History of Fun: Cooperative Board Games
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2024
- The history of board games covers thousands of years of history and speaks to some big questions: What happens in our brains when we play board games? What is fun? And (slightly less profound, but potentially of interest to intellectual property lawyers) who's really responsible for Monopoly?
Board game game history touches on culture and technology, psychology and politics. Why are cooperative games like Pandemic, Gloomhaven, Arkham Horror, and Hanabi so popular? Is it fun for everyone to lose? Welcome to the History of Fun, a new series about the history and science of humans' favorite ways to have a good time.
In this episode of The History of Fun, Justin (@juddtoday) explores the interesting history of board games, specifically cooperative games, with board game designer Matt Leacock, who is responsible for the Pandemic game series, Forbidden Island, and so much more.
Make sure to subscribe to stay up to date on new episodes of this show. And leave a comment letting us know what topics you'd like to see covered next!
Special thanks to Matt Leacock! If you'd like to check out his work (including his new game Daybreak), check out his website here:
www.leacock.com/
Music in this episode by:
Kevin Macleod
Drawings by: Nick Cox
Website: www.mentalfloss.com
Twitter: / mental_floss
Facebook: / mentalflossmagazine
That felt closer and way more personal than other Mental Floss episodes. It was nice to feel Justin's investment and sincerity all throughout. I was not expecting that. Fabulous job!
Thank you! It was definitely a labor of love, so happy to see people digging it. More to come soon(ish)!
Betrayal at House on the Hill is probably my absolute favourite game. It dances between being collaborative and competitive in a really satisfying way, and win or lose the game is always exciting.
I've been excited for this coming for ages! Ever since I commented on Justin's game shelf some time ago, and he replied that they may do a video on board gaming in the future. Hooray!
Ha, thanks. And fwiw, your comment definitely did help inspire this series, so thanks for watching and commenting!
1000 more years of Justin describing board games, please!
Playing games together has a few big things going for it, especially if we're living with depression (Justin, big hug for you for being a strong role model for people who have it. I had it but mercifully recovered after moving to the countryside). Being surrounded by people you love and who love you can take you out of yourself for a while.
Secondly, though concentrating on the game and having a laugh with your company won't make it go away, it can definitely shelve your depression for a while. We're all different but it worked for me. Though for me it was watching motorsports on tv with my kids who were young at the time. We'd make the brrm noises, screech as they went round corners and move as if we were in the car or on the bike. It was silly, but it's something my grandchildren love to do with me too!
It actually makes me feel useful because I'm disabled and can't _do_ things with them (which does bring the depression back for a while, but fortunately it's not permanent), but for a while I can entertain them and I'm surrounded by the love of those whom I love more than words can say. With the right people, a board game night can do much the same, if only for the time it lasts and a bit of an "afterglow".
I invented a word game but found the idea of creating the cards which the round would start with was too much effort, and arthritis puts paid to any legibility! So I dragged up some JavaScript coding from a random generator I'd made and put the starting word for each round in that. You just press the button and it randomly chooses what you're going to start with. Maybe one day I'll create an app or a board game out of it!
Such a great idea for a series! I look forward to more. I would like to see one about why people enjoy any type of "going very fast" - racing, roller coasters, white water rapids, even skiing. Thanks!
Thank you, and stay tuned for episode two! 🎢
Going fast is part of being an adrenaline junky. Look at motorsports, the teams may work for a company but when the driver gets up to receive a trophy it's because each member of the team did what they were supposed to. During a race the entire team experiences an adrenaline high. Adrenaline can improve a team member's performance but can also cause a new team member to mess up. It's the responsibility of each member to insure they work with a new member to help them get past mistakes and not heap them with negative comments and the like.
Thanks Justin for sharing with us your passion of board games!
I do still enjoy losing a game of Spirit Island with friends. There is great collaboration and a feeling that we did our best, dispite the circumstances. Losing encourages great further discussions about strategy and cooperation that leads to and benefits future games.
The History of Fun ideas:
-I'm curious about Trivia Games. They change their content with the times, yet their function and prevalence remains. I'm curious to know their history.
-Another is sharing drinks with someone/friends. Alcohol obviously has significance, but for myself, artisan tea is something that I treasure sharing with others.
