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____-slop: internet-established suffix attached to a term to indicate that something is low quality and/or unoriginal. Often considered the opposite of ____-gem.

____-gem: internet-established suffix attached to a term to indicate that something is high quality and/or rare. Often considered the opposite of ____-slop.

      The internet has found something new for it to run into the ground, and that thing is “slop.” They love to call anything slop. Hallmark Movies? Christmas slop. That Five Nights at Freddy’s clone? Horror-slop. It’s the new trendy insult we decided to attribute to something that we think is boring, and the multiplayer genre is no exception. You know those indie co-op games that explode online, consume the time of almost every chronically online friend group everywhere, and then get pushed aside when the next one drops? Well, internet users define these games as friend-slop.

      Lethal Company would be the thing to herald a wave of friend-slop games, although many would not consider the game itself to be one. It is a game where you and your friends go to different planets, trying to collect enough material to meet the quota for your company, all while trying not to get murdered by goofy-looking monsters. The game was janky with low quality graphics, but it was fun. As a result, every streamer with a mildly interesting friend group was playing it, racking up hundreds of thousands of views. This game is a perfect example of a friend-gem.

         And then, the floodgates opened. 

        Thousands of games mimicking the plot of Lethal Company with a “new twist” came to be. There was Content Warning, where the material was replaced with trying to capture spooky (although more often goofy) videos without dying. Then there was Murky Divers, which is—​​in simple terms—just lethal company underwater. Now there is R.E.P.O., where you and your friends are silly little robot guys trying to smash as much loot as possible. Thousands of users label these games as friend-slop, painting them as derivative garbage trying to copy the success of Lethal Company. 

        But honestly, I can’t say that they are completely wrong. It’s clear game devs saw that sweet Lethal Company money and wanted a piece, and the best way many of them thought to do that was, “What if we made Lethal Company, BUT there was a TWIST!” Game developers love money; what else is new?

         But does that really matter? Yes, most of these games are kind of just Lethal Company in a new coat, but there is an almost paradoxical truth behind these games. 

         All friend-slop games are friend-gems, and friend-slop games aren’t really slop.

        Friend-slop games are something you play with friends that take over your group chats and maybe even real-life conversations for a few weeks. They are games that generate screams, laughs, betrayals, and moments that you’ll quote to your friends for years. Even if it's jank, buggy, or just another clone, it brings people together to enjoy it.

         That is not slop. Slop is content that you are fed, but you barely register. It's soulless. 

        These games are full of soul. Even if the game was a quick cash grab with no passion behind it, it’s full of the soul of you, your friends, and the friend groups of others online, as it is experienced in different ways with different people. That is what makes them friend-gems. 

        Game devs are going to keep copying each other until the sun dies of exhaustion. There are going to be R.E.P.O. clones; they’re going to be new games that are really just the game that you love with like, one new thing added, and the internet will continue to label them as slop. 

        Even so, we should just let them. Because these games will create new memories of chaos and laughter for your friend group, memory-gems if you will, that you will remember long past the eventual popularity death of the game itself. 

**Speaking of which, try playing at least one of the games I mentioned in the article with your friends! If you are worried about their price tag (although, like all of them are like dirt cheap), literally just convince your friends to play a jank free co-op game together! IT'S WORTH IT!