Leave me alone: speaking out against the rise of co-op

[skinner49]

Source: http://www.edge-online.com/features/leave-me-alone-speaking-out-against-the-rise-of-unwanted-co-op/

 

 

Is it too much to ask to be left alone, just for one moment? Videogaming’s two great houses – the aggressive, competitive world of multiplayer, and the solitary, immersive world of the solo campaign – are traditionally kept strictly separate from one another. But like a hedge dispute gone feral, this divide has been violently breached. The single player and multiplayer worlds are slowly merging.

Sometimes, this works well – Real Racing 3 is an aggressive business model with a game loosely attached, but with friends’ times to beat it becomes shamefully compelling. And sometimes, as with poster child for unwanted co-op Dead Space 3, it doesn’t.

There’s the obvious problem with inviting a friend along to a horror game, which is that fear shared is fear halved, and firepower doubled is fear eliminated entirely. It’s difficult to be frightened by a thing jumping out of a cupboard when you’re packing enough hardware to take down a hundred things and the cupboards they live in.

Then there’s the issue of staying in character. Developers ensure that NPCs move and behave convincingly within the game world; despite what you might think about a series that climaxes with the moon turning into a gigantic space jellyfish – and that is the actual end – Dead Space is a franchise that takes great lengths to make you feel like you’re inhabiting a working universe, with its wonderfully high-res signage and greasy, functional aesthetic.

Your average co-op partner – in any game – didn’t get that memo. There’s a disconnect between the the haunted, gruff, space marine that you see on the screen and the character you hear in your headset – a mid-thirties nerd with two kids, who’s using internet co-op gaming in lieu of a family-ravaged social life. Unless you and your friends are so embarrassment-proof that they’re willing to roleplay – not many people have the sheer chutzpah needed to pretend their spouse yelling to say ‘Waterloo Road’ is starting is in fact a vital space phone call from top brass – then there will always be this gulf between the world you’re exploring and the person you’re exploring it with.

Spec Ops: The Line wisely separates its co-op campaign from the singleplayer game.

Lame co-op can be forgiven when it’s stashed away in an easy-to-avoid separate mode, as in Spec Ops: The Line or Uncharted. And of course, as with anyone who’s spent a weekend playing through Halo’s campaign with a friend, or who managed the astonishing logistical feat of lugging a 1990s PC round to someone’s house to play Doom, co-op can be wonderful.

As with mismatched FBI agents, handcuffed together and on the run, forced cooperation can work on occasion – Dark Souls robbed its players of both speech and the ability to write, allowing them to communicate only through gestures and pre-approved words and phrases, and this only added to the feel of a chaotic, decaying world that divided its multiplayer into sadistic, predatory invasion and jolly bromoerotic boss-slaying. Journey’s vocabulary of behaviours was deliberately so sparse that it was effectively impossible to act out of character.

But when it’s forced onto the single-player template, as with Dead Space 3, it can corrode a game – at worst locking away content for singletons and even at best contaminating the consistency of the universe with the plague of the general public. Bungie’s Destiny looks to be bursting with the developer’s usual phenomenal world-building abilities – but how believable will that world be if the 28th century battleground has 21st century humans dropping in to jump up and down and curse you for lagging behind to look at the scenery?

The solo campaign is a wonderful thing when done right – an evocation of a world that’s as effective as in any other medium, where you’re as free to explore and let the story or the world unfold at your own rate as you are to spend ten minutes shining a torch at a particularly beautiful floor texture. Like a thin-walled cinema that’s next door to a noisy sports bar, that immersion is being worn down from the edges, threatened by something that should stir up unpleasant memories in any gamer – the fear of being forced to join in.

 

 

Agree or disagree?

[mattybell2117]

Disagree. Don't play the damn co op mode if you don't like co op. Don't play the campaign co op if you can play it single player. IMO there aren't enough well done co op experiences in gaming. Sure co op games are rising in numbers but not really in quality. 

