Saturday, December 17, 2016

Day 39: FotLC through the 113 lenses from The Art of Game Design

Day 39 - Lens 45: The Lens of Competition vs. Cooperation
Balancing competition and cooperation can be done in interesting ways. Use this lens to decide whether they are balanced properly in your game. Ask yourself these questions:

It "1" is Competition and "10" is Cooperation, what number should my game get? 
2 - My game is essentially competitive with cooperative elements. Players can ally and perform game actions that benefit each other, but only one player can rule the wasteland.

Can I give players a choice whether to play cooperatively or competitively?
Yes, the degree of cooperation is up to the players. It would be possible for players to decide to cooperate and try to tie for victory, the end condition being 'nobody rules the wasteland'. Given that the stated narrative goal of the game is 'to make everyone the same' that could actually be seen as the hidden goal of the game.

Does my audience prefer competition, cooperation, or a mix?
Most of my playtesters have prefered the mix. A few hardcore strategy gamers have wanted more competition. I will probably include a rules variant without the prisoner's dilemma for pure mechanical competition.

Is my team competition something that makes sense for my game? Is my game more fun with team competition or with solo competition?
Cooperation in the game leats to team Competition. I have never seen all of the players decide to cooperate to take down the city and not form teams and strive to rule the rubble. That might actually be a degenerate strategy because it would not be very interesting after the first time.

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