According to Clive Thompson from Wired, we're about to enter a new age of interactive entertainment - co-presence gaming:
By the looks of it, we're entering a new golden age of social, face-to-face game playing. Consider that in the last year, the biggest breakout hits have been music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and the Wii's sporty and casual titles...Each of these games explicitly encourages social playing -- people hanging out together.
Are we reverting back to the heady console days pre-Dreamcast, where we wanted to play (together) with people in our own homes?
Ah, I often hark back to the nights spent crouched over a N64 controller, sharing it with a friend as we struggled for control over the joypad during an 8-player match of the mighty MicroMachines. What about the magical Multitap - the PlayStation's answer to more-than-two-person multiplayer games?
And if we're to take the lead from Thompson's inspiration for the article - the mediocre Army of Two - the USP of the N64's Perfect Dark was the co-/counter-operative modes, a steal for only the cost of the 4MB expansion pak.
Human interaction: the killer app - who knew?
