Where have all the COOP games gone?

Owen

Sadly, I think the answer to the above question is another question! Did we have that many COOP games on the PC in the first place? How affections about the past sometimes distort the facts. Search through many gaming forums and you get the feeling that the COOP golden years were when we were playing Doom, Duke 3d, Hexen, Descent and Klingon Honour Guard (come on, someone must have played that COOP) cooperatively. This is not saying that they were bad games; however on researching this site it was amazing to find out how many COOP games there actaully are. With Internet speeds getting faster this could just be the beginning of the PC COOP game mode.

However, for a bit lets change perspective. Those readers who go back far in computer game years will remember some (if not all) of the following games: Bubble Bobble Final Fight, and Time Crisis. All these games and there were plenty like them, were played cooperatively. When playing these games you were usually standing shoulder to shoulder with your fellow gamer. This close proximity cooperation play was also available on the games consoles. Home computers mirrored this style of play a lot weaker than its console counterpart.

There you have two different perspectives on the history of COOP gaming. So, if this is just the beginning of COOP gaming, is there anything the past can show us? The arcade and consoles market have had a greater period of their COOP years than the PC. This is mainly due to the more social nature of the devices. The PC has always been a solo machine. Has it ever been a machine to share? There are probably only a few PCs out there with more than one joystick attached, let alone keyboards (lets face it, sharing a keyboard is sometimes a violation of personal space)! Even at LAN parties each person has their own PC, admittedly you can see you fellow gamer.

To make cooperation you need to build a connection with the other player. Again, on arcade machines standing next to one another there was an open point of reference, making it easier to build that connection. With the PC across the internet with its faceless nature, this is a lot harder to build.

Imagine being blindfolded and thrown into a dark room of similarly blindfolded people. You will get some people who will act as if it's completely natural, some that won't say anything and usually some just want to be dominant as there is no point of reference as to why they shouldn't. This type of situation is not one often experienced outside the electronic world and it takes a while to adapt to this unusual situation. Rarely are game lobbies productive or positive to make this adaptation easy. Sadly in some cases, a blind situation like this can bring out a destructive and negative attitude in some. Cooperation never thrives in that environment.

Now solving the above doesn't create more games, or does it! Create an environment where cooperation thrives and as The Jam sang in Going Underground, "The Public gets what the Public want". So the beginning of the true golden age will be when game lobbies and communities change into something more productive. However there is a big drawback and in their wisdom The Jam also sang in the same song, "The Public wants what the Public gets". Genuinely, here at the COOP years we believe that the COOP game mode can offer an experience on par with single player and competitive modes. However, as The Jam sang, if the gamers won't create the "want" the industry will just feed us more of the same.

So, if you want this COOP mode to increase we believe the following is required:

Create thriving and productive COOP communities. Build connections with other gamers, don't try and expect too much with these connections. Try and view each other as people with the same interest, this will provide a way forward. The "will you be my friend" attitude is often counter productive; if that sort of connection is there it will happen naturally. Currently, there's alot of people want to play COOP but are so scattered that it feels like demand is small.

Thrive on the games available. Don't shelve your games permanently just because they don't cut it graphics wise. Build communities again round these games again, show the industry the last-ability that Half Life showed and subsequently put the entire game catalogue to shame with. We are not saying to keep playing a bad or heavily dated games. What we are saying is that if you enjoy an old game try and arrange some games with others. Like the music industry, if everyone only bought and listened to the same albums as everyone else the industry would be pretty small.

The most important aspect is creating the communities. Organise and bring like-minded players together. I know some people do not like the idea of clans, but that probably is an image thing. Once forums are setup for COOP players, arranging games and building connections will come easily.

A final note, to all you COOP doomsayers out there saying it's too difficult to make COOP games. While we understand where you are coming from you'll find that a lot of people thought that of Quake. All it takes is someone to sit down and really think about it in the first instance rather than tackle it as an afterthought. If you create the communities and support the games already available the developers will take that time to sit down and do the thinking.