Column: 'Blogged Out: Let's Work Together!'

In this week's edition of 'Blogged Out,' regular Gamasutra contributor Jim Rossignol discusses recent blog posts by International Hobo's Chris Bateman and Treyarch's Stuart Roch on the subjects of cooperative gameplay and long development cycles, respectively. In this extract, Rossignol screams to the world of his desire for a good cooperative experience in modern gaming: "I've been decrying the scarcity of co-operative games ever since I first tasted their possibilities in 16-bit days (Chaos Engine, Alien Breed, Hired Guns), and when co-operative modes do show up in modern games they're too often a mod, or some limited version of the main game. How wide is this appeal? I would say huge: look at how many people play World Of Warcraft with just one or two friends as their major adventuring chums. But here's a hot tip: even if adding co-operative game modes to your play fails to pull in the punters, it's liable to add a few marks onto the overall review scores. In all honesty I've lost count of the number of editorial meetings in which games journalists talk about a game and tack on the addendum: 'But it'd be awesome if there was a co-op mode, why does no one do that?'" You can read the full Gamasutra column, including a look at the development cycles of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus (no registration required, please feel free to link to this column from external websites).