Two weeks ago I bought Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The 2012 video game promised to be bigger and better than it’s predecessors and had the added value of a strong storyline to power solo play. I didn’t buy it for that though. See, we have COD: Ghosts, the more recent version of the game. Everything in Black Ops II I’d already seen before, with one notable caveat: Black Ops II supported 4-player couch co-op. What’s more surprising is the lack of games that actually do these days. While online multiplayer support is on the rise, face to face or ‘couch’ co-op gaming has seen a sharp decline, which leads to the question: Are we connecting our youth, socially, or are we doing something else entirely?
Each Tuesday is game night in the Talislegger household, and having 3 boys the games tend to be multiplayer supported board games or couch co-op games. Sadly, the number of console games we can play together are dwindling significantly. According to co-optimus, a noted multiplayer game review website, the number of 4 player couch co-op games have decreased steadily and significantly since 2010. In fact, a Co-optimus search failed to illicit a single xbox 360 4 player game that wasn’t a remake of a previous title. Madden 25 and other sports games dominated the short list. There were more in 2013, including the poorly reviewed Adventure Time game. There were more still in 2012, and in 2011 the trend continues.
Meanwhile, Destiny is receiving all the gamer buzz and opened to the tune of $500 million in sales. The epic new Bungie (makers of Halo) shooter is a 3-player game, but only online. There is no couch co-op. This is the new trend in gaming. Today’s games are about interacting with players across the world but not the person sitting next to you on the couch. We are being trained to be global but to be isolated. I have a host of concerns about a world where we spend more time jacked in and communicating with a kid from Indonesia than we do talking to our neighbor next door. Perhaps we are already there and my sense of common good prevented me from recognizing that fact up to this point.
The question begs to be asked: What does that world look like and in that world, what do the words society and culture mean anymore?