One of the truly great things about the advent of online networks like Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network is the ability to play cooperatively not only with your wife or son in the same room, but with your brother or sister across the country.  Sometimes though your co-op partner might not always be available, this is where Co-Optimus.com can help!

The following article will show you how to use the built in tools on the Co-Optimus website to find other gamers playing the same co-op games as yourself - and how you can set up sessions and more with them!

For those of you that don't know, GameDaily is a website from AOL that covers everything gaming and includes partner sites like Big Download and Joystiq.  The GameDaily HUD is a brand new feature on the website which features the most intelligent, important and sexiest voices in the games industry.  Will you look at that...there's me!

Every week I'll be taking part in the GameDaily HUD answering the burning questions going on in the world of gaming.  Well, that and telling you fine folks what I'm playing.

It's all about Geometry Wars 2 for me. It's totally addictive. The way Bizarre added the leaderboards right on the menu system is ingenious. I still have 2 achievements to go, but I'm constantly improving my score and competing against friends. Can I go back and play now?

So be on the lookout for the GameDaily HUD every week, because if you don't - well - you'll make Billy cry.

bapenguin says YOU should buy official Co-Optimus Gear. 

We all know you love Co-Optimus, I mean...who doesn't?  So why not support the site by purchasing some totally hawt gear?   T-Shirts?  Check.  Keychains?  Check.  Ties?  Check.  It's all in our Zazzle Store!  What's even better is you can even customize the look of the shirt to your need - or choose one of our premade designs.  Best of all - every purchase goes towards supporting this site.  So be sure to check it out, I'll post some pictures after the jump of our two official T-Shirts.  And yes...we have Billy!

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If there's one thing every guy always dreams of, it's playing video games with his wife or girlfriend.  Ok, so maybe "dream of" isn't the right term, but you know what I mean fellas.  Dream might be gaming with your wife, her girlfriend and yourself...ahhh yeah.  Um..anyway, believe it or not there's a whole lot of couples out there that game together, and most of that gaming is done cooperatively.  

At Co-Optimus, we want to hear about your experiences as a couple gaming.  So we are putting out a call for writers that game with their significant other.  If you are interested send an email to npuleo@co-optimus.com and tell us a bit about yourselves and a small writing sample.

As you can probably see, things are a bit different around here (if not hit control-f5).  We've been hard at work behind the scenes to bring you a cleaner more easier to use Co-Optimus.com.  More changes are on the way in terms of functionality - so sit tight!

In the meantime we'd like to know what you think!  Tell us the good or the bad as a comment to this post.  Be sure to let us know of any problems you see.  We'll be giving away 1600 MS Points to one lucky poster, and another will win a co-op game of their choice!

The fine folks over at 1UP are taking a look at the Co-Op Bill of Rights again; this time interviewing the author of it, Andre Vrignaud. 

1UP discusses just how well received this document was within the gaming community, as well as at Andre's own Microsoft.  Of course everyone wants to know the feasibility of making something like this stick.  "It's up to the game developers to innovate on the platform as they see fit," says Vrignaud, "If we can help with ideas... great!"

Another interesting topic brought up is something of a new phenomina, something that I say is nice to have.  We are seeing some high profile games claiming to have 4 and 8 person co-op (like Resistance 2), but is more always better?  Probably not says Vrignaud, as you add more people communication begins to break down with people talking over each other.  "If the communication aspect is breaking down, maybe they need to rethink whether or not it's really a co-op experience."

It's good to see our Bill of Rights as co-op gamers getting such attention from high profile sites like 1UP.com.  This year has been an amazing year so far for fans of co-op with more and more games including it standard - lets just hope they begin to do it properly instead of adding it for a bullet point on the back of their box.

When I'm not busy playing games with you fine folks, I'm usually busy working on adding site features and improvements.  Today I bring you not one, but two site additions. 

First up is our dedicated co-op games store.  This store is our set of referral links into every co-op game listed on this site.  Whether it's buying a game new through Amazon, or buying a preowned copy from Gamefly - every purchase made through the store's links help keep this site afloat! 

As a kick off promotion we will be giving away ANY game listed in the store ($59.99 or less) to one site member.  We'll also be giving away a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate to one member.  How do you enter?  Simple - just check out the store and look for the "promo code" at the bottom of items.  Reply to this post/thread with that code and you are entered!

Finally I've completely revamped our search engine.  You can now search articles, features and games.  We've even integrated a Google site search and overhauled our advanced search queries.

Thanks for visiting Co-Optimus!

In an effort to further the cause of co-op gaming, we have no launched our Official Facebook Page as well as a Facebook Group.   So if you are a member of Facebook, be sure to become of fan of the page or join our group to help spread the word! 

As a bonus I've uploaded some hi-res artwork and wallpaper to the Facebook Page to download.  Enjoy!

Right now there's a great contest going on called the My360Theme Contest.  It allows users to create Xbox 360 Dashboard themes, upload them, and then be voted on by everyone.  I've just uploaded the Official Co-Optimus Theme, so everyone should head on over there and vote!

In fact - I highly recommend everyone creates and account and votes for our sister site - Evil Avatar.  You can vote for as many themes as you want!  And if you want to upload one of your own for your chance at winning a prizes, make sure you affiliate yourself with EvAv.

It's always nice to see when the mainstream press picks up on a growing trend in the games industry.  Yes, that's right, the San Francisco Chronicle has written a great article on cooperative gaming, and how it's increasing in popularity?  Sound familiar?  Of course it does!  We've been saying the same thing around Co-Optimus HQ for months now.    I mean, just look at this genius quote.

"Competition is fun, but it's just as fun to do teamwork," said Nick Puleo, founder of Co-Optimus, a Web site devoted to cooperative gaming. "Co-op is more of a positive thing than going around and killing the other team. It's built around a story or an objective that you can accomplish together."

Oh...hey...that's me!  Ok, so that's not the only great quote in the article.  In fact there are quotes from the likes of Greg LoPiccolo, vice president of product development at Harmonix Music, as well as Reid Schneider, senior producer for Army of Two at Electronic Arts.   Both talk about the importance of the cooperative experience in their product.  

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