sniper rifle and I also preordered Fallout: New Vegas for the unique grenade rifle (which isn't recognized by ANY of the explosive perks btw. WTF?!). But those were rare exceptions.
You could easily say the same for multiplayer items:
"What the fuck is the point if it is a multiplayer game? Just to make other players easier to beat?"
Unless the item is purely cosmetic (eye candy), it's generally always to make
something easier to beat. Whether it be another player or the game itself, it just depends on what the person cares more about. Some people don't care for competition, other people love it.
However, in my experience, in
most multiplayer games the special content isn't made to give you much, or any, advantage over other players. Which in my opinion makes an item rather useless unless it's for cosmetic purposes.
If it is simply for cosmetic purposes, whether it be to impress other players or just because you personally enjoy it, it generally only serves to please the eye. The only difference in a single player cosmetic item versus a multiplayer cosmetic item is the inability to impress other players with the item. Although there are some rarer cases that you are still able to (Example: In Dragon Age you can show off your characters online to other people/players which also shows off many of your items). Generally however, unless an item is purely for cosmetics, you often gain some degree of advantage or at the very least a head start in a single player game. That is most likely because of there being no competition and therefore no worries of creating an unfair advantage between one player and another. There are exceptions though, some multiplayer games do have special content that does give you a considerable advantage, but in my experience those are few and far between. From what I've seen in the past many special multiplayer items that have some advantage typically only have a slight advantage and the rest is cosmetic, and often these items are soon outdone by better "stock" multiplayer items that you get after a rank up or some form of promotion.
Most of the multiplayer games that I have run across that have multiple special items with considerable advantages typically use those special items as a method to make more money. Remember GunZ? It's an excellent example of this. Ijji runs a North American version of GunZ which is free to play, but they have various items that will give you an advantage over other players, most of them temporary, which can add up to quite a bit of money if you were to use them frequently, well over the cost that buying the game would have been were there box copies initially available for sale.
I like some multiplayer and competition once in awhile, but in all honesty I'm more of a single player kind of guy and I like to play casually. I don't like all that fast-paced constant-action hyper-tension eyes-popping-out-of-the-head shit all the time. Once in awhile, sure, but I don't get worked up over games all that often and I don't typically like to. I prefer to be relaxed and casual, and that's just me I guess, but I would definitely take single player special content over multiplayer special content generally all of the time, and especially cosmetic stuff. Just my opinion.
