Cooperative board game

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In a cooperative board game, players work together in order to achieve a goal, either winning or losing as a group. As the name suggests, cooperative games stress cooperation over competition.^[1] Participants typically play against the game, and sometimes against one or two other players as well, who take the role of traitors. In many contemporary cooperative games, cards are drawn each turn from a deck of random events. These provide the conflict or challenge in the game, and make it progessively more difficult for the players.

Cooperative board games should not be confused with noncompetitive games, such as The Ungame, which simply do not have victory conditions or any way to compete. Furthermore, team or partnership games in which players compete together in two or more groups (such as Axis & Allies, and card games like Bridge and Spades) usually fall outside of this definition, even though there is cooperation between some of the players. Multiplayer conflict games like Diplomacy may also feature cooperation during the course of the game. These are not considered cooperative though, because ultimately only one individual will win. Games like Descent: Journeys in the Dark have similarities to roleplaying games and could be considered cooperative because players tend to work together. Cooperative games always involve players joining forces against the game itself, and can be played without any player in the role of the opposition.

[edit] History and development

Early cooperative games were used by parents and teachers in educational settings. During the 1980s, several cooperative games were published in the gaming hobby, namely Scotland Yard, The Fury of Dracula, and Arkham Horror. In 2000, Reiner Knizia published Lord of the Rings which influenced a number of subsequent titles, including Shadows Over Camelot, Pandemic, and Battlestar Galactica. Ghost Stories is another cooperative game.

[edit] See also

• Cooperative game (in mathematical game theory)
• Cooperative game play (in video games)
• German-style board game

[edit] References