   Staying away from Co-Op play
  Ok, I was just reading another article on Half-Life 2 and they''re claiming no co-op mode will be built in.  This is something I don''t understand it a lot of games.  Recently I played medal of honor w/ my roommate on co-op mode and it was awsome.  I think that its an extremly good way to play a game.  Halo for XBox was also awsome being able to work together to complete a task.  Now this isn''t a post about games or if they''re good or if you hate them, because I could care less.  But why is co-op mode stayed away from in typical game design?  It doesn''t seem to make sense, the framework for a FPS game is laid, and all you have to do is create a new player.  Also with the success of online gameplay, and mods like counter-strike when people work together (depending on who you play with) to win, you would think that they would create team play in other games that arn''t for online play.What do you think? 
  I agree - I''m a big fan of cooperative play. I think another very important thing about it is that it allows you to enjoy a game with someone of a vastly different ability level. That''s how I got into playing Pro Evo with my younger brother - if all we could ever have done was play against each other, he''d have trounced me every time and I probably would have gotten bored. ;  Yeah I wish co-op were included in more games.  Easily my favorite way to enjoy agame.  Even on non-co-op games, such as single player rpgs etc, I get most enjoyment from them playing with a few friends and taking turns.  Games are just too lonely to play alone!  Even if the co-op mode is unsupported and a little weird (i.e. an exact copy of the protaginist character is used) I really wish it was included in every game.  But handling co-op can be difficult to program, and I''m still pissed from playing halfway through system shock 2 co-op and then having a crash and the load game function not work.But I think designers should put co-op into their designs more often.  If you already have netcode, it''s not that much of a stretch. ;  I suppose the argument against co-op is generally that it takes time to balance the single-player campaign for two players. Bungie fixed this in Halo by just having the co-op playable on any of the difficulty levels, and then making Legendary so damn hard it practically requires two players to beat.  ;  Agreed!  I''ve had the best time playing Doom II (via Doomsday) recently with a buddy across the continent.  I play Age of Empires with another buddy in a different city and we always play co-op against the CPU players.How I wish Return to Castle Wolfenstein or Half-Life were co-op enabled!Regards,Jeff ;  Well, you can always try coop mods. They arent *that* common, but still, it''s better than nothing.Maybe at some point designers will figure it out, but to be honest, it''s so damn hard to think of all the stupid things a group of players can do.I remember trying NWN coop, and it was quite a mess. One player goes wandering, and BAM! he triggers the next encounter.Now if it''s only fights we are talking about, it''s cool enough, but how to handle cinematics ? Not easy at all.If only Sven Coop didnt look so crappy, I am sure we would play it more, as it is quite fun.Oh, and of course you can simply play multimlayer against bots... but I am sure that''s not what you were referring to.   Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !;  Back on PS1 the only good co-op game I had was "Future Cop."  It was a fun game and all, but the co-op was, RUINED by a stupid opinion of one of the devs.The devs must have though it would be too easy with 2 people taking on a level built for 1 person.  Sooo...They allowed 2 people to play co-op...BUT YOU HAD TO SHARE YOUR HEALTH!LOL, there were 2 health bars (why? I dunno) and they would each change in sync with each other.  My noober cousin walk off the cliff, and I blow up with him. LOL, guess it could be good incentive to prevent team damage in some games.Still was fun despite this lame setting. ;quote:Original post by ahw  Maybe at some point designers will figure it out, but to be honest, it''s so damn hard to think of all the stupid things a group of players can do.Agreed.  It can be a big problem in a serial storyline where certain events HAVE to happen in a certain order.  But this is more like a movie than a game.quote:I remember trying NWN coop, and it was quite a mess. One player goes wandering, and BAM! he triggers the next encounter.Now if it''s only fights we are talking about, it''s cool enough, but how to handle cinematics ? Not easy at all.Basically you can avoid this if you consider all your cinematics happen IN THE GAME, not jump to a cut scene.  That is, if a character is now going to speak some dialogue, have them do it in game coming from the model your facing.  If the other player is not within earshot, he misses the dialog, but can walk in in the middle and catch part of it.I have a feeling you''re right and that it''s more complicated than that, but can you give me an example that couldn''t be handled this way?Regards,Jeff ;  They didn''t bother with Co-Op in HL2 because they knew that the Sven Co-Op team would do it for them. ;  Best co-op game ever is NES''s Chip n'' Dale. I also like playing sports games in co-op mode (2 or more persons in a team), but it seems like no one likes to play that way Also, Ghost Recon''s coop mode is really fun because it involves real communication between the players to complete the missions.I hope to see more coop games in the future 