I recently read this blog post, by Enterprise-E, about single player being an add-on in recent games. The blog specifically mentions Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, but reaches further in its assumptions, asserting that single player fans are getting the short end of the stick in the "Now Gen" of gaming. While I would say that this is not true, thanks to games like Bioshock and Mass Effect, I'd like to make another assertion; Single Player Campaigns are dieing and no longer needed in video games.

Now before you go all berserk on me, I'm not saying that a Campaign mode (or story mode, or mission mode) should not exist. My argument is that particular game mode shouldn't be considered strictly single player. Gamers tend to think of games as two parts, the single player component and the multi player component. However, this division does not do justice to a number of games out there. Often times the line between single player and multiplayer is pretty blurry.

Halo 3 is a favorite game of mine and, while people love to complain about its campaign, it does one thing that few other games try, it allows for up to four people (two local or up to four online) to play cooperatively through the campaign. Sure this can make the campaign much easier, but any difficulty complaint can be remedied by turning on skulls to prevent respawns or make the enemies stronger and more accurate. It is a lot of fun and I know I've played through the campaign more times with friends than I ever would have on my own.

Halo is not the only game that has a great cooperative campaign though. I loved Star Wars Battlefront 2 for the same reason. Of course there have been a lot of shooters with great co-op campaigns, like Gears of War and Perfect Dark (I like Perfect Dark). Army of Two is a recently released game that is totally based around two players working together. As for another genre, I played Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, an RPG, quite a bit with my friends and family. Of course, Massively Multiplayer games like World of Warcraft are deeply invested in cooperative campaigns. Even the new Super Smash Brothers Brawl added a cooperative "single player" mode.

Another game that comes to mind is Rock Band. Rock Band would not be as popular as it is now without the capability to draw 4 people together in an effort to gain fans and set high scores on songs. Guitar Hero is great and I does have co-op, but it is not nearly as developed as the 4 player co-op in Rock Band. It is near impossible for Guitar Hero to outplace Rock Band in terms of sheer fun factor when four friends get together.

Of course all the games I mentioned can be played by just one person, but the level of fun is just not the same. Video games are simply becoming more social and seeking to draw more people into the experience. Local and online multiplayer is quickly becoming the new standard for games. The more the merrier I say. It is a lot more enjoyable then having to take turns with one controller. Now competitive online gaming is another story and I will comment on that in the future.

What are your thoughts?