Great humor and editing - really enjoyed the rapid fire game outlines!
In Dnd in particular the game where everyone has the most fun isn't the one where everything goes exactly as planned it is the one where the wizard doesn't fully read what their spell actually does and casts it at a really stupid time causing the party to fail the main encounter Epicly
Leerooooyyyyyyyyyy ... NJennnnkinnnnnnnnns!
This is awesome to me, excited for this series
For me Betrayal is the best co-op game. It can be replayed over and over. Even if u end up playing the same scenario, each time is different because the map/playground is not the same.
Yesss this new series looks great!!
Thanks for an interesting episode! It's fascinating for many reasons (I love a good D&D session!) and it's made me think.
The elements that makes cooperative games so engaging and so engrossing is that drive to work together with people to solve a problem, come up with novels ways to experiment and making connections where previously none exist. It's basically all the same reasons why ARGs, online sleuths and conspiracy groups are so captivating and dangerous at the same time. When people no longer think they are playing a cooperative game and believe what they see is reality, the dopamine and oxytocin hits will keep them trapped in an alternative reality.
Ha, that's a fascinating perspective I didn't consider. I wonder if we could dive into the "fun" of conspiracy theories (which are relatively pleasant when parsing a Taylor Swift music video, and less so when they involve mobs making death threats), or even "the dark side of fun." I think there definitely is a game-like aspect to some of these conspiracies, where the community and the creativity of "unlocking the secrets" almost supersedes the actual content they're supposedly investigating...
@@MentalFloss I am a huge fan of Silent Hill, and one of the teasers released was called "Townfall". The developers actually encouraged people to dig through the teaser for more info and the gaming nerds went for it. They found a few hidden messages with Morse Code and spectrograms. I wasn't able to participate but it's fascinating nonetheless. The interactive part of gaming is something developers have been courting more and more, probably exactly because that's how to keep engagement and beat out the competition. But I have no idea where the line in the sand is drawn to keep the fun on one side and the harmful effects on the other. The folks who hunted Luka Magnotta on line had the same sentiment in the documentary, too. It's a part of our collective psyche that is still mostly mysterious despite 7 decades of social psychology studies.
(Sorry for the rambling, I didn't expect you guys would write back! You made my day!! Thank you so much!)
My favorite game to win AND lose is "What card does Justin have?" This turned out amazing, dude. Congrats!!
I LOVE King of Tokyo. What's interesting is that the most memorable moments are when one person is in the lead, and the remaining players team up to try to take them down. Whether they succeed or not, it's exciting and results in lots of shouting, jumping up and down, and laughter. Even in a competitive game with a single winner, the cooperative aspect ranks very high in providing "fun."
There was a logical justification behind “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”.
See you can roughly determine a horse’s age by how their teeth look. Horse incisors are straight up and down when they are young but start to angle forward as they age. So if someone told you the horse is 6 years old but the front incisors were angled forward, you’d know they were lying.
So the idea behind “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” back when horses ran transportation is you should be grateful that someone is giving you a horse in the first place and an older horse that still moves is better than no horse at all. It’s like cars today.
Wow, this was a surprisingly pleasant and educational and even philosophical insight into board gaming. As a European, growing up me and brother would spend the colder months playing all the classic board games, and we even created ones ourselves. I always loved maps, so I would make huge RISK-style games by meticulously tracing coastlines and borders on semitransparent paper from atlases onto large pieces of white cardboard and then inventing the game's overall theme and goal along with intricate rules and exceptions to those rules. And yes, we did learn a LOT from that. Nowadays, I'm a pub quiz afficionado excelling in: geography! :)
Subscribed! This is such a good thing to watch! I do love playing co-op games specially the new games such as X-MEN united. And often times, I lean on "losing" in our game sessions specially if I'm the one who taught the game. Sort of giving them the satisfaction of winning.
Flux is my favorite game to lose!
Dancing probably has a fascinating history
YAY!!!! I LOVE LOSING WHEN MY FRIENDS ARE WINNING!!!!!!!
One game that I loved when I was a kid in high school was called stop thief and it's a cooperative game where you try to catch a jewel or bank robber.
