On 4/4/07, Carol Townsend <edu-support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I searched "cooperative" on the Icehouse wiki and found 2 games. Are there others that just aren't labeled as such? Is Zendo a cooperative game, or is it competitive?
That depends on who you are playing with. My niece just learned a few weeks ago that even when she makes a really hard master rule that no one can guess she still doesn't "win" because no one has any fun. Her younger sister quit and even I was getting a little frustrated. It was awful. I don't think she'll do it again. But there is competition among students to be the first one to become enlightened. However, Zendo goes in a special place becaue it's just so much fun to play that, in the end, it doesn't matter who "wins."
How do you make a good cooperative game?
I like competition. I find it enjoyable. The more competitive, the more fun. Now don't get me wrong, game play should always be gentle(wo)manly, but when people aren't trying their hardest, it cheapens the whole experience. In a cooperative game... where's the challenge? You would have to be against some kind of outside force, which would have to be randomized and I'm less of a fan of randomized games, and then, even with that, it's more of a puzzle. This ended up as more of my opinion than the well thought out sagely monologue I had originally intended. I guess I just don't like cooperative games. -- - |) () /\/