Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

xrayzwei — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:24:03 GMT

Evan is very lucky in this regard; many times I find that my wife and best friend sit with me on the couch and make suggestions or coach me through certain games, but never partake in the play. I also find that with this style I end up forgoing games I would like to play but they do not wish to see. Mass Effect, as an example, is a game I will need to finish on my own with its sci-fi motifs unappealing to my wife, and my friend constantly comparing it to Star Wars. Folklore, on the otherhand, is a game I was sure I would have to complete on my own, based on how little it was marketed, but I end up playing with people flanking me at all times. Should a game be critiqued on its ability to entertain the rest of the group sitting on the couch as well as the player holding the controller?

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

theBishop — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:45:19 GMT

Team Supreme? Madlib reference?

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

geminibros — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:39:24 GMT

A great piece, Evan. As a game journo myself, I often head to a certain friend's house or bing him over when I'm sitting on something for p/review. This is the same friend who, when we were in high school (and beyond), I would consistently play through full games with - Conker, Mario 64 and some other N64 hits come immediately to mind.

Little has changed in the dynamics of our friendship except now I get to incorporate the activity into work. Personally, I find it very helpful to have a viewpoint from a relatively non-cynical, out of the loop (the only Internet he uses is Live) gamer. And it's definitely a lot more enjoyable to play, even when deadlines start to loom large on the horizon.

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

Chro — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:43:24 GMT

As a gamer, I've always enjoyed having people watch me play the game, because I'm providing entertainment by doing something I enjoy. I used to hang out in a theater greenroom that happened to have consoles available, and it was always great to have multiple people entertained by a single-player game. Shadow of the Collossus, for example, was a superb game for spectators.

As for the SCOOP style of play, I admit I've only done it in games that I wished had multiplayer options, but didn't. For example, Motocross came with my PS3, but I was disappointed that I could only play with others online but not my roommates. What ended up happening was my roommates and I started swapping the controller back and forth whenever someone blew up, drove off a cliff. or otherwise 'lost a life'. It made the game much more enjoyable, because you could learn the tracks and blow off steam wile it wasn't your turn.

Some games actually implement SCOOP inadvertently in their tacked on attempts at multiplayer late in the development cycle. For example, final fantasy 6 allowed you to play multiplayer, with one person in control and a second player giving commands to half of your party in battle. Tactics games do this as well sometimes; Gladius allowed two people to control half of the gladiator team at a time, and my roommate and eye did the same 'optimizing resources' that this author did. I played archers and others who needed exact timing to get decent hits, while my roommate played powerful hitters that often required using moves where rapid button pressing was the key tactic.

As fewer and fewer games allow for multiplayer, I see SCOOP becoming more popular. The main sticking factor is that your second player is often one of two types: another gamer who might want more playtime, or a spectator who doesn't play nearly as well as you do. Friends spectate and play multiplayer, but only true equals swap out.

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

xtoph — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:30:07 GMT

I used to live near a good friend, and we played a ton of single-player games this way: Oddworld, Final Fantasy, Ratchet & Clank, Tomb Raider, etc. The rule was usually "go 'til you die or the end of the level, whichever comes first" then we'd trade off.

We even played Gran Turismo this way, with one person calling out rally-style tips about what sort of corner was coming up next.

Still my favorite way to play.

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

Geomancy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:53:25 GMT

I'm an old gamer (all of 42) and I didn't get into gaming until our enthusiasm for things Matrix led me and my friend John to Enter the Matrix. He would come over on Tuesday nights and we would head out to the garage, drink beer, binge on chicken wings, and watch each other play through the single-player campaign of Enter the Matrix. It wasn't a great game but we nonetheless had great fun. We'd try different tactics, discover tricks or glitches the other hadn't found, and offer running commentaries while the other played. John has since moved away, but the fun of that initial shared gaming experience has turned me into an avid gamer.

With the right person, I think SCOOP playing can be as rewarding as any other type of playing. I'm glad that developers like Bungie are adding arcade-style points and medals to single-player campaigns. This can really enhance SCOOP play. What they need to do now is chop up campaign levels into several discrete battle segments for SCOOP play, thereby allowing players to take turns tackling one battle over and over again while keeping score. It would add another dimension to gaming in addition to single-player, co-op, multiplayer, and map editing.

Thanks for article Evan and N'Gai.

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

Evan Narcisse — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:55:26 GMT

@Geomancy: You're not old. You're seasoned. Creating a game with SCOOP as a design imperative is an intriguing idea. I can see a few problems with it (differing skill levels being chief amongst them, as Chro points out) but it'd be interesting to see what games that tried to tackle this idea would look like.

@xtoph: See, SCOOP play would be a great way to handle these massive 50-hour plus RPGs like Final Fantasy and the Elder Scrolls franchise.

@Chro: Your Shadow of the Colossus example is dead-on. I played that game by myself and the whole time I thought, "I wish somebody else was here for this!"

@geminibros: I find that nothing can ever really protect you against Reviewer's Regret (a.k.a., "Everybody else liked the game that I hated. Was I really that wrong?"), but it's nice to have a relatively unbiased person riding shotgun, just in case.

@theBishop: Not a MadLib reference, but it does work with the whole puff-puff-pass conceit that seems to have cropped up here. I love MadVillain and some of the Shades of Blue stuff but don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Quas. I didn't even know about Team Supreme until reading your comment, but I'll be checking for it. I did listen to Jay Electronica before N'Gai, though, so that counts for something ;) Croal, if you're paying attention, check out Blu & Exile.

@ xrayzwei: you wrote: "Should a game be critiqued on its ability to entertain the rest of the group sitting on the couch as well as the player holding the controller?" As I said above, this would be a difficult metric to track. I do think, however, that the "couch critique" could be a good indicator as to the tonal/textual accessibility of a game, which may become more important as the industry searches for mainstream respect. I had a friend come over when I was playing BioShock and he remarked that it was fun to watch. "Couch critique" can be like a small focus group.

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

Evan Narcisse — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 05:57:13 GMT

Oh, and thanks for the comments, everyone!

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

HeartbreakRidge — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:24:42 GMT

I found it interesting that shortly after reading this post, I got my latest OXM (April? Fallout 3 on the cover) which has somewhere towards the back a brief article on SCOOP gaming (though not called as such, obviously).

Great minds thinking alike!

re: Don't Bogart That Controller: Freelance Journalist Evan Narcisse Gives Us the SCOOP On Shared Single-Player Gaming

HeartbreakRidge — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:15:22 GMT

I read through this post again, and was struck by the comment about the games placing the player in the authorial space. It reminded me of my experiences of gaming and reading about games, where developers often make choices - such as in level design, or in using a checkpoint system vs save anywhere, or whatever - that make me and other gamers play the game the way the developer wants me to play it.

I know it can be frustrating for a designer to let the player have the freedom to "sabotage" their carefully created narrative or gameplay by running off and doing their own thing, but isn't that the nature of a creative endeavor? No matter how painstakingly crafted the toy is, sometimes I just want to play with the wrapping paper, and that's not wrong. Let me have some measure of control over how I enjoy a game and respect my choice to sometimes engage the meat of the story, and sometimes to just mess around with garnish on the plate. That's the blessed advantage of gaming for me, it gives me more entertainment options than other media.