Has Co-op Play Ruined Solitary Gaming?

  Now, I may be alone in this, but personally, when I first when through the Halo 3 Campaign, I did it with 2 of my gaming buddies. The same goes for Crackdown, as well. And me and my friends have done Bomb Da Base and the other co-op missions on GTA more than I've actually played the story.

  And to me, it was inifinitely more fun. Not only because I had the safety of knowing that I was being backed up by my friends (which makes games seem less pressuring than the ones that are all "you are a lone gunman, and you have to save the world all on your own against 1,000,000 enemies") and because it meant that we could have fun. We could shoot each other if we were getting annoying, and we could poke fun at the guys who hopelessly shot at us, thinking that they were going to live to see the day end...

  Gears Of War was the same story. I got it back in the times where I REALLY sucked at First Person Shooters, and I couldn't actually finish it on Casual. But when my friend joined, and we did it together, we were both able to complete it on Insane. You know why? Because we were able to cover each other, and it improves your skill, as well, when you're not being rushed at like a fat guy in a cannibal camp.

  And remember co-op play has been around since the dawn of gaming, with Pong. Everyone remembers, at some point, playing their friend at Pong, to decided who was the champion. And everyone remembers how much more fun that was to playing on your own in your room...

  And now, I just seem unable to play through games on my own now. It's as though the original fun is there, yeah, but where's the point if there's no one there to play with you and share the fun with? And with the evolution of co-op games accelerating all the time, it seems that the good old days of your friends coming over to marvel your skills on Pacman are fading fast.