At some point during the pandemic, my friends and I found an online version of Hanabi. It was almost more fun when we failed because of everyone's reactions
Cool video! I've been a board gamer since June 2021. I'm homebound and it saves my sanity :D I mostly play solo but even then, modern board games have great solo mode that don't make you feel 'alone'. You feel like the automa/AI opponent is really there, like having the designer right there playing against you. I love when hubby says he'll play with me though! Nothing beats that and we do enjoy coop, too.
Oo, very interesting perspective in terms of playing solo but not feeling solo. Reminds me of reading-a solo activity that is, in so many ways, about connection.
I love this episode. I too also looove boardgames. I love finding new fun games to play and try while out camping or with friends. I recently held a murder mystery game night where everyone played a character and it was sooo much fun!
More History of Fun episodes, please!!
During the pandemic my friends and I had to find creative ways to do board games virtually. We started playing over board game arena
Having missed this episode and watched the roller coasters one first thinking it was first in the series and then being directed back here (thanks mental floss team) not only do I still look forward to more in the series I think between the 2 while both great this episode was a bit above the second. Either way tho both great love it can't wait for more!
I have been eagerly watching the 'Daybreak' kickstarter (and of course already backed the project). Before this, I was worried we wouldn't make the last stretch goal. With this promo, we will make it there!
A friend & I will play this cooperative Doctor Who game sometimes. We loose half the time (literally), but it feels like the game was designed for you to lose . . . which takes some of the fun out of it
I love the concept for this series and this episode was great. I love board games and my favorite is, by far, Pandemic. I would love to see this series tackle playing cards, jigsaw puzzles, and role playing games. Also, I think looking into the origins of different sports could be really fun as well.
Thank you! Sports (of some kind) are definitely on the list, as is something around jigsaw puzzles/puzzles in general.
Incredible quality content 🎉
Very interesting, thank you!
My friends and I still haven't been able to do in person meetups since the place we used to go to still hasn't been able to accommodate us even after over two years. So we've been having monthly Jackbox parties to enjoy board games and board game-like games. Seeing as we used to have holiday game nights a few times a year and always enjoyed that.
They blew the budget on this episode and bought a giant flip notepad.
Granted, it required us to forego medical insurance this year, but just look at that pad flip.
LOOP ! great co-op game- beautiful artwork
Betrayal at House on the Hill is one of my favorite games to lose at. It is so much fun and I immediately always want to play again.
I used to be a dungeon master playing with a group of medical students, letting them relax for awhile on Friday night. Instead of just making hack and slash dungeons, I created ones with elaborate puzzles that had to be figured out. My adventures lead to a lot more cooperative work among the players, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot more.
Chartbuster was a favourite game of my childhood.
I thought that I was a Jenga master .... Turns out I was a Jenga disaster !
I would like to hear the history of dolls, and some doll history from several different cultures. Thanks!
Galaxy Trucker is an amazing game to lose. It's not cooperative, but it's not really that competitive either. Everyone tries to build a ship from a common pool of parts, and then watches as bits get blown off and the deck and dice proceed to screw everyone to varying degrees. And if anyone in your group has gotten good enough that their ships tend to get through unscratched, there are multiple ways to handicap them built into the rules.
Mansions of Madness is definitely one of my more favourite Board Games to play, as it is fully cooperative (until someone loses their mind that is). My friends and I are currently working through Betrayal Legacy, which is a lot of fun on its own, but still often has at least one losing player (not counting the ones that are dead), if there is a traitor that wins or loses. A tight victory in those cases is still fun for the winners though ^^
Barbarian Prince is one of my favorite games ever. It is a solo game but, if done right, can be a group event. Wonderful memories with my uncles back in the day. It came out in the 80's in a small box with lookup tables and dice. I think the story of the game is so appealing but also it is a very hard game to win. An amazing Dr Who adventure game was built on the original game rules expanded. Check them out - both available for free online.
Thank you for this :)
Oo I'd love to do this. Have you seen the gravestone of the guy who invented the ouija board?
Ahhhh now I'll have to look for landlord's game prosperity rules (unless you found them in your research and can share?). I've wondered before if a co-op version of Monopoly would be fun, and if anyone had houseruled it, but "house rules co-op monopoly" just gets you senate proceedings.
And hey, Justin's Mom, I know someone else who teaches board games professionally -- has his own business of bars paying him to bring his massive stack of board games, which he then helps people pick out and play.
