The article discusses "friendslop," a gaming trend that involves playing co-operative multiplayer games with friends to achieve simple goals in a casual, non-competitive manner. Games like Peak and RV There Yet? have sold millions of copies due to their low cost, easy-to-learn gameplay, and focus on social interaction. A new game, Big Walk, has emerged as a contender for "game of the year" by elevating the friendslop genre with its meticulously crafted world and emergent chaos. Patrick Thornley, a gamer from Canada, describes friendslop games as allowing players to "play around and have fun and not take it seriously."
Written by the local model on 2026-08-21,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Why this leaning score
The article uses neutral to positive framing when describing the 'friendslop' trend and its games, highlighting their focus on cooperative multiplayer gameplay, social interaction, and having fun with friends. The tone is celebratory, particularly in the description of Big Walk as a 'delightful contender for game of the year'.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph
rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score +0.85 for article 523 · logged 2026-08-06
Inside gaming's fastest-growing trend, including the newest hit Big Walk
Recent viral games focus on co-operative multiplayer madness instead of sweaty competition
It might sound like an insult, but the fastest growing trend in video games today is something called "friendslop."
uncertain
trend → grow → games
Games like Peak, RV There Yet? and Meccha Chameleon have sold millions of copies over the past year or so, thanks to simple-to-learn scenarios, a relatively low cost of entry and a willingness to embrace the chaos of multiplayer gaming.
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Games → sell → gaming
"The idea is you play these games co-operatively with your friends to achieve ... oftentimes a menial task, that is made more difficult by the fact that you guys are basically just a bunch of idiots," said Patrick Thornley of Langley, B.C., who plays several friendslop games with his friends across Canada.
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who → play → Canada
"You're there to play around and have fun and not take it seriously."
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You → play → it
A new game out this week, Big Walk, has many of the hallmarks of friendslop.
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game → have → friendslop
But it elevates the form by mixing emergent chaos with a meticulously crafted world that carries the DNA of classics such as Myst and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
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that → elevate → Wild
It is a delightful contender for game of the year, thanks to its focus on what friendship and mutual discovery can look like in a video game sandbox.
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friendship → look → sandbox
An X user with the handle @wooosaaaahhhhh is widely credited for coining the term in 2025, primarily in reference to Lethal Company, a co-operative multiplayer horror game released in 2023.
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user → credit → 2023
"Its sole purpose of existence is friendfarming," the user offered as an explanation.
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user → offer → explanation
Online discussions, including those on Reddit, define it as either acquiring as many friends as possible or simply spending time with the friends you already have.
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you → include → friends
Nevertheless, friendslop has come to describe multiplayer games that share several characteristics.
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that → come → characteristics
They are often low- to mid-budget games developed quickly, with simple visuals compared with the realistic graphics of a game such as Call of Duty.
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They → develop → Duty
Their premises are usually straightforward: Climb a mountain in Peak.
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premises → climb → Peak
Many feature proximity chat.
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Many → feature → chat
When players communicate by voice, they sound fainter the farther apart they are, forcing them to stay close or find walkie-talkies or other devices for long-distance communication.
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they → communicate → communication
"If you're playing together and you do something for a laugh, it's often to your detriment in a traditional game," Thornley said.
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Thornley → play → game
It's to goof around and ... the consequences are minimal at best.
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consequences → goof → ?
"
Making a friendslop game is certainly no guarantee of success, but the genre has produced some of the most viral releases in recent memory.
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genre → make → memory
Peak, from independent studio Aggro Crab, was built in only a few months and has sold more than 10 million copies since June 2025.
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Peak → build → June
The two-person team behind Meccha Chameleon — in which players camouflage themselves by painting their bodies to match their surroundings — says the game sold 10 million copies in its first 16 days.
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game → camouflage → days
Big walk, big talk
Big Walk arrives in this environment from Melbourne studio House House, the developer of 2019's charming Untitled Goose Game.
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Walk → arrive → Game
Groups of two to 12 players take the form of cartoon characters with round bodies and wiry arms and legs, like figures from a children's playset.
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Groups → take → playset
Players explore a large outdoor area modelled on the Australian outback, encountering stations with puzzles that require teamwork.
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that → explore → teamwork
Solving each puzzle yields a red, gourd-like object.
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Solving → solve → object
Deposit enough of them at a nearby station and you receive a key to the next area.
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you → deposit → area
Many friendslop games generate a new environment for each session.
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games → generate → session
The mountain in Peak, for example looks different each time.
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mountain → look → example
By contrast, Big Walk offers a single, meticulously designed landscape.
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Walk → offer → landscape
Each puzzle has one solution, ranging from deceptively simple to impossibly baroque.
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puzzle → have → baroque
In an early example, a red gourd hangs from the top of a small construction tower.
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gourd → hang → tower
Players must learn they can stand on one another's shoulders to reach a button that unlocks it.
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that → learn → it
Things quickly become more complicated, with rooms requiring several people to perform different roles at the same time.
Strip away the laughter and chatter as friends fumble toward a solution, and the game can feel like a reworking of Myst, with strange clockwork contraptions scattered across the landscape as though left behind by a long-dead civilization of tricksters.
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game → become → tricksters
The characters have a range of motions to communicating.
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characters → have → communicating
They can wave their arms, point in any direction or jump.
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They → wave → direction
Players must quickly develop their own conventions for giving instructions because some tasks block their lines of sight or mute voice chat.
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tasks → develop → chat
Objects found throughout the world help players navigate.
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players → find → world
Walkie-talkies keep teammates in contact over long distances.
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talkies → keep → distances
A lost player who finds a flare gun can fire it to reveal their location.
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who → find → location
At the same time, Big Walk is more interested in how friends communicate and learn to work together than in how many tasks they complete.
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they → communicate → tasks
Detours are encouraged.
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Detours → encourage → ?
…and 4 more, not listed.
