In this week’s Battle of Wits, both myself and Steve discuss teamwork in online multiplayer games, or better yet, the lack of said teamwork. Many games require you to work together with your cohorts, but too often, gamers have a “lone wolf” mentality. Read on for our thoughts and suggestions for alleviating the issue.

The discussion started when I got pissed off after a few rounds in some of the top online games (namely Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Killzone 2) where no one worked at the objectives. In many games, no matter the mode, players will run around like Rambo. Very few games make winning paramount for upgrading and leveling up. In many cases, as Steve described, the games give the majority of your experience points for solitary actions. You could try to play a round of Rainbow Six: Vegas, and inevitably some jackass will act like Leeroy Jenkins.

The scoring systems of these games don’t encourage teamwork, even though the mode dictates that style of play. People rate their experience solely on their own final score. Steve put it best, “If a team in Halo 3 loses 50-30 and one guy on the losing side has 25 kills, he talks shit.”

One of the big reasons, in the eyes of both myself and Steve, is the lack of headset use in many online games. Neither of us wears a headset a majority of time due to random screams, swearing, and abhorrent behavior. Steve doesn’t enjoy hearing “some cock face’s rendition of I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith.” While we both wear our headsets in team-based games, putting it on for most rounds of Halo 3 or games like Grand Theft Auto IV is just a futile effort. It’s not that we get upset by racial slurs or epitaphs, it’s just not entertaining. The anonymity of the internet allows gamers to act however they please without repercussion; they want to be the star of the show.

So what do you do when you want to be part of a team? Some games, like the Gears of War series, look to create more teamwork by not having respawns in many of the online modes. You’re forced to play as a group or wait on the sidelines until the next round. People won’t run into the middle of the map like maniacs when it will cause them to spectate the rest of the game. The other, and most prudent solution, in our eyes, is to play with friends whenever possible. If you have at least one person you know playing, there will be someone to cover you and complete the objectives. No matter which way you look at the issue, it’s impossible to please everyone, so having the options given by games like Gears of War and playing with friends most of the time will have to suffice. Or you could just stick to Co-op…

[Battle of Wits is a weekly feature from Loot Ninja discussing the current topics in video games, our thoughts, and their implications on the industry. Feel free to join in the discussion and, if you have a topic you want to see covered, let us know.]