It started as many things do, with a conversation about the television show “Southpark.” He was sure there was no such thing as the adventure restaurant Casa Bonita. I assured him there was, and it was near enough to my home to visit. “Come out here, and I'll show you.” I said, with no other expectations in mind from my long-time friend.
One amazing trip through the Colorado mountains and adventure restaurants later, August (Arttemis) and I hit it off. You see, he is a student in Florida, and I am a student in Colorado. Though this aspect added a bit of a hitch in our newfound relationship, we aren't afraid of a challenge.
While we were in the same state, we watched films, ate out, explored the city, and played video games. Now, 2,000 miles stand between us for months at a time, but we make the best of it. While we can't take walks together, or have nice dinners we can still connect, and Xbox Live, co-op gaming and Netflix are going to make it possible. Instead of just saying "Guess what I did today," we more often say "Oh, man! Remember that time we..."
That my friends...is a lot of goo.
Through the use of Xbox party chat you can talk until you're blue in the face (or other unmentionables,) but you'll usually end up playing something while the Xbox is booted up. With this party chat, single player games can become a co-op experience if a little creativity is applied. One such conversation came from both of us playing Spider-man: Web of Shadows simultaneously.
“How do you collect those symbiote samples? I have killed a ton of these guys, and not gotten a single one!”
“I....am not sure. If you figure it out, let me know.”
“OH! You gotta pop the goo-bubble when you defeat one.”
“That's disgusting. I'm on it.”
We then happily spent an hour or so popping goo-bubbles laughing at how gross it is, collecting our symbiote samples in Spider-man: Web of Shadows. Single player game made co-op through innovation. These are the things lasting relationships are made of.