Play Together, Die Alone: Interview With The Author Of "Co-op Gaming Bill Of Rights"
1up has a short interview with Microsoft game director Andre Vrignaud, author of the "Co-op Gaming Bill of Rights," a brief, personal statement on what co-op games should and shouldn't offer the player. Considering his insider status, the list is an interesting look at what we might want from game developers, or at least the minimum of what we should expect from them in the future.
The interview touches upon why co-op gaming has really developed into the newest "must-have" feature for so many big titles, and what it provides for players.
I think we live in a world where "online" ... has become an integral part of our lives. However, staying connected to our friends and community in a meaningful way has paradoxically become more difficult. I'm just as guilty as anyone of "keeping in touch" with a distant friend with the one-line "thinking of you" email... and unfortunately, that just doesn't work. What does work is prolonged social contact with the people you care about, and I think co-op gaming addresses this need in a very direct fashion. You're able to spend some of your limited (and hence valuable) free time being engaged with a friend in a meaningful, fun way that allows you to both play and communicate together. And note that here, I'm talking about playing cooperatively online... games like Rock Band are certainly taking the co-op, social experience to new heights where you have even more reason to get together... even in the same room! Just imagine the possibilities....
I'm not sure that curb-stomping the Locust replaces a real social life, but I get where he's headed. After this autumn's deluge of co-op enabled games, I'm sure some titles will shoehorn in a co-op mode just to keep up appearances. If they want to do things right, the rules that Vrignaud has established are definitely a good place for developers to start.
Microsoft and the Co-op Gaming Bill of Rights [1up]
Dawdle
Posted to Video Games on 1 June 2008
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: coop, cooperative play, microsoft, online
I've been a big advocate of co-op gaming for a while, myself. I've even tried to put together a few co-op experiments to be played in HL2 mods like Sven Co-Op, where two or more players can go on a huge adventure together in what would normally be a single player campaign but with either far too many bad guys or puzzles where the players have to work together to scavenge resources and find a way to survive or work through a puzzle together. I've tried applying these concepts to the portal engine as well and they have worked to an extent (in garry's mod at least, only because if player A steps through player B's portal in the actual portal game it crashes) and these have had some success as well though unless I put in some non-puzzle aspects and outdoor environments it gets kind of boring. I look forward to developers potentially working more co-op into their games similarly to playing Halo's storyline with a buddy. That will be fun to see.