What Cooperative Board Games Teach Us About Player Engagement and Reward Systems
Few think of gaming as a childish pastime these days. Video games and board games have become mainstream hobbies nowadays.
Game shops have reported a growing interest in tabletop RPGs especially. But what is interesting is that most people today seem to be drawn towards cooperative games, rather than the competitive ones.
What are Co-op Board Games?
The average person will likely jump to Monopoly when they hear talk of board games. But the truth is that the board game industry runs on diversity.
Co-op board games have instilled a breath of fresh air in the industry, by putting emphasis not on competition but cooperation. The players must team up and work together in order to win the game.
Cooperative board games have come to prominence in large part due to the internet’s influence. Just as the iGaming industry has elevated interest in the gambling market, co-op gaming sites have done the same for board games.
But while the Mother’s Buffalo casino guide gives us a good idea of how the online casino sector operates, there aren’t many sites dedicated to explaining the board game industry.
That is why we would like to explore the effects that cooperation can have on player engagement and reward systems in gaming.
What Players Expect from Cooperative Games?
Most players will naturally be drawn to the cooperative element of the board games in question. The idea is that competition is entirely removed from the equation, giving players the opportunity to work together in order to achieve a common goal. When game designers start from this premise they can truly work some magic.
We have seen some impressive civilization-building simulators and treasure hunt board games. One could even say that TTRPGs like Dungeons & Dragons qualify as co-op board games.
But when competition is replaced with cooperation, the players certainly form different expectations. The big one is that the game will be fair in its mechanics. One player cannot feel more important than the rest of the team in a cooperative board game.
The game design team must do their best to ensure that each member of the group will get equal opportunities to progress in the gaming world. That same rule applies just as much to cooperative video games, as it does to board games.
The best way to achieve such a goal is to create transparent and clearly understood mechanics that even newbies can clearly and intuitively grasp.
When new players are given the necessary resources they will grow confident in their choices, which will almost certainly make them thrilled to play the game further and improve their skill.
Of course, there will be some players who are better at the game than others. But the idea of fair and clear mechanics is not to ensure that everyone is equal in skill, but rather in opportunity.
What We Can Learn About Player Engagement?
The most fascinating question about cooperative games is what they can teach us about player engagement. We know that competitive board games get players interested. Monopoly remains one of the most popular games in the world decades after it was originally released after all.
But does cooperation incite the same level of passion as competition? Studies have shown that cooperation and competition have similar benefits in performance-based activities.
These same studies also show that competition can improve performance, but also elevates stress and BPM. Cooperation on the other hand does not have these adverse effects.
Competitive games will likely never fall out of favor with the general public. But even in the video game world, co-op games have proven effective in improving interpersonal relationships between the players involved.
Online multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft are responsible for the creation of party systems; online teams that start out as purely transactional relationships and grow into friendships or even something more.
One could certainly expect similar effects from cooperative board games. A look at the recent rise in Dungeons & Dragons popularity shows that people all over the world are hungry for games that allow them to work together in order to overcome a greater force.
Human beings have always been social animals, and have relied on cooperation to achieve goals that the individual cannot. Why then should not our entertainment reflect that part of our character? It seems that modern audiences want more cooperation than competition in their entertainment.
What are the Rewards of Cooperative Board Games?
We understand what drives the modern player towards cooperative board games? But the question that most people may now ask is what is there to be gained from such entertainment.
Modern audiences seem to be a lot more enthralled in the board game sector. Modern board games are becoming increasingly more accessible to the average person, rather than being created with the hardcore gamer in mind. But why is that the case?
We said before that studies have been done on the relationship between cooperation and competition. But what rewards can one expect to gain from cooperative games as opposed to their competitive counterparts? The big one is a focus on building stronger relationships.
Cooperative games teach players to put the needs of others ahead of themselves. Surprisingly, this can have a positive effect on a person’s professional life. Learning and understanding what your teammates need may give you an idea of how to better operate in a team-based environment.
Studies on the relationship between cooperation and competition have also shown that a cooperative environment has the benefit of fueling creativity and innovation.
Competition has often been praised for contributing to human creativity. While this is certainly true, it is also true that a competitive environment can cause stress and an increased BPM.
Collaborating with a team will often yield similar benefits, but will not come with adverse consequences such as the ones we mentioned.
The same could be said for cooperative games, which are based on working together rather than attempting to outperform one another.
