I am an Old Skool gamer. I mean real old skool. If you've ever had to type "load" or "run" on a C64 then you as well qualify for that blessed badge of honor. When I started gaming, most games didn't have a point, or even an atainable ending. Look at Gauntlet. 100 levels with no real ending. ET, Pitfall, etc were all the same way. About the time that the NES came out there was a revolution. Suddenly there was a plot in gaming. Stories were told, no matter how abstract or thin the plot may be, it was there.
It was during this time that I became a hardcore gamer, I think I sank more hours into Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Metroid, Blaster Master, Bionic Commando, and Contra then anyone else I know. I feel in love with the single player mode, which was the only mode unless you had a friend over, be even then it wasn't nearly as fun as playing alone because not all of my friends were any good. I would have settled with average, but alas, their kung fu was weak.
More recently I've gotten into the multiplayer gaming. Admittedly, I was late to this party and only started playing online MP in the last 2 years or so. It's fun, all except for the usual reasons. Mouthy minors, team killing, and the general fact that I feel sometimes I shouldn't even own a controller any more after seeing the talent out there. Even still, MP was a mistress of mine that I secretly enjoyed her company.
Somewhere along the time line of modern gaming, someone who feels like me must of had the right person's ear, because a new breed of game was born. We're not talking bad cross breeding like Uruk-kai here, we're talking about taking the best of both worlds. Kind of like how Liv Tyler got the best of Steve Tyler and Jeri Hall.
When I first played Gears of War online Co-op, my jaw hit the floor. Perfection was actualized. I got to play with a friend online, and best of all, if a locust killed me, it didn't tell me to "suck" this, or teabag me. In fact, I always had a teammate who had my back. We were in it together. And we could use strategy! We could call out where we were and coordinate attacks. How cool is that?
Since then, co-op has reached new heights. In Halo3 you could have a 4 player game, and even with a little scoring meta game that put a little head to head competition in as well. Marvel:UA, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2, Army of Two, even GTA IV has co-op in it. Upcoming mega hit titles like Fable 2 are incorporating a drop in/out system on their game, and it is an RPG.
So thank you, like minded game people who started co-op. Your love for SP and MP has created what should become (and already is fastly approaching) a main feature of all future gaming titles. Co-op gameplay, FTW.
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