OPINION: No, co-operative video games are not “friendslop” | The Muse
As an avid fan of co-operative video games, there is nothing more insulting than hearing a video game you are passionate about be simplified down in online spaces as “typical friendslop”.
Friendslop is a term that refers to low-budget and low-cost co-operative indie games. Usually, “friendslop” is the type of game you play with some friends for a while before dropping it entirely and playing something else; a form of disposable media based upon short game length and cheap consumer cost.
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That is a weird definition.
Friendslop are games that you wouldn't play in a million years alone because of how unfun they are, unless you play them with friends.
Isn't this what genres do in general?
Reminds me of when people coined ‘walking simulator’ as a derogatory term to mock games like Dear Esther, alongside lengthy flame wars about what constitutes a ‘real game’.
These days walking simulator is just an accepted label for a specific flavour of game that didn’t previously have a name.
Getting mad at the word friendslop is pointless. If that’s what people (including developers!) are calling it, that’s what it’s called.
There's multiple games I call friendslop despite them being generally well made because they have singleplayer balancing issues that get solved by multiplayer. Also I don't really have a better term.
Valheim for example gives many bosses too much health so they're a slog in singleplayer but fine in multiplayer. Hytale recently added their first boss fight and it has the same issue, hopefully they fix it.
On the other hand, Terraria does a very good job with balancing bosses for both single and multiplayer. I've beaten the game in master mode several times both with friends and alone and no boss has felt overly easy, difficult, or boring.
https://youtu.be/GmVQsBaMP7o
I watched this last night. It added nuance to the conversation I didn't know we needed to have.