With all of the great co-op titles of the previous year, and plenty more to come over the next few months, one thing should be clear: co-op is on the rise. As a regular part of our interviews with all of the great folks in the games industry, we ask them what their thoughts are on why there’s been a resurgence of co-op in games lately. In addition to their thoughts, the Co-Optimus staff has taken a look back over the past year and offers their insights into why so many people want to play co-op games.
History Likes to Repeat Itself
Just like with films, music, and fashion, certain trends tend to keep popping up. Within the video games industry, we’ve seen the rise and fall and rise of the shooters, jRPGs, fighters, beat ‘em ups, and just about every other genre out there, so why not co-op gaming? Editor Marc “djinniman” Allie and Assoc. Editor Katrina "ShadokatRegn" Pawlowski certainly subscribe to the ideology that everything old is new again.
Katrina
Once, arcade machines were made just the right size for four people to stand shoulder to shoulder as Marge, Bart, Lisa and Homer bashing the townsfolk of Springfield. Now, you rarely see arcades, but many households have some form of gaming system connected by the Internet. As more people become interested in games, more people will want to share the experiences; what better way to do that, than cooperating to meet a common goal? Where we once stood in a Pizza Hut to play a video game with friends 15 years ago as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello, we can now save April and Splinter from the comfort of our couches while connected with people half-way around the world.
Marc
Why is co-op more popular these days? Look back to the history of gaming in general. Early arcade games were almost entirely single player or competitive multiplayer. It took about ten or fifteen years for good co-op games to show up. Gauntlet, TMNT, Double Dragon, and games like them took over, and co-op remained popular in arcades up until arcades pretty much died off. Now, look at gaming in the early 90s, when 3D gaming and playing over the Internet blossomed. Just like in arcades, the focus was on competitive multiplayer at first: for example, deathmatch in Doom or Quake. At this point in the cycle, that same 10 or 15-year period, technical horsepower and broadband bandwidth have converged. You and three friends can play together, relatively lag free, without worrying about the system specs of their PCs. Co-op is booming on consoles today, just like it did twenty years ago in the arcades.
Building a Global Community
The proliferation of the Internet has certainly lead to a great many things, like Wikipedia, youtube, and, of course, Co-Optimus. The greatest achievement of all has been the ability we all have to instantly connect with people from all over the world. Co-Optimus’ own Owner and Managing Editor, Nicholas “bapenguin” Puleo, Army of Two’s Associate Producer Mark Turner, Red Alert 3’s Xbox 360 Producer Greg Kasavin, and Saint’s Row 2’s Lead Designer James Tsai all credit this rise in human interconnectivity to the rise in co-op gaming.
Nick
I definitely think we can thank the popularity of online services and faster internet connections for more co-op experiences. Combine that with local options and your player base for a co-op game greatly expands to more than it has ever been. Growing up my best friend and I used to play Golden Axe and Streets of Rage on the Sega Genesis in Co-Op. Now that he lives in Colorado, we still can thanks to Xbox Live. Even better, we can also play Gears of War, Army of Two, Rainbow Six and just about any of the other great new next-gen co-op games.
Matt Turner, Associate Producer on Army of Two
I would have to say the advent of on-line console gaming and its increasing accessibility and versatility. It brings co-op to a whole new level. It makes it easier because you no longer have to be in the same room and it makes it more fun as you have your whole screen…you don’t have to share a split screen, which in comparison, is far worse.
Greg Kasavin, Xbox 360 Producer for Red Alert 3
Co-op play has been around for ages and it's always been great. Classic arcade games like Gauntlet and Double Dragon were designed around player collaboration and they've long since proved how fun and intense it could be. Video arcades aren't what they used to be anymore but social gaming is stronger than ever thanks to the Internet. Services like Xbox LIVE and Valve's Steam do an excellent job of letting people communicate around the games they like, and get into games together. As a result, co-op play is back in fashion as one of the most exciting ways of playing just about any action-oriented experience.
James Tsai, Lead Designer for Saint’s Row 2
Co-op is growing because as a community, gaming is growing. As gamers, we’re becoming increasingly social about our passions and are looking for more ways to share our experiences. Co-op has flourished the same way fan sites, forums, video sharing, trophies, achievements, on-line names, and gaming news sites flourish. It taps into the fundamental truth we all know: games are too fucking cool to not share with others.
