Is any song of the Christmas season less relatable than the Twelve Days of Christmas? Since when does Christmas have 12 days? How wealthy would you have to be to afford gifts like 5 gold rings or 12 pipers piping?

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Old Gift: Two Turtle doves.

Analysis: Scary. The horrific result of turtles and doves getting it on.

New gift: Two copies of Kane and Lynch

One of the ear marks of this generation’s video games is the push to move towards more co-op gameplay. Taking down Scarabs in Halo 3 with one buddy in my room and one buddy from across the city, talking to us through my TV, was one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve ever had and totally got me on the co-op loving bandwagon.

And I’d like to board that bandwagon again, playing Kane and Lynch. The problem is that I can’t find anyone to play with.

And that made me think about how many problems Co-op intended games are going to run into, if not handled properly. I would have bought a copy of Kane and Lynch the week it came out if i had one, just one, friend that was on board with me. But since I don’t, and I know that, like Halo 3, I won’t get the full game experience if I don’t play the campaign cooperatively, I’m not going to buy it.

One of my buddies once said, “So what game are we all going to buy next?” That made me realize that the way we buy games has completely changed. Some gamers will only buy the games that will allow them to kill or kill with their friends.

And since we are going to be buying games as groups, this gives us gamers power that marketers wish they had. We are going to act as salespeople for our favorite games, probably more than the actually salespeople will. If one or two of my Xbox Live friends are getting a game, then there is a high chance that i will purchase it too. The biggest gift that Santa may be giving to us for this coming year is a job as a game marketer to our friends.

We will decide if a game like EA’s upcoming Army of Two succeeds or fails. They market it us well, and we’ll market it to our friends well.

Unfortunately, I feel that co-op emphasis is going to widen the sales gap between blockbusters like Halo 3 and undersellers like Kayne and Lynch. Think about it, one of the reasons Halo 3 was that if you want to play campaign on co-op, there’s a good chance that one of your friends will own the game and actually be on live playing it. But how much fun is co-op when no one wants to play?

And while we’re on the topic, how weird is it that we’ll now have to schedule time with our friends to go through a co-op campaign. And is it a breech in the friendship if play ahead? But that’s all irrelevant if i can’t convince my buddy to by the same game.

I hope EA’s marketing blows us away for Army of Two. I hope it has the hype of Assassin’s Creed. That way I won’t have to waste my 2nd day of Christmas on it next year.

And so on the second day of Christmas, could you give to me two copies of Kane and Lynch, so I don’t have to hard sell a game to my buddies?

12 Days of Christmas, for Gamers: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

Tags: 12-days-of-christmas, christmas, videogame

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• The 12 Days of Christmas, Revised for Gamers: Day 11
• The 12 Days of Christmas, Revised for Gamers: Day 9
• The 12 Days of Christmas: Revised for Gamers - Day 3
• The 12 Days of Christmas, Revised for Gamers: Day 10

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