The Co-Op Code: 10 Rules to Follow so Your Friends Don't Hate You

Gaming can be a solitary act.

Spending hours perfecting the right kill or grinding your way through achievements. Even when gamers are blowing stuff up online the other players are distant. Co-op split-screen offers the kind of retro gaming experience that brings friends together to yell at each other about who sucks worse than the other. It can be one of the must fun ways to play or if you're unlucky enough not to know a few simple rules, a miserable experience. Because not everyone can play well with others.

Follow these ten simple rules of co-op gaming to keep the friends you have and get some social gaming time in. Partnering up in co-op can result in some of the best team action. But no rage-quitters allowed, and please stop throwing things. Here's 10 easy steps to the Co-Op Code so your friends don't end up hating you.

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Jumping into a game of Battlefield 4 as a team is one of the most rewarding gaming experiences you can have.

A close-quarters team can tear through a map leaving a wake of mangled corpses in their path. Unless one of them decides to play as a sniper hiding in a bush the whole time. You and your bro need to get on the same level. If you're going to hide in a bush, get everybody in the bush or suck it up and get out of your comfort zone. Get a plan of attack and stick to it.

There are few un-fulfilling experiences in gaming as playing Splinter Cell: Blacklist with a player who has no idea what they're doing.

A co-op member who thinks he's some kind of ninja tank, repeatedly rushing into battle and needing saving all the time is a bummer. Co-Op means team, not crazy asshole and the medic. If you don't know what the hell your character does, don't pick it! And there is no shame in asking for tips, remember you are a team.

I'm not endorsing alcohol consumption, but if you're downing all those Red Bulls anyway, you might as well get turnt.

The more lubrication on the greasy wheels of your cranked-out mind should help. But don't, under and circumstances, get too drunk to play. There is nothing worse than getting your ass kicked in Call of Duty: Ghosts to glance over at your buddy huddled down in a pile of bushes examining the leaves and spouting such non-intelligent drivel like “Woah, I really appreciate the time the developers took detailing these leaves.” Shut up and fight!

Loading screens suck.

You pick your loadout and perks and then wait. Poised with fingers on triggers, beads of sweat rolling behind unwashed ears, you're forced to wait. Don't make loading screens a date night fumble, plan it out. The best part about co-op gaming – especially on split-screen – is that your buddy is sitting right there to figure stuff out. With that kind of available communication you should be dominating. If you're not, start talking.

Back in the day I invited a friend over to play Super Smash Bros. and because he was new to the game I was taking it easy on him.

Of course, still stomping his ass but not embarrassingly so. The result ended up being he threw my TV across the room.

Back to the ragers! Gaming can be a very solitary act for some people, these people should acknowledge that; so if you're a closet rager try not to hurl anything at your friend's house. TV's, controllers, cats, grandma Edna's funeral urn, out the window. Oh and in case you forgot in your moment of rage, TVs are hella expensive.

If you're visiting a buddy's house, it may not be just his alone.

The surest way to get yourself banned from this real-life waiting room is to piss off the master of the house. Be it their parents or significant other, you need to know that you're a guest. Going to your friend's to bro-down could include a surprise visit.

But if you should encounter anything like in the video above, just run, run and never look back. That friend is dead to you now.

This little life nugget falls into the category of “things you should have learned in kindergarten.”

Don't be a dick.

I know this seems natural since you're playing with your friends, but dickish behavior not only extends to you lasting longer in a match, but your team will appreciate it as well.

Grenade spamming, spawn camping jumping to vehicles in-game and driving them off cliffs over and over again. Seems obvious right?

This also extends to controllers. Don't take your friend's “good” controller. If you're that particular about what your use, then bring your own. Want to earn some serious points? Bring an extra set of batteries. I think that's called adulthood.

That is correct. There is nothing wrong with the controls.

Gaming consoles and TV have long past the point which this got to be an excuse. If you should find yourself in the awkward situation of finding out you kinda suck at whatever game your playing, ask for some tips.

Under no circumstances should you blame the hardware. And please, please stop blowing into my disc drive, this isn't an NES.

You can't judge a book by it's cover. And frankly some people just aren't cut out for co-op gaming.

When you get a perfectly normal friend, who doesn't seem like a scary creep, over to your place, only to learn that he's one of those solitary gaming weirdos, it's a surprise for all involved.

You know the kind; the guy who mumbles to himself while shooting dead players over and over. Or spends the better part of an afternoon talking sexy to virtual strippers in Grand Theft Auto Online. Put that shit away.