E3 Focus Report-Cooperative Gaming

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Chicago

This is my quick report from the floor on E3 on cooperative gaming-hopefully I will also get to drop a few posts about various E3 topics, but I'd like to start with this:

Where is Co-op?

Of all the huge FPS titles floating for imminent release, there is a marked lack of any co-operative support. It's an odd trend, seeing as one of the first things that comes up in the initial preview of almost any big FPS is "Does this support co-operative play"?

Down on the floor, there is an trend to move gamers in a more social direction: Quake 4 focuses on "squad based combat" where you are a member of the elite Rhino marine squad, while Battlefield Two offers a single player campaign in which you can swap places with any of your team-mates on the fly. One would be hard pressed to find an FPS on the floor that doesn't include friendly teammates in one way or another. Yet, developers seem focused on providing just support for AI friends-not the friends that we interact with and spend time with on a daily basis.

So why is co-op AWOL from the next big releases? Is the market for co-operative play too limited? I believe it's just been overlooked. Go out and look for reviews and previews-any game can achieve higher points just for offering or promising to offer co-operative play. Co-operative play does require a company to take the time to re-write significant portions of code. From my experience in building a co-operative application, co-op embodies solving all the problems of multiplayer networking with single player storyline requirements. It's not easy. However, simply adding co-op in my opinion at least doubles the replayability of a product-who wouldn't want to go back through a great experience with a friend? I have 3 seperate WOW accounts to prove that I'm willing to go back and play through gameplay that I've already experienced just to do it with my friends.

I believe the lack in co-op is due to the fact that gamer's just aren't used to demanding it. We constantly want co-op, but the lack of it won't stop us from buying a game. Co-op is just an added bonus, just like multiplayer support was an added bonus 8 years ago. What needs to happen to change this is a revolutionary product in the area of co-operative gaming. Almost every co-op experience is the same as single player, with few mechanics to support the social experience. (one notable exception being Splinter Cell Chaos Theory's unqiue co-op gameplay). Companies tack co-op on at the end, adding simply more enemies . In these situations, it often becomes the role of the more skilled player to simply protect the less skilled player, resulting in a diminished experience for both. The next generation game will support flexible co-op in which all players, working in different aspects together will be able to form together a cohesive unit. This isn't even considering the possibilites that cross platform gaming can offer.

Well, my thoughts are scattered but that's what I felt I would offer. I hope that the co-op revolution will come soon, that every game will offer a little co-op tab right in-between single and multiplayer. But it's not happening this year, at least not from those huge name products on the floor.

-Maestro