develop a complex coop game. Sadly I've only played a few games that the only coop mode is a modification that came from the community. I think the game industry is just waiting for a good coop to appear. One that allows for a lot of replayability. Take this scenario. Joe, Frank and Sue enter a bunker. They fight the baddies together and watch each other's back. Then they arrive at a locked door (! evil locked doors!). Now there's a switch in a booth across the room. Joe presses the switch and the doors open. Frank and Sue pass through and Joe follows. But once he lets go of the button the door closes again. Now he's issoloated. As he tries to find another way out, Frank and Sue continue in their path. Joe experiences things that the other 2 don't. Now to complicate things, if only 2 people were playing the game, a different set of things would occur. The door example only needs 2 people so that's fine, but for other puzzles which would require 3 or more, then maybe one of them is automated or you go down a different path if it's just 2 of you. Maybe the game has built in Teamspeak which cuts out at appropriate areas like passing through lead areas. Reason I'm bringing this up is because myself and a friend of mine were looking to play a coop game but only realized that there aren't any. Sure there may be death match games or whatever, but we wanted a story. And maybe something more than a typical single player game with a patch for 2 people. Something which separates players so you have to work together from a distance. I guess much like some games where the NPC usually assists you. Because sometimes we don't want to fight each other. And sometimes we want an objective which doesn't include, shoot this or destroy that.

Planetside worked best when you co-operated with other players. It was a Massively Co-operative First Person Shooter :-)

I'm thinking more just a few players. max maybe 4-8.
something that would work great at Lan parties or just you and a few friends over the net.

I think it could work, it just might need a lot more elements to start than other games.
1. It will require a great storyline which can bring back the players to play with different characters or to play the multiple endings. Or just because the gameplay is so fun that they want to do it again.
2. Decent graphics and gameplay with very little bugs. Any big or continually annoying bugs will just drive people away.
3. It also needs to have decent AI which knows not to line up unless that's exactly what you want. ( I don't know why though )
4. At first, it might need title to work from and depending on the material, good timing. Like say Halo 3: Coop would already have the attention of halo players. Or Star Wars which already has a great fan base. Or maybe another movie which got a lot of hype. Making a game and ensuring that the quality is just as good as the movie could attract players.

I think that if any of these are missing that the game will flop. 1-3 for obvious reasons. 4 because even though the game may be great, as with Battlezone 2, it just doesn't have the needed attention from the public to get off its feet. Along with #4, good advertising is a must.

I think it can be done, it can get the necessary attention, but eveyrthing must go right and be done right. It's probably that the risk is just too much.

What COULD work is having a great game engine with excellent mod support and having a mod team develop this. The mod would be free and if good, would get a lot of attention. The developers of the actual game could at least make sure that the support for a coop game is there.

Note:
System Shock 2 was a great game but due to XP issues, not many people will be able to experience this game as a coop game.

I think that you're right, I would like to see a modern day "Smash TV" or something else really simple but really fun. I don't know why you want a complex coop, I prefer games that are easy to learn and hard to master, so simple gameplay mechanics but consistantly more challenging ways to use them.

I guess more secretively complex. It would be complex for the story writers and programmers. But as far as the players go, all they know is now they are separated and they have to get back together. I would try and keep it fairly simple for them.

Halo. Best coop game delivered thus far. Although I think The Coop Project for Deus Ex would have kicked a lot of ass if we hadn't lost our fearless leader Geordie to real life.