Cooperation is the Name of the Game

No post last week due to some birthday celebrations. Next week will have no post as well unfortunately due to it being near moving day. This week's post however will be a two partner post. This week's post will focus on Cooperation mechanics in games and how they evolved to reflect gamers for nearly 30 years. The post after will then focus on Guildwars 2 for PC, focusing on the cooperation mechanics in it and how they compare to current MMO's in the market.

With that in mind, it's a great idea to first get acquainted with the onset of playing cooperatively rather than competitively. In Pong, one could play against both the computer or another player. Competition was encouraged and while the game was simplistic, it started a trend as the first successful video game to play against a friend rather than with them. Usually when we think of games, we think of a player by themselves or playing against another player. Back when games were taking off in the 70's the limitations on technology blocked the progress of co-op. Therefore some of the earliest co-op games were beat 'em up/brawler games like Double Dragon or Streets of Rage which came out in the 1980's and culminating popularity with Street Fighter II. Later on when more advanced games came to home consoles, they reached a new level of popularity. Some series like the Tales games were unusual in that they were co-op RPGs. They had the ability to play with up to 4 players which otherwise would have been controlled with AI. Games like Sonic, Donkey Kong Country and co-op sports games continued the trend which continued until the introduction of 3D games like the N64.

Once the N64 came out with 4 ports for controllers, other consoles followed suit including Dreamcast, Xbox and Gamecube. With the new threshold came more delay in co-op as the 64 was limited in capacity at first. Two games even required extra ram which was sold separately a few years later but only had competitive multiplayer in Donkey Kong 64.

It's as fun as a mine cart full of monkeys (and apes of course)

On the PC side however, technology was introduced much faster by nature of the PC itself. This rapid improvement led the PC to become a mainstay for co-op gaming. Doom, release in 1993 led the way for FPS's. While it's competitive deathmatches were most popular, it did support co-op. Diablo the help of Battlenet let characters complete campaign modes together. It wasn't much of a jump then until the early MMOs then started to emerge. MMO gaming changed the whole outset of how many gamers play games today. The ability to actively fix a live game for bugs rather than live with a defect or to interact with players experiences and wishes gave rise to the notion of a connected gaming community. In games like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. The most well known MMO of course is World of Warcraft. By partying up to work on completing quests and later on in Dungeons, world bosses and raids, players could collaborate on a much wider scale and could then accomplish feats that simply weren't possible with console games. Antics such as the famous Leeroy Jenkins meme show the consequences of individual's actions on the group are that much more magnified as such acts can have widespread repercussions. Everything is live compared to redoing or restarting a game. Taking the time to plan dungeons runs or strategies to take down a boss are dependent on everyone withing a group.

Yay! They did it!

 Games such as MMOs could also retain a constant presence in cyberspace as it could be played around the world. Some more recent MMOs that are great examples of games that have complex co-op games such as EVE Online (a truly neutral environment), Left for Dead 2 (one of the most popular Steam co-op games) and Guildwars 2, by Arenanet. Guildwars 2 uses WOW's techniques and builds upon them, stressing cooperation between other players on the server by not dividing a set amount of loot when dropped by an enemy. Each player receives their own nominally equal share of the loot. In addition, one gains experience by reviving a fallen player. More will be discussed on this and how such reciprocity affect the culture of Guildwars 2.

The Claw of Jormag, a rather fun battle that can draw players from all over the world map.

The next time you play something, try thinking about the general atmosphere and culture of the game you're playing. How does it compare between competitive games and co-op games. While many competitive games are great ways to release tension and aggression, co-op can can be help in creating community and bonds between players as they much work together to solve a problem which I think can be under appreciated sometimes. Every player has their own preferences of course, but I must encourage others to think on the amount of positive impact they can have as compared to competitive games, especially for younger gamers.

My own toon. If you're on IoJ, maybe you'll see me.