More thoughts on Collaborative and Cooperative Games

I have been thinking more about my concept of Cooperative games - see Colony post.

This is a bit of a confession and a personal revelation. Many of my games are not traditional wargame with two or more sides duking it out. Most of my games involve a team of players working together.

I suppose this shouldn't be such a surprise. I wrote earlier about how I don't like competitive traditional wargames And think what the revelation is is that I have never really thought about the format and collaborative games and what design techniques should be used.

Here is a list of games I have produced.

McGonigal, Jane - "Reality is broken"

A full chapter - "13: Collaboration Superpowers" is devoted to discussing collaboration and cooperation in online gaming.

Collaboration has three distinct elements

1. Cooperating - players act together toward a common or shared goal
   
   
2. Coordinating - players organise and synchronise effort and resources
   
   
3. Cocreating - the players work together to create a novel or new outcome.
   

A game in of itself is a cooperative act - sometimes called the golden or magic circle of gaming. Players agree to play a game and be restricted in their actions by the rules of the game so that a game can be played.

Discussion

None of the above really covers my concept of a collaborative game. 

I think McGonigal is not wrong in what she writes - the first two points are simplistic and not controversial. She develops the chapter mostly so that she can talk about her theme of games changing reality and how gamers cooperate to create a new reality. She emphasises cocreation as this method gamers have a superpower.

I am struggling to find a phrase to cover what I want - games that reflect the internal struggle of groups of people to achieve a goal, or even to agree on what the goal should be. Intra-player games? 

 

Colony - a cooperative game of corporate exploitation

Idea

A boardgame for 4 - 8 players that is a cooperative game, though each player can "win" by making the highest personal profit.

Scenario

The players work for a corporation that is building a colony - most likely on a distant planet - and they are working together to create a viable colony. There will be opportunities to sabotage other employees work, there will be temptations to "pocket" some payments. However, all lose if the Colony does not achieve its targets. It will be possible for players to having different goals; so there might be more ways to win than just "money".

Inspiration

• The most excellent campaign of Colony 51, in Jim Wallman's "The Universe".
  
  
• Boardgames
• The Settlers of Catan
• Terraforming Mars
  
  
• Books
• The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, a 2019 book by William Dalrymple

What's the new idea

I want to design a cooperative game that reflects the dilemma of maximising private gain and yet still achieve corporate success. 

All the boardgames above are zero sum games - one player wins by achieving the most points. This is not what I think happens in the world. This could get philosophical. But I regard most human activities as being collaborative - trading, running a company, playing a game, organising a picnic etc. Some might take a leading role. Some might contribute to only part of the enterprise. But together we make something.

I want a game to reflect the politics (with a small p) that are at play - the inter-personal politics - that all of us encounter in our daily lives and work - as we strive to achieve some goal.