[Matthew_Banfield]

I think destiny will blow this problem wide out of the water

[Bullstomp]

Agree - I think co-op can be fun but when you force it then it can definitely suck. Case in point- Battlefield 3. LOVE that game but some of the co-op trophies are hell. Bullseye in particular. When 9 out of 10 people who play are run and gunners it can make for a VERY frustrating experience (since for this trophy, you AND your partner have to complete the WHOLE mission undetected).

 

I think a great compromise would be to have a trophy system like Mass Effect 3, which gives muliple ways of getting trophies. That way it caters to both MP players and single players. Not enough games take this approach.

[Lady Blanc]

Disagree. Don't play the damn co op mode if you don't like co op. Don't play the campaign co op if you can play it single player. IMO there aren't enough well done co op experiences in gaming. Sure co op games are rising in numbers but not really in quality. 

I agree with this and disagree with the article, co-op is a fun change from single player or online competitive play, especially if played with a friend. I agree that there are more co-op games as of late, it's just that some of them do it poorly, some are good though, like Raid mode for Resident Evil: Revelations.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Blanc_WhiteHeart

[Redgrave]

Co-op is fun, but only when it's not required. If a game "insists" you play co-op so you can get certain trophies or in-game items then it's annoying because not everyone has a friend that owns the game or like to play with strangers that will probably screw them over anyway.

[redknightalex]

There are multiple points in this editorial that I both agree and disagree with.

 

For one, why should a gamer with a family be ashamed of their gaming habits? (I also disagree, as per usual, with the assumption that this has to be a male gamer but that's a different topic.) Second, co-op can be done when done right, particularly if you co-op with friends and not the same middle-aged shameful gamer that you find randomly.

 

I agree with the article that SP focused stories, of which their great example of Spec Ops is perfect, should stay that way: you can possibly corrode a story with another player if you want to keep things focused. Then again, it can be done. I also agree that with some games, the co-op is essential and plays right into the story, ie Journey. Ironically the best praised co-op is not seen as co-op at all.

 

Mainly, I don't mind co-op as long as it doesn't involve trophies, is separate from the main campaign, and is entirely optional. Co-op is not an evil thing and can surely be harnessed but make a good line out of it.

[dodgedoors]

Co-op is definitely fun when done right.  In my opinion you should never do a campaign in co op until you have finished it once in SP.  I do agree that co op takes you out of the story when the person you're playing with is talking over the narration or characters speaking.  After i finish the campaign once I usually have music or something playing in the background so I am fine with co op post first playthru.

[manyuhesp]

Almost agree. I prefer single play, hate when I have to multiplayer to get a trophy but all in all, I think the best way to go is to have an option. The option to choose you can go this way (co-op, mp) or this way (single). I think Mass Effect 3 had smth like that, right? a set of trophies you could get on multiplayer or on single player.

 

In addition, it all goes with the game. I have a hell of a time racing online in Motorstorm Apocalypse and Journey was one of the most amazing online game experiences I ever had, but I wouldn´t play an Elder Scrolls game in co-op, for example.

[dontrustme_]

As long as there isn't any co-op related trophies in the game, I'm okay with it.

[Mr_MovieMan29]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with what this article is implying. I think developers should concentrate on making the more serious games exclusively single player. Especially titles like Dead Space. However, if they make two separate campaigns, one being co-op and the other being single player, it makes things better. Really, the only games I think should have co-op in the campaign, are games that are like Dead Island or Saints Row 3. Games that try and label themselves as survival games, such as The Last of Us, I believe should never have co-op in the main campaign.

[Parker]

It seems like just a few years ago there was article upon article complaining that co-op games were dead and we need to see more of them, now there are too many co-op games and we want to be left alone... 

 

Personally, I think any game or genre can be made to be very fun with the inclusion of co-op but it takes a talented developer to do so. A survival horror game could make a great co-op game in my opinion, but again, it would have to have the correct mechanics, number of enemies, supplies, ammo and whatnot.

