Cooperative game

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As a cooperative game , or cooperative game one is game type called, in which the players do not play against each other to determine a single winner, but together with a common goal. The aim is to win together. Cooperative games are related to the New Games movement of the 1960s and 1970s. They differ from children's games such as rabbits in the pit or functional games and construction games in that the game can be lost by a common opponent or due to a rule of the game (e.g. time factor).

In many cases, this variety pursues educational goals, such as integrating stigmatized or weaker participants, building trust, willingness to cooperate and helpful, and thus the acquisition of social skills .

Players wait outside a cooperative video game in Akihabara

to form

The shepherd game is a cooperative board game for children (Herder-Verlag)

In cooperative games, different forms can be distinguished according to the style of play or the objective, for example:

Cooperative movement games

Cooperative games in the area of ​​exercise and sports reject the principle of competition and, in contrast to zero-sum games , in which the profit of one party means the loss of the other, are so-called non-zero-sum games. Teams and individual players do not play against each other, but with each other: The tasks of the game must be solved in cooperation. The game is determined by the sense of community that requires cooperation and trust. The joy, satisfaction, excitement and togetherness that are experienced are considered values ​​in themselves. It is also about a “playful trial of strength”, but not about competition , victory, performance and comparison. There are no real losers. For example, the aim of the playgroup can be to escape from an island together, for which obstacles and adversities have to be overcome. However, this can only lead to the goal through cooperation (assistance, distributed tasks, etc.), especially if the time factor still plays a role.

In the amateur and professional area of ​​team sports, cooperative games are used to promote team building.

Cooperative board games

At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, cooperative games also came into play in the course of educational discussions in the area of board games , which until then had always been characterized by competition among each other. The first cooperative board game for children was the Wundergarten (1977) by Hildegard and Eberhard Klippstein, published by Herder Verlag . This was followed by the dragon game (1978) by Hildegard and Eberhard Klippstein. The Herder Verlag brought further out a series of cooperative games for kindergarten and elementary school children who were partially awarded by prices. The bear game by Hajo Bücken (the little bear has to be led out of the forest against all sorts of dangers), the game fire brigade and the game Tabaijana by Wolfgang Kramer each appeared on the shortlist for the game of the year ; Sauerbaum also received the special prize “Cooperative Family Game ” in 1988 and Corsaro from Wolfgang Kramer the special prize “ Children's Game ” in 1991 from the Game of the Year jury. In these games there is always a common goal that can only be achieved together. The opponents are usually time limits (all animals must be captured before the zoo closes) or other events (the goal must be reached before the dragon wakes up, etc.), which are determined by rolling the dice. The decision of the jury to award the prestigious “ Children's Game of the Year ” award to the cooperative detective board game Wer war's? Proves that this line of development is by no means dead . from Reiner Knizia .

Simulation games

Simulation games are games that originally had a military background. Today they are used as model games to simulate social, ecological or economic conditions. The aim of these games is that the participants learn to understand the cybernetic processes of the whole system and thus can make the right decisions in the real world. Based on the gameplay of business games z. B. Cooperative board games such as Shadows over Camelot (2005), The Lord of the Rings (2000) and the Battlestar Galactica board game (2008). Here, too, a common opponent who is moved and controlled by chance must be defeated. In the multiplayer version of the game Ökolopoly , the players must jointly assume the role of the government of a country and control the entire system. A pandemic is about jointly fighting a disease that is spreading around the world. Space Alert brings an additional time-critical component and the use of an audio CD to trigger the opposing actions .

Cooperative video games

Some video games have a so-called co-op mode - a multiplayer variant in which the human players have to complete classic single-player missions together. The focus is on the common strategic approach of several participants.

Peace games

Under peace games that understands educational play games through any means, do without winners and losers, without struggle and exclusion, avoid the competition and instead, the communication and the interaction of the players at the center of the game action set. The sometimes very old game forms developed under the ideas of the peace movement of the 1960s and 1970s into a separate game genre , which aimed to change the prevailing game culture with the New Games movement imported from the USA to Europe . Above all, she opposed the widespread war games and the performance, combat and competitive sports game .

Games with temporary cooperation

These games are to be classified in the game theory area of cooperation . For a certain period of time, fellow players form coalitions in order to gain advantages over other players. In so-called team games , one sees three possibilities in game theory:

  • the non-cooperative variant: agreements are not possible here; everyone plays for himself.
  • the semi-cooperative variant: Here, all members of a coalition make strategic agreements with the opposing coalition.
  • the fully cooperative variant: all participants in the game develop joint agreements and strategies.

In the board game area, these include Scotland Yard (one against all), Diplomacy and some traitor games such as Saboteur .

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: cooperation game  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andrew Fluegelman, Shoshana Tembeck: New games. The new games . Vol. 1st, 18th edition, Mülheim an der Ruhr 1996.
  2. ^ Ekkehard Blumenthal: Cooperative movement games. 2nd edition, Verlag Karl Hofmann, Schorndorf 1993.
  3. ^ J. Griesbeck: Games without losers . Munich 1996.
  4. ↑ T. Orlick: New cooperative games. More than 200 competitive free games for kids and adults . 4th edition, Weinheim and Basel 1996.
  5. ↑ Das Bärenspiel , Game of the Year homepage , accessed on May 22, 2017.
  6. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Friedensspiele , In: Dies .: Vom Sinn des Spielens. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 145–151.
  7. ↑ http://www.mathematik.de/spudema/spudema_beitraege/beitraege/kuhlenschmidt/kooperative_spiele.htm
  8. ^ Gary Bornstein: Intergroup Conflict: Individual, Group, and Collective Interests , Karlsruhe 2005 ( Memento of August 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).