5 ms·
I distinguish between "family games" and "gamer games" on whether you have gaps of time where you can ignore the game and interact socially with the other playe
by larsrc 4y ago
I distinguish between "family games" and "gamer games" on whether you have gaps of time where you can ignore the game and interact socially with the other players or need to concentrate on the game. The former group is mostly an excuse to socialize, so game mechanics are largely irrelevant.
- hoppla 4y agoScotland Yard and Pandemic are the two best cooperative board games I know of
- bombcar 4y agoPandemic suffered from the orchestrator effect for us, where the best player just ended up telling everyone what to do.
- lukifer 4y agoLots of co-op games struggle with this; some address it by simply adding so many details and complications that no one individual could possible track and orchestrate everything (the one that comes to mind being "Spirit Island"). Some games instead use a strict limit on communication ("Hanabi", "Regicide"), though that may defeat the social element for some.
- bombcar 4y agoYeah what worked for us was limiting the kind of requests you could make - no “show me all Your cards” type and more “we need to defend X who wants to do that” type.
- trynewideas 4y agoIt takes a lot of people to shine, but Captain Sonar has great team co-op mechanics AND an extremely clever competitive mechanic in the radio operator.