I do quite like your overall idea and background theory here. Having more cohabitive games (sorry, I like that name better) seems probably important.
Something feels off about “just try to get as many points as you can”. I don’t know if this is just 37 years of competitive-game propaganda talking, but if you give everyone a score, the only way I really have to tell me “how good is this abstract number?” is to compare myself to other players, and that naturally puts me into somewhat of a competitive mindset.
The things that actually put me in a collaborative mindset in multiplayer games is when we’re trying to build something or accomplish something other than “get points”. Minecraft is maybe the best example (although admittedly people often feel like it’s “not a game, it’s a toy/sandbox”). Maybe in Magic the Gathering where people get invested in pulling off a “cool move”, especially in multiplayer games.
I could say that the shared aspiration is to find the perfect compromise together. But it’s difficult, I’m not sure when or how to say that. If you say it too loudly, players might not reckon with the real difficulty of that, especially when I’m in the room, I sense people are often more cooperative than is fun for them, or they’re too quick to capitulate, breaking the integrity of the simulation.
the only way I really have to tell me “how good is this abstract number?” is to compare myself to other players, and that naturally puts me into somewhat of a competitive mindset.
This would be ameliorated by the presence of obvious and interesting power asymmetries. A nice opening would be the power imbalance between steppe people and serfs. The serfs and their lord might be stronger in some sense, the future might be theirs, but they can’t get rid of the steppe people, they can’t extend their rule so far from their center, or even really interfere with them very much. So they have to coexist well for the time being.
Or, for instance, making one character a utility monster. No particular reason, just crank up all of their score cards, depict them always smiling. Let players realize they cannot “beat” Lucky Felix and that they do not need to.
I do quite like your overall idea and background theory here. Having more cohabitive games (sorry, I like that name better) seems probably important.
Something feels off about “just try to get as many points as you can”. I don’t know if this is just 37 years of competitive-game propaganda talking, but if you give everyone a score, the only way I really have to tell me “how good is this abstract number?” is to compare myself to other players, and that naturally puts me into somewhat of a competitive mindset.
The things that actually put me in a collaborative mindset in multiplayer games is when we’re trying to build something or accomplish something other than “get points”. Minecraft is maybe the best example (although admittedly people often feel like it’s “not a game, it’s a toy/sandbox”). Maybe in Magic the Gathering where people get invested in pulling off a “cool move”, especially in multiplayer games.
I could say that the shared aspiration is to find the perfect compromise together. But it’s difficult, I’m not sure when or how to say that.
If you say it too loudly, players might not reckon with the real difficulty of that, especially when I’m in the room, I sense people are often more cooperative than is fun for them, or they’re too quick to capitulate, breaking the integrity of the simulation.
This would be ameliorated by the presence of obvious and interesting power asymmetries. A nice opening would be the power imbalance between steppe people and serfs. The serfs and their lord might be stronger in some sense, the future might be theirs, but they can’t get rid of the steppe people, they can’t extend their rule so far from their center, or even really interfere with them very much. So they have to coexist well for the time being.
Or, for instance, making one character a utility monster. No particular reason, just crank up all of their score cards, depict them always smiling. Let players realize they cannot “beat” Lucky Felix and that they do not need to.