So, I'm sure many of you came from the gaming generation that played Mario Kart, Goldeneye, and Perfect Dark with your friends. Those were the good old days. The TV screen I played on was so small that it could make your eyes bleed when you played four player split screen for too long. But the experience was so stimulating that it filled us all with ecstasy. So like any addict we came back for more and more.

Fast forward a few years and here we are. Dead are the days of pygmy screen TV's. Heck, a DS has more screen size than I did when playing four player split screen back in the day. TVs are monstrously big, gaming has grown even larger, and all systems support 4 player split screen. Alas, there are very few games that support this feature. Why the change? I have an Xbox 360. When I go over my substantial game collection in my mind, the only games that support 4 player split screen that come to mind are the Halo games and a few random XBLA titles. Halo isn't even a good example, because these games only support it for half of the game—the competitive multiplayer. Before, this was acceptable in Halo games, because they only supported 2 player co-op to begin with. But with the advent of Halo 3, they added 4 player co-op. Yet, there still is only 2 player split screen co-op. What if Left 4 Dead supported 4 player split screen? Of all games out there, Left 4 Dead stands to benefit most from 4 player split screen. Just think, how fun would it be to have a co-op session with 3 of your friends on the same screen? All while yelling at each other when you are in trouble, crying when you have all fallen to the hoard, and squealing gleefully when you all made like a Schwarzenegger to "get to da choppa!!!" I don't know about you, but I would probably be drunk with excitement and rapture. To put it like Chris Farley, "[I'd be] like Jo Jo the idiot circus boy with a pretty new pet." But no, this wonderful opportunity is denied from every hopeful gamer. Only through Xbox live can even a glimmer of this bliss be enjoyed. What's the point in even allowing 4 player capabilities on a system if the system only has a handful of games that marginally support it? Why is this?

It can't be because people don't want to play on smaller screens. TV's are so big now that you practically need to build your house around the TV, because there's no way you are getting it through that door. Is it because the systems are just too feeble to support 4 people playing on the same system? I highly doubt this, but please correct me if I'm wrong. It just seems that with all the boasting gaming companies use to illustrate the power of their systems, they would have the strength to add a couple other players. Do these companies solely rely on the online experience, because they think anything beyond 2 players on one screen is for "wimps and Commies (UHF)?" Or is it all just a ploy to get us poor gamers to fork out more money for systems and XBL accounts? If this is the case, than I must say that I have lost a lot of respect for the gaming industry. What will happen next? Will they force you to . . . you know, I better stop so I don't give them any nasty ideas.

I have wrestled with this question for a good while now. I would like to know what you think. Why has the gaming industry denied us poor addicted gamers the opportunity to experience utter ecstasy through 4 player split screen? I guess for now I will have to settle for small hits of bliss when I play online. What a shame.