“communication” in co-op video games: why do they want us to yell at each other so badly

video games that involve teamwork with other human players are capable of building a sense of camaraderie in an astoundingly short duration of time, but on the flip side are even more notorious for being able to tear down that same sense of comradeship in mere seconds. within just a few minutes of stardew valley, i quickly found that i had to constantly ask for the guidance of the other players, who seemed to know what they were doing a little more. by the end of the first day, little did i know that i had to return to the house by a curfew until those around me in the room let me know. what then commenced was a desperate race where i, extremely lost, ran around trying to follow everyone’s instructions to return home in time. it was a bit frantic, but with their encouragement and directions, i did make it before my character passed out in the middle of nowhere.

now, had i not made it back before curfew, i’m sure that same sigh of relief wouldn’t have happened. considering this is an academic setting where we’re casually playing just a sample of this game and everyone is attempting to put up at least a semi-acceptable appearance so their behavior is appropriate for a classroom, i don’t expect that i would’ve faced much severe backlash. however, if this had been with a group that was much more intent on developing their gameplay, i’m sure some people would’ve expressed their frustration with me leaving one of the characters out there in the middle of the night for the next player to have to deal with. that encouragement and cheering on would have quickly done a 180° and gone sour.

this sort of instantaneous negative switch that occurs in multiplayer video games is… a bit perplexing, to be honest. what about these situations is upsetting enough to condone disproportionate frustration? yes, it can be disappointing when your efforts are thwarted by another teammate’s incompetence, or you believe that you could have done a better job than them, but in the end if it’s a game where team effort is emphasized, it’s a lot less likely you would have gotten through in the first place without them. at what point is it acceptable to allow one’s displeasure take the place of enjoyment, which defeats the very purpose of video games for many players? now, for esports, fun may not be the largest goal, so this question takes on different nuances, but for the casual crowd that plays video games for the party (as in the fun) aspect, how do such games incite the opposite feeling so quickly?

other multiplayer games even provide an outlet or means of communicating that frustration at others even outside of normal “chat” methods, even unintentionally. overcooked has an entire button delegated to letting the players swear each other out and spit profanities with no other consequence or use, and also allows the players to aggressively slap each other around. this game as a whole so far seems to have the most blatant setup to encourage players to get frustrated at each other despite its collaborative nature, what with the stressful time limits and specific restrictions on each player’s terrain that requires them to rely on the skills of others to complete customer orders in game. other multiplayer games often offer a variety of nonverbal movements that have no in game consequence, many of which are comedically negative that players use towards each other. animal crossing new leaf allows players to whack each other with nets when they visit each others’ towns or show a new expression (disgust!) they’ve learned from dr. shrunk. mmorpgs like ffxiv have too many expressions to list, but the one i clearly remember using the most frequently in my 3 days of gameplay was the slapping motion towards my friends’ avatars. even back in the days of adventure quest i recall forgoing the chat feature altogether and swinging harmlessly at party members i was frustrated with. i thought games were supposed to be fun? sometimes these shenanigans are actually harmless and playful, but i also remember one particularly disastrous round of overcooked that ended with two of my teammates nearly disemboweling each other. why and how did it get to this point