 

I think the bigger question this article should ask is why do gamers complain so much? If the game doesn't have co-op they complain. If the game has co-op they complain. If the game has multiplayer trophies they complain. If the game has 2 gold trophies they complain. How about gamers (as a whole) mature a little bit and appreciate the work that hundreds of people poured their heart and souls into, and if they don't enjoy a game or it's mechanics simply don't play it. Why can't that happen?

 

For what it's worth I really enjoy co-op games, especially couch co-op, but I won't complain if a game I like doesn't include it.

 

 

Parker  

[daniel_flavia]

Game developers now have a tool that they never had before, players from all around the world could play together without being in the same room, with high tech consoles and faster internet connections.

 

Back on the old days, when I started to be a gamer if we want to play co-op we have to invite someone to your house, and be in the same room playing with two controllers. Now this is over, and they're excited about this new feature. Now you can play with a person, 5 min later with another, then another and it goes on and on, and you still could play with your brother or neighbor in the same room, or you can play with 10 other guys without even know who they are.

 

The idea of co-op games is to make every gameplay different, if you're tired of playing alone or with your stupid brother you can go online and get a new partner. Anytime from anywhere.

 

The point is to make you play longer the game and build a large database of fans around the world. Like CoD and many other games did. I know people who even bothered finishing the story on CoD games, they just want to play online and have fun.

 

I think games should have all kinds of game types, single, co-op or MP. And you play whatever makes you satisfied. For some games I prefer to play solo (like Borderlands 2), for others I'd love a MP ( any CoD), and yet another a co-op will be a good call (Trine 2). You just have to find out what makes you happy.

 

About co-op trophies or MP trophies, this will be an eternal thread.   Some like it, some don't.

[lporiginalg]

Strongly disagree. Not only do I think co-op can really add to an experience, but I'll never understand why people complain about a game having features that they don't want. Don't want it don't play it, that simple. This is no different then people complaining about MP trophies. If you feel obligated to earn the platinum or whatever and feel like you are therefore being forced to play MP, that is on you, because it is all based on your decision/desire to get all the trophies. Lots of people enjoy co-op as well as competitve MP and also enjoy earning trophies for those experiences. Wanting to take that experience away from all games and gamers because you personally don't like them is selfish and entitiled. There's enough different games out there to please everyone I would think.

 

I have very fond memories of earnign the co-op trophies on Uncharted 2, and even Dante's Inferno, hard as fuck as that was.

 

*edit* Btw I love how co-op in Dead Space 3, which from what I understand is completely optional, is the worst and most unwanted thing ever, because co-op doesn't belong in survival horror...but playing co-op in Doom is simply wonderful

Edited August 9, 2013 by lporiginalg

[Wdjat Prinny Doods]

I hate multiplayer and co-op trophies but I do like playing games with others because I find playing games with other gamers are more fun. I just hate when trophies force me to do them because sometimes the co-op and/or multiplayer mode on a game just isn't good

[Brawler]

I won't say co-op itself should be taken out however I don't like many campaigns incorporating it. Dead Space went down hill with it's third release, though I think that would've been the case co-op or not. Co-op promotes the run and gun gameplay versus the development of a campaign, almost feels like you have one or the other these days. Same could be said with Resident Evil in it's recent years. Regardless, I'll always enjoy having an excuse to play a game with a friend regardless of if it's in the campaign or in something of a horde mode.

[acasser]

Different strokes for different folks and all that garbage.

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of co-op.  And I'm REALLY not a fan of coercive co-op whereby a bunch of trophies are tied to a multiplayer experience and can't be gotten any other way.  The latter is enough to make me pass on a game, because quite frankly I'm not a particularly social gamer and I don't care to share that experience with very many people very often.

 

If I want to do things with other people, I already have friends and a social life for that sort of thing.  I don't need the proverbial "gun to my head" -- even if it's just the equivalent of a water pistol -- to encourage me in that realm.  When I'm feeling social, I have outlets other than video games that I'll explore.  Leave me a hobby that I can explore in peace without being "punished" by a bunch of trophies that I can't get solo, thank you very much.