Multiplayer

Some of the most fulfilling gaming experiences are playing them with your friends.  In physical presence.  I think most people can agree (even solo gamers like me) that there's a lot of fun to be had when gaming with your friends.

Right now two of my best friends are playing Call of Duty: Ghosts, the  nice little alien side mission and have been for about two hours.  I've listened to them rant and call some players out for their stupidity (and will vouch that they are correct - some of the other players are... uncooperative) and seen them win.  One of them is a terribly social gamer, the other is non-competitive until we hit into this one, and as for myself... unless we are playing something like Super Mario World, a shooter like House of the Dead, I don't join in.  Mostly because I suck but I get to see so much more sometimes just observing their reactions.  Even solve some puzzles in other games way ahead of them.

One of my fondest experiences was playing games with my older brother.  We did a lot of things together.  Often the games would be on the Nintendo 64, and it would normally be between Star Fox 64 or 007:  GoldenEye.  Seriously, who didn't have fun slapping each other silly or calling bans on Odd Job because you had to aim downward to even attempt a headshot?  If we moved to the PlayStation, the only multiplayers we had were Twisted Metal and G-Darius.  G-Darius being the better experience of the two, my brother and I could destroy hours killing machines modeled off of biological organisms.  Those were the good old days.  Eventually we picked up Mario Kart and out mother joined us on the fun. 
     There's something I think that is lost when playing an online co-op, at least for me.  I enjoy too much the human experience of that humiliation that is suffered when I pwn my friends on Brawl with Yoshi, or the joy of another mission completed when we thought all hope had been lost.  And yet there is even the quirks of the most random things happened and we are all there to witness it.  It's hard to see your friends' face across the internet, see them writhe in pain or jump with joy. 
      What lovely experiences have you had gaming with your friends and family?