I heartily agree with Sue: issues of competition and co-operation are a lot more complicated than a simple "either / or" statement. Co-operative games often become multi-player puzzles, competitive games can foster "spontaneous" co-operation if it's advantageous to the players (trading in Catan, diplomacy in....Diplomacy).
To declare my particular position: I'm happy with competition in games, whether against the other players or the "dead man's hand" of the designer, because games encourage the form of co-operation where "We have agreed to play this
Has anyone tried
Days of Wonders' Terra?_______________________________
Pete Darby
http://pete_darby.livejournal.com