Co-op in video games

An aspect of contemporary, online video game design I think is much undervalued and potentially unappreciated by many development houses is co-operative play.  And my appreciation of it probably stems from my P&P pedigree. Afterall, P&P is almost, almost, all about co-op to a large extent.

The amount of P&P games which are solos (i.e. only feature one player character) vs the amount that feature more than one player character is a testament to this.  And even solo games will frequently feature some form of collaboration between PC and NPCs.

MMOs obviously include co-op elements of gameplay pretty much by standard.  But other genres can benefit from this aswell.  I'm thinking in particularly about FPS.  One of my favourite genres.  I've been an avid fan of Counter-Strike and the Battlefield series in the past, but must admit rarely play FPS these days.  That said, I am currently stumbling through Bioshock.

Whilst FPS as a genre has covered co-op play in several notable examples, rarely is it pure co-op.  I.e. players vs AI.  It is typically players vs players.  And I still think there is a lot of fun to be had from players vs AI.  And also possibly a gentler experience for some of us older gamers, than having our collective asses handed to us by some cola'd up pre-teen with reflexes like a vat-grown ninja.

Other games I think would benefit from co-op.  I'd love to see a co-op mod for Assassins Creed II, which I've recently (admittedly I came to it late) completed.  Great game btw Ubisoft.