All Together Now: the importance of cooperative games
by Nate Scheidler

This month, I want to talk to you about cooperative games. Games where the forces set against the players are external and not controlled by another player. Everyone must act as a team to succeed. If any person on the team isn't used to their fullest, even in the most mundane of functions, everyone will fail.

Competition

There is something natural, essential, and inherently horrible about competition.

Competition drives us to acheive. It fuels innovation and ingenuity. This same force can also foster undermining, backstabbing, and cheating. And let's not forget the price of failure. While we all want good sportsmanship, there will always be cases of frustration, low self-esteem, finger pointing... and at its worst, vengance.

I speak as someone who has a serious problem with competition. I have an older brother, went to a public school with mixed incomes, and was never particularly good at sports though I did excel academically. There were plenty of cases growing up where I felt more or less valued against my peers. Part of the result is that I don't deal with games or life situations where I feel like I am losing or being one-upped by another person. This has on several occasions led to behaviors in me that I am not proud of, professionally and personally. In 2000, I actually voluntarily left a community that was important to me simply because I was having problems dealing with the competitive aspects. Avoiding competitive feelings is a very conscious effort for me as I engage in activities.

Competition is inherently isolating. One person succeeds. In some rare instances, other people may tie with them. Even within most teams, competition still breeds individuality. MVP. Star of the team. While some manage to develop and maintain a mindset of competition against their personal best, the more common ideal is to be the best among one's peers. When one acheives such a goal, who exactly are they supposed to relate to?

There are plenty of forces in the world that do not want us to work together. Every predator understands that the best way to reach its prey is through isolating them from their groups. Alone against the power of a group, however, a predator has no chance. Take a moment to search YouTube for "Battle at Kruger" for perhaps the best possible example of this in action in every way. Its inspirational.

The Joy of Cooperation

I remember the thrill of playing with a huge parachute, running inside and making a big dome. Everyone plays an important part, and without enough people it would not be possible. We all play a role in our families, our workplaces and social groups. Working with others is something we all have to do throughout our lives, and building the social skills necessary for true team interaction plays a critical role in our development. We need to be trustworthy, and we need to learn how to better trust others. Fostering this understanding in our schools is essential. 

Cooperative Games

Some of my favorite games are cooperative games. There is something really wonderful about working with your friends to defeat a common adversary. Some common elements of cooperative games are:

- Individual specialty: each player has some unique trait that they contribute towards the team victory

- Game logic: The crisis presented in the game has a natural progression, though its growth patterns are managed through a random system (usually card-based)

- Quick action doesn't win; smart action does: Players will never have all of the resources (including time) needed to resolve the situation completely. It is not uncommon for the best course of action to be mitigating but not completely eliminating a threat from the board. The time spent fully eliminating a small threat is often better applied to other tasks.

- A Traitor: This is an element I encourage you to set aside. In most games it can easily be removed from the rules. While it does add some interesting elements and generates replay value, the challenge of the game itself is usually sufficient (especially for inexperienced teams).

Here are some great cooperative games to get you started.

• Pandemic (http://www.zmangames.com/boardgames/pandemic.htm): This is the most satisfying and purely cooperative game I have played in some time. Players team up as a team from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, fighting a global outbreak of disease with multiple strains. The theme marries remarkably well with the simple mechanics. Players need to jaunt around the globe not only containing the disease but researching a cure. Its a race against time; there are several ways to lose, and finding the cure to all 4 strains is the only option for victory.
• Shadows over Camelot (http://www.daysofwonder.com/shadowsovercamelot/en/): One of the first popular cooperative games and still one of the best. Players are knights at the round table, working to maintain order in the kingdom by completing quests and defeating invading forces. Unlike Pandemic, the threat in Shadows over Camelot can evolve more sporadic and randomly. Players will be forced to change their course of action several times during the game.  

• Backseat Drawing (http://www.outoftheboxgames.com/backseatdrawing/index.html): While intended as a competitve party game, you could easily divide the box contents into two seperate groups and have them each play independently. Backseat Drawing requires one person on a team to deliver instructions while another draws and other team members try to guess the object being drawn. This game has simple rules and a high focus on creativity as well as communication. There is a junior version too.

Two of these games are both suited more for students in higher education; there aren't many games in the earlier grades. This does not, however, keep you from making your own! So here's an idea to get you started:

• What's in a name, anyway?: Students make small cards, each containing a letter from their first, last or middle names. Each student only has the letters from their own names, and can only use each letter once. They are then given a word to spell. Students have to change seats or stand shoulder to shoulder in the right sequence in order to spell the word correctly. Points are scored based on how much of the word is correctly spelled. You can add a time factor, a team-building factor, or use names of their favorite storybook characters/sports stars/pop singers. For bonus points, use the word in a sentence. You could also do more than one team, and have students on each team create words to challenge the other students with. You could do the same exercise with math problems

Now that you have your cooperative game, here's some tips for effective play and learning:

• Communications: The most critical point to consider when approaching a cooperative game is communications. During the first sessions of the game, communications should be open and cards should be shown. As you progress through the game or replay the game, you should have at least the hands of cards hidden from display of other players. Everyone can talk about the cards in their hands, but should not show them. In games involving a traitor, players are prohibited from discussing or even showing the cards in their hand. The more that people need to communicate with each other, the more they will develop as a team.  

• Leadership: This is your balancing act. All teams need someone to direct the action. Initially, this should be you, the educator. All priorities need to be discussed as group objectives. Each player should describe their personal strengths in terms of position on the board, available resources and unique traits. Ideally, they decide on a course of action without being coaxed... but this might be necessary for the first game or two to suggest how to best work together. After a few player turns have completed, the group should reassess the situation and change their course of action if necessary. It is hardly uncommon, however, for someone to micro-manage everyone else's turns. This needs to be identified, explained and avoided. Just as each player's role is vital to winning the game, each player's perspective on the situation needs to be considered carefully. What might seem like the best course of action to one may not seem like the best to another.  

• Evaluation: Win or Lose, the entire team should discuss what worked and didn't work. This discussion should be in terms of cause and effect on specific actions. What specific events occurred in the game contributed most to victory/defeat? How could these have been prevented? If a game was lost, play it again until the team succeeds. Then increase the challenge by limiting communications, or switching roles around. Playing it again is the essential part. Let them learn more about each other through working together. In time, they may understand how much more they can acheive as a team than they can as individuals.

Conclusions

Cooperation is every bit as natural and essential as competition, it is simply less prevalent. Cooperative gaming is about teamwork and community. This is something we as a species must strive for. We must set aside our differences to work towards common goals. I want you to consider how different a classroom is when the students help each other. When the stronger learners help the struggling ones. We can do so much more when we play together than when we play against each other, and that understanding starts in the classroom.