Many people are still newbies, so they don't understand when I talk about teamwork. I'm not talking about pointing the gun at the guy in front of you. I'm not talking about attempting to stop the bad guy from wiping out your team, as long as it doesn't jeopardize your life. I'm talking about numerous players buying weapons based on the map, and working as a collective force to win, not kill. If you haven't seen the beauty of a perfectly timed Counter-Terrorist rush when the Terrorists are camping, I pity you. The amazing adrenaline rush you achieve from watching the CT's swarm in through the holes like cockroaches is enthralling. That's what online gaming is all about, using teamwork to achieve victory. In all other genres, it's the basis to succeed. In Diablo II, Everquest, and Starcraft you can play by yourself, but everyone chooses to play in teams, because it gives you more control, more power, and a feeling that you aren't just clicking the mouse on little pretty icons. You have a purpose, a goal, and a reason to win. The shooter genre for a long time has been lacking in this department of gameplay. Quake II and Half-Life made DM mainstream. Soon we have Quake III "pure deathmatch" and Unreal Tournament. However, UT included different types of teamwork gameplay, such as Assault, and within a year Quake III has a mission pack with new team-based gameplay styles and CTF maps to lengthen it's shelf life.

Now it seems like game designers and companies are trying to shy away from the "Kill everything in site, then poo on the corpses, then blow up the poo-ridden corpses" type games. Apparently, it became evident that if all games offer the same style of play, then why like any one in particular. Sierra in specific is trying to market the team players and the Deathmatchers, and convince them they can get the best of both worlds. Sierra is planning on releasing soon Tribes 2, the offspring of the game that single-handedly invented online shooter teamwork, and sometime roughly between when hell freezes over and the sun burns out, TFC 2 (Team Fortress Classic 2). Both these games look fantastic, though very unique. Their goal and emphasis is on working together to achieve common goals. The beauty of it is that playing selfishly is no fun. Trust me: You will be killed in horrible ways that you cannon imagine when you try to pull a Bruce Willis. Yet I'm not saying killing is not going to be a large part of the game.