Dear Future Gamer,

In response to Elhana's letter in FG24... Elhana, Elhana, Elhana.... Quake is about one man/woman/person/small-dog-with-a-rocket-launcher against the whole motherfraggin' universe. Sounds pretty unfriendly to me. And I love it!! Co-operate in teams? A plot? Isn't "it's you against the universe - good luck" enough? Have you not the imagination to make your own up as you go along? Don't make me laugh with your girly nonsense.

Seriously, though, maybe this isn't a sex thing at all (although what isn't, these days?). Perhaps it's all down to what you as a person like in a game. Computer games are inherently either a solitary affair or an intensely competitive one-on-one/everyone multiplayer affair. Excepting online RPGs and some sport sims I personally can't think of any games that emphasise teamwork in the sense you mean, unless you innovate and make them so, yourself. Secret of Mana on the SNES (circa 1992) had a go, but I don't know anyone that actually used this feature without the joypad wire somehow finding its way round your team-mates' throats or an edge-of-the-screen tug-of-war developing.

Perhaps your expectation is a little offbeat, or there is a seriously untapped market for this sort of thing. I don't rightly know, but hey, do your own thing. Good luck in your team version of Quake, and maybe one day we'll meet in a deathmatch and I'll rain fiery hell on your lovely team single-handed as God intended. Who knows, I may even convert, throw my BFG aside and give you a big virtual hug. Who knows 'til you open the box?

Top sense on the PC vs console malarkey, by the way. Maybe you girls can teach the blokes a thing or two, after all.

Michael Foster

FG: Playing games is self-indulgent escapism and nothing more, but today's games do enable us to share the experience with others at the same time and that can intensify the pleasure. There is room for teamwork in games but it takes a well-designed game to make people want to co-operate rather than blow each other's heads off. I reckon we'll be seeing more of a move towards co-operative team work in games of the future. There will always be room for games that enable you to blow the head of your human opponents though. Why? Because it's bloody good fun!