Comments on: Designing Cooperative Games: Dealing with Player Death

By: urbansquall

urbansquall — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:53:10 +0000

I think Left 4 Dead will help nudge things further in that direction, but I think the momentum is already there. I believe we’re well in the middle of a general shift from competitively focused multiplayer gaming to cooperative multiplayer gaming. There will always be a place for competitive multiplayer, but I think most gamers want to play with their friends, not against them.

By: Sharky

Sharky — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:50:53 +0000

Good read! Do you think that Left 4 Dead will spell a resurgence in co-op gaming? Can we expect to see more and more games evolving the concept? Or was that a one-off, even as successful as it and Valve are?

By: Panayoti

Panayoti — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:17:13 +0000

Another vote for Baldur’s Gate. Oh boy.. I remember my buddy and I popped that in and didn’t stop playing till it was finished. The sun went down and came back up in that time.

The unified player in Starcraft certainly introduced some interesting team dynamics, particularly when their were disagreements about the allocation of resources and assets and team effectiveness broke down. Good times.

By: NickZA

NickZA — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:08:14 +0000

Some respectable ideas there, and I agree wholeheartedly, having been over the "death and cooperation" theme late last year while working on one my larger game designs.

I've always felt that cooperative multiplayer has brought me far more joy in social gaming, whether the awesomeness that was Gauntlet, the furious combat of Doom, or, perhapsmy favourite, the co-adventuring of RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Diablo and Sacred, and even simpler games like MAngband and Demise. On the RTS side, in line with what you are saying in your article, I found the "unified player" co-op in Starcraft to be more fun than the team-based co-op -- I think it is more interesting when your fellow player's blood is your blood.