Please do an episode on the history of satire from ancient Greece to now! Who doesn't love a bunch of sarcastic horse dudes
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" is because when people go to puy a horse, the first place they look in at the horses teeth to judge it's health. The phrase saying to not look inside the mouth of a horse gifted to you is saying that when sameone gives you something, do not examine it for defaults. Just be greatful for the gift.
I don't think you can consider it losing! If the point of the game becomes the story you're making over the tasks at hand then even if you fail at the task you have not lost the game, y'feel?
Close to heart, should have commented on Frosthaven as a successfull KS.
I legit understood his introduction as "I'm just a dud"... And I thought he was being harsh on himself...
I love Pupularity even losing building my pup persona is always fun
I am an avid board gamer but I have general disdain for most cooperative games. Competing against people in a game will always be more fun than people competing against the game itself. Cooperative games also provide for very unique "bad feels" in the form of the pressure that individual players feel when faced with being solely responsible for the entire group losing. It's hard to write it off as "losing together is fun" when the loss is clearly the result of a single person's actions.
lmao they stopped the gloomhaven manual halfway through too
Can you please do one about the ouji board?
I took the regionals trophy in Candy Land, but there was a cheating scandal in nationals, and we couldn't finish the tournament.
at 16:27 is the E=MF^2 a mistake or just something I'm not getting? Maybe Entertainment = MVP * Fun ^ 2 ?
I think we were going for "Mental Floss" but I like your explanation better.
I love to play games, but I can't get any of my people to play with me.
"Why is losing fun?"
Ask any Dwarf Fortress player.
Love Justin Dodd
Great video but I take issue with Justin's take on "losing is fun" -which is not to say it's wrong- but difficulty and defeat need to be *earned* and players need to feel like their loss was balanced against their actions. I may not be a boardgame expert but I've played a handful of cooperative games that have very arbitrary or unfair or poorly designed game mechanics that will cause you to outright lose or enter an unrecoverable fail state.
One game that comes to mind is "Space Food Truck" which is a deck-building game on Steam. You can play it solo or cooperatively with other players taking on the roles of the ship crew. The game has so much potential but unfortunately it draws from a very limited pool of events most of which are bad, either causing damage to your ship/shields, and there just aren't sufficient options for the player (or players) to recover from those events. Often you'll get thrown an event, like an invading fleet, that will literally do one point of damage per turn and only the ship's captain can get you out of there; if that event happens after their turn that means you need to wait 4 turns before its the captain's turn again.
Difficulty and defeat shouldn't be based on RNG; it should be a combination of steadily increasing challenges and giving players sufficient agency to address them.
Have you tried the collaborative card game called "The Mind? It's soo easy to learn and a toooonne of fun!!! My favourite 2 qualities!
Is the game Sheldon plays on TBBT when Bernadette is waiting to go into labor real because I don't really like board games that take for ever to play and has a book of rules and ways to play lol
Yes its an actual game
Surprised you didn't mention Talisman. O.o
I'm not a fan of coop bard games. Gloomhaven on PC is great however - even in multiplayer (but it takes about 3 times as long this way!)
2:26 I *DEMAND* an explanation!
Sure, happy to clarify: It pops up.
Does the board game Pandemic have a COVID-19 expansion yet?
The possibility of losing is the point of any game. Playing a game I know I'm gonna win every time is no fun at all. This is why I hate cheating. Cheating defeats the point of the game.
Losing is not fun at all.. if I lose, it’s on you and I’m not responsible for my further actions
Dungeons and Dragons is a cooperative game. Discuss.
Oh, absolutely. The only reason we didn't dig into it more is because it might require its own episode in the future.
Cards Against Humanity is a game for people who aren't funny to feel like they are.
Was this meant to be titled "History of Cooperative Board Games"?
You're too young to appreciate a time when board games and cards were the only game in town. My favorite in college (early '70s) my favorite was Risk. The exact opposite of cooperative.
Collaboration game = One person plays, everyone else just does what they're told
Depends on the crowd and maturity of the crowd.
Losing is never fun
First
stop it
I like this video, and then the presenter mispronounced Reiner Knizia and then I lost interest.
You lost the game