[advanced media aesthetics] Collaborative games: Lessons learned from board games

Note & Summary

Collaboration for what? At this point, we should re-think about the purpose of the game. In the view-point of Murray, which is inspired by Tomasello’s, it is presumable that every individual and group activity is directly connected with the survival in the very early stage of the evloution of primate. That is to say, the collaboration between the individuals is strongly led to the competition between the groups in the higher level. In the intantiated game, Lord of the Rings, there is also the non-player character, Sauron who is the clear enemy of this game. In this way, the collaboration becomes the sub-goal for the competition. Even the situation when the visible enemy cannot be found, in game such as Tetris, the rule that interfere the player’s will became the competitor which should be overcame.

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Collaborative games: Lessons learned from board games

José P. Zagal, Jochen Rick
Georgia Institute of Technology

Idris Hsi
Microsoft Corporation

Abstract

Collaborative mechanisms are starting to become prominent in computer games, like massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs); however, by their nature, these games are difficult to investigate. Game play is often complex and the underlying mechanisms are frequently opaque. In contrast, board games are simple. Their game play is fairly constrained and their core mechanisms are transparent enough to analyze. In this article, the authors seek to understand collaborative games. Because of their simplicity, they focus on board games. The authors present an analysis of collaborative games. In particular, they focus on Reiner Knizia’s LORDOFTHERINGS, considered by many to be the quintessential collaborative board game. Our analysis yields seven observations, four lessons, and three pitfalls, that game designers might consider useful for designing collaborative games. They reflect on the particular opportunities that computers have for the design of collaborative games as well as how some of the issues discussed apply to the case of computer games.

KEYWORDS: board games; collaboration; collaborative games; cooperation; computer games; decisions; game design; individuals; lessons; multiplayer games; LORD OF THE RINGS; payoffs; pitfalls; teams; utility

Quotation

J. P. Zagal, J. Rick, I. Hsi. (2007) ” Collaborative games: Lessons learned from board games.” Simulation & Gaming 37:1, 24-40

Summary

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How can electronic games be designed so that collaboration is a worthwhile, interesting, and attractive option?

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Players in RPGs frequently seek to create a satisfying storyline for their character, rather than successfully complete the adventure (Fine, 1983). From a game-theory perspective, these players are not playing a game; instead, they are creating a narrative. Consequently, RPGs are often understood in terms of narrative theory, rather than game theory (Heliö, 2004)

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figure 1. Lord of the Rings gamel Moria Scenario Board

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If such a moment of self-sacrifice is interesting as a story, it is even more engaging when you are the one to make the decision (in the game).

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Communication among the players about the available resources for a particular task becomes more efficient than a single player trying to marshal all the resources at one time.

Pitfall 2: For a game to be engaging, players need to care about the outcome and that outcome should have a satisfying result.

This pitfall applies to all games; however, we feel it is particularly important for collaborative games. If players do not care about the outcome, then they are not motivated enough to help each other or improve on their performance.

A good game can be a good story.

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Unlike completely deterministic games, like Chess, LORD OF THE RINGS cannot be played exactly the same way twice.

So, unlike competitive games, like Chess, collaborative games need to adapt to the players’ abilities to maintain replayability.

35. Implication for computer games
communication flexbility

Many basic cues of identity, personality, and social roles are absent in the online world (Donath, 1998), making it harder for players to understand each other and agree on plans of action.

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To conclude, we maintain that games have a unique potential to engage people in collaborative activities. On the other hand, collaborative games are rare and extraordinarily difficult to design. This article has hopefully illustrated some of the particular difficulties inherent to the design of these games as well as showing that simply having cooperative elements is generally insufficient for collaborative play. We have noted how many computer games do apply some of the lessons we have identified, though most tend to fail when it comes applying them all.We believe that computer games not only have the potential for addressing many of the issues discussed but also many affordances to solve them.We are hopeful to have provided insight that game designers might be able to use to create more and better collaborative games.

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Why does Lord of the Rings work?

• Lesson 1:To highlight problems of competitiveness, a collaborative game should introduce a tension between perceived individual utility and team utility.
• Lesson 2: To further highlight problems of competitiveness, individual players should be allowed to make decisions and take actions without the consent of the team.
• Lesson 3: Players must be able to trace payoffs back to their decisions.
• Lesson 4: To encourage team members to make selfless decisions, a collaborative game should bestow different abilities or responsibilities upon the players.

Challenge in designing collaborative games

• Pitfall 1: To avoid the game degenerating into one player making the decisions for the team, collaborative games have to provide a sufficient rationale for collaboration.
• Pitfall 2: For a game to be engaging, players need to care about the outcome and that outcome should have a satisfying result.
• Pitfall 3: For a collaborative game to be enjoyable multiple times, the experience needs to be different each time and the presented challenge needs to evolve.

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More information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_Catan
http://catanonline.com/default.htm?MSID=f12bf66534774191adb1953ecd48504d&c00=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiner_Knizia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Rings_%28board_game%29
Lord of the Rings Images / BoardGameGeek