Is it so hard???

Last week's game night was awesome, period!

My buddy got an awesome deal from steam on Borderlands plus all the current DLC for something like $7.50.  Of course I've been so buried in my new job that I missed the mid week deal and had to pay $30 for the same package.

Still, it was worth it..

Why?

Gearbox gets co-op gaming, plain and simple.

The game is engaging, entertaining and fully embraces co-op! 

I played the single player mission for awhile when my buddy said, "hey see if you can host one up."

Well, OK, I've been playing this game for maybe 30 minutes but in less than 5 I'd figured out the multiplayer and discovered that he could actually join my single player game.  This is a lot like the Battlefield 2 hack and somewhat like the co-op in  Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The point is this.  My buddy and I were having a great time without involving online servers, friend lists or complex menuing systems just to play a game on the same map!

We spent half the night playing that game and after playing a few other  titles decided to end the night by playing it again!  Well Done 2K and Gearbox, you truly understand that multiplayer doesn't have to begin and end with the great unwashed masses splattering your online alter-ego across that painstakingly rendered scenery every 10 seconds.

While in an entirely different genre the game  experience reminded me of Dungeon Siege 2 where you could increase your character's abilities in the single player game then transfer that player into a co-op game.  Not only do you get the benefit of playing in the context that the game developer intended with the single player game but you can advance your character's abilities and experience when you returned to single player mode.

So what is so bloody hard about this?  I've heard a recent announcement from Valve proclaiming that they will "probably not" produce another single player game.  OK, well if that means something like borderlands I can live with it.  But if it means they've sold out to the World of Warcraft model I think I'm going to start shopping around for the next generation of XBox. 

Apparently it wasn't that hard for Gearbox or Infinity Ward to figure out how to make co-op work.  To great success and regard I might add.

So EA, Activision and Atari as well as the rest of you who think multiplayer means no AI development or Co-op, what's your excuse?  Before you decided that every game you distributed had to check in with you every five minutes there used to be LAN options in your games.

...and it was good....

It's a game, not a commodity.  We buy it if we like it not because we need it to survive.  Do your bean counting CFO's actually think that the masses will continue to support your products based on your logo? 

Take a lesson from GM, The logo didn't save it from bankruptcy and it won't save you either.  Continue to ignore your market and annoy your customers to your own peril. 

Your future goes no further than a place on the wiki list of dead game companies who just didn't get it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Defunct_video_game_companies