What’s your first memory of the the shooter genre? The first FPS I can remember playing was Disruptor on the Playstation (not counting Jumping Flash, it's more of an FP-Platformer or Ultima Underworld, FP-Hack & Slash); I did not experience Doom until Final Doom in 1996 and never Castle Wolfenstein. When did you realize that WASD was superior to a controller (Unreal Tournament 2003, sorry console brothers, it's true)? The first time I truly remember enjoying an online shooting game was the Socom series on the Playstation 2. The gameplay was top notch, for its time, and the community was quite hardcore. The better team won the match, not necessarily the better player. Flash forward to today where most shooters throw you on a team and you try to rack up the most kills, streaks, whatever else and you begin to identify a stark contrast. Where/ when did the value of teamwork fall by the wayside?


Back in my day we were damned lucky to have 2 different assault rifles!

Is the recent trend in multiplayer leveling up/ character trees the culprit? It is in the player's foremost interest to have the best equipment available and it's most certainly a bragging point when they can flout their fancy weapon or face paint on the battlefield, but those points don’t necessarily force people to work as a team (Albeit it’s not their point nor intent in the first place). My thought is that it actually incentivizes people to go it alone and rack up the most points as possible. “Why help my team win the match when I can accumulate more xp alone and I'm only 540 from unlocking the ACOG sight?” The unlocking is just a reward for gamers that perform well. Perhaps this trend is just exacerbating the singular “killing other player” mechanic that was already in place. A way to combat this style of gameplay would be rewarding actions that benefit the team as a whole. Plant a spawn point? 25 XP. Heal a teammate? 50 XP. Games such as Killzone and the Battlefield series actually function this way. The best of both worlds where players level up as desired and the team finds success. This trend toward leveling up online is not a bad thing, it just seems to be becoming the norm (And it most certainly does feel good to unlock that purple heart for your laser sight).




Maybe the culprit is the fact that the dead never stay dead for very long. True, watching other players via spectator cam is no fun, but maybe next time you'll remember to watch those corners. It's also more convenient to change your loadout and snipe that jerk immediately after death rather than wait till the end of the round. But therein lies the rub: What am I doing working with these people when I'll be back in six seconds if I screw up? Regardless, a long wait is like a punishment, it somewhat teaches the "value" of a virtual life. Gametypes of this sort exist in shooters that are more known for their twitch style gameplay (i.e. Call of Duty), but it seems forced and unnatural. Besides, it is really aggravating being killed by a claymore by some dude that’s just going to camp until the end of the round. Respawn is suitable in some cases.

In the end, teamwork is achievable in multiplayer; it's the game that makes it more or less conducive to that style of play. Some games are more suited for cooperation and others for a solitary man. If you can't stand free for all games or team based games that suck (I'm looking at you Socom 4), there's always local multiplayer. Unless your playing Crysis 2 of course.

Header Img: http://www.411mania.com/games/reviews/56351
http://www.socom.com/en-us/Franchise/PS2/SOCOM
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beaty/3423725346/

Hello world. I've been lurking for a few years and for some reason or another only now decided to sign-up. I may be a little late to the game, but my career actually started quite early. Let me take you on a trip, let me take you on a ride.

I'd imagine many young gamers’ careers began just like this, running down the stairs on Christmas 1990ish to find a brand new Nintendo. I did not receive an allowance and really only got new games on my birthday Christmas, so I learned pretty quickly to rely on the local Video World and those willing to risk disciplinary action to bring a game or two to school to lend out to friends. In what appears to be a stark contrast with my two brothers, not only have I never seen them borrow a game from a friend, but I'm not even sure which of their myriad Wii games they've even beaten. When you don't have a lot of games, you're dependent on windows of 3-5 days if you do manage to get one on loan, and you eschew (some) school work, you get good, quickly.

This pattern of about 2-3 new games per year stayed in place throughout the Super Nintendo era (Illusion of Gaia launch? Kind of a big deal back in the day) and the launch of the Playstation (First game? If you don’t count the demo disc packin with 2xtreme that I played for months, Jumping Flash 2). Not until the funds from a meager part-time paperboy job began to roll in could I begin to amass my (I consider it large, but there comes some random dude out of nowhere with five times more) collection. Before my family uprooted from West Virginia to my current location in the South-Eastern end of Pennsylvania, I did jump on the Nintendo 64 bandwagon; as well as discover the Dreamcast, Phantasy Star Online, and (My personal “Best Game Ever”) Shenmue.

Flash forward to today where I have all three major consoles and play around my rediscovered PC gaming jones. Picking up right where I left off with C&C: Tiberium Wars. I tried to keep this little intro short as to not bore anyone, but I'll be back with hopefully more insightful comments. Happy Trails!

Image Credit: http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/art/fallout3-screenshots1.html