Are We Having Fun Yet?
People can debate back and forth about whether or not games are art, but no one can debate the fact that games are fun. And who wouldn’t want to share that fun with others? While our resident Artist and Co-Opticast Host Mike “Pheriannath” Katsufrakis may have been the only one to state this outright, he is certainly not alone in wanting to share the fun of playing games with others.
Mike
Why has co-op gaming seen a resurgence? The answer is pretty simple: It's fun to play together. Kat's example of the old multiplayer arcade cabinets is how I got introduced to co-op play (though I cut my teeth on Gauntlet). As an arcade hound, pretty much all of the gaming I did as a young lad was co-op. With the advent of structured networks of players, such as Steam or Xbox Live, it became much easier to bring gamers together. Developers remembered how much fun co-op play was, and now that they could easily bring players together, started to implement the feature more and more often. Now that the pieces are in place, co-op's triumphant return is pure momentum. It's the way I see the industry moving as multiplayer experiences become more important in a game's life cycle.
The Only Thing That Will Redeem Mankind is Cooperation
Playing Call of Duty 4 night and day “pwning noobs” and racking up headshots left and right is certainly one way to enjoy video games. But in the end, does this just drive us, as a community, further apart? Editor Jim "txshurricane" McLaughlin, Silicon Knights’ President Denis Dyack, and Schizoid’s Technical Director and Lead Programmer Jamie Fristrom believe that cooperation is greater than competition when it comes to video games.
Jim
To me, the answer is simple: generational differences. Online capabilities have removed the obligation to behave at least a little bit. How many of us can seriously say that we sang obnoxiously or started screaming insults during a four-player local Halo match? Very few, I'm sure. Now, it's commonplace in the lobbies of games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Halo 3, and Gears of War 2. Which is not to say that anonymity is not present in online co-op games, because it is. But when players are joining a match in the spirit of working together instead of agitating each other to death, your chances of getting a singing troll at your side are slimmer. I would go so far as to say that Xbox Live would not be able to charge $50 a year without tens of thousands of parents paying for it to placate their trolls. Co-op has always been fun...now, it's prudent. That's my take.
Denis Dyack, Silicon Knights President and Lead Designer for Too Human
I think competitive gameplay can tend to be more on the anti-social side in some ways. There are people who can spend a lot more time, with the average consumer getting older - with the average being something like 39 years old, I myself don't have the time to be the best at Counter-Strike anymore. I used to play it all the time and I loved it, and when I was younger and could put more time into it, like 8 hours a day and give up sleep, and get to work the next day and still be cognitive. Those days for me are gone. This is a much more casual cooperative, helping people out, and I think co-op from that perspective is catching on. It's just a little less intense, but it's still just as fun. It allows people to be more social over Xbox Live, and certainly services like XBL definitely help that. I think that you are going to see with more connectivity that we'll probably lean towards more cooperative than competitive. I don't think competitive is ever going to go away. The cooperative space has been small, and really hadn't really thought about it. They just went right to competitive right away. But now that it's been actually more of an even balance.
Jamie Fristrom, Technical Director and Lead Programmer for Schizoid
It seems obvious, but...most videogames are solitaire - which is great, they're a wonderful way to kill time, I've played thousands of them, but in the end you're just playing with yourself, right? But when you play with others most of what's out there is competitive games. Which sucks; that's not a great way to be social, to find a friend or a stranger and either try to humiliate them or be humiliated by them. So, it sounds touchy-feely, but co-op is just a great way to bring people together. Hell, that's how I keep in touch with my brother on the east coast - we play co-op games together. We started doing it with Diablo 2 and we're still doing it with games like Gears and R6LV and now Schizoid.
There are a lot of different ideas about why co-op gaming is on the rise, but the important part is that co-op gaming is on the rise. While we here at Co-Optimus are thrilled that we can celebrate a one-year anniversary, we’re even more thrilled that the games industry and, most important of all, you, the gaming community, recognize the importance of co-op gaming and choose to make or play these games. As the next year of games is starting to kick-off, we promise we will continue to bring you all the latest and greatest in co-op news.