Multiplayer games tend to fall into one of two categories: competitive or cooperative. There are of course some games that blur these lines, such as MMOs, but the majority of multi-player games still fall into one of these two groups. Battlefield and League of Legends are competitive, while Borderlands and Mass Effect are cooperative. A competitive nature has been at the core of game design since the days of Pong, but recently we've seen many developers steer towards cooperative gameplay, and for good reason. Cooperative gameplay will eventually become the default design for games.
It's not that competition is bad. Competition certainly has it's place in gaming, and in general human culture. But the issue with competitive gaming is that in order for one person to win, another player must lose. It's known as the zero-sum game, which requires that if one person gains something, another player must lose something of equivalence.
This is great for finding out who is the most skilled at a particular game, but it's not the best way to maximize the enjoyment of the people who are playing. If you're working towards a goal with a friend, more than likely you will either both win, or both lose. This approach to game design encourages cooperation and social learning, which is more likely to make you feel like you're having fun. Most of us enjoy accomplishing goals with others, and when goals are failed it's comforting to have someone there to discuss the failure with. Together you can learn what went wrong and perform better next time.
Don't get me wrong, competitive games will still have their spotlight in the world of gaming. They just won't constitute the majority of time people spend gaming. Esports is on the rise and will continue to grow in popularity for a bit, but the multiplayer games being played by the majority of people will steadily convert over to a cooperative format. After all, isn't everything better with friends?
Image credit:
Simini Blocker
http://siminiblocker.tumblr.com/post/20612355602/i-went-to-visit-my-friend-last-week-somehow-her
