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Couch co-op night at my place turned into a spectator sport, what happened to playing together?
Last Friday I had three friends over for some classic split screen, we fired up a racing game and within 20 minutes two of them were just watching me play while scrolling their phones. I mean, I get that newer games don't always do 4 player local anymore, but we used to pass controllers around or take turns on lives. Has anyone else noticed their group slowly turning into an audience instead of a team? Maybe it's just me, but how do you all keep everyone actually involved?
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nathan_barnes1mo ago
And taking that further, the whole vibe of the room changes when it's just one person performing. Back in the day, even if you were out, you were still invested because your turn was coming up, you were calling out tips, or you were trash talking the guy who hit the banana peel. Now with games that don't have lives or a pass-the-controller setup, there's no natural pivot point for someone to jump back in. Maybe the trick is picking games with built-in downtime, like turn-based stuff or party games where everyone gets a shot every few minutes. That way, the phones stay in pockets because nobody wants to miss their window to screw over the leader.
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