Cooperation and competition

A few pillars to keep in mind

Welcome! Today I will muse about the difference between games themed for cooperation and competition. In this post I will attempt to provide you with a few pillars to keep in mind when designing such games. I will be discussing how these themes impact the gameplay, how they change the players' interaction with each other and how game mechanics should be adapted to work well withing their respective themes. Let us get started!

There are basically three ways to implement cooperation and competition, either stick purely to one of the themes or mix them to create a team based competition. I will discuss each of these implementations in the following order:

1. Cooperation. In this theme the players cooperate to defeat the game.
2. Competition. This is a purely competitive theme, free for all and every player for herself. The objective is to defeat all other players and end up as King of the hill.
3. Team competition. This mixed theme is based on two team competing against each other and as such contains elements of both cooperation and competition.

Cooperation

The objective in a cooperative game is for the players to work together in order to defeat a challenge posed by the game itself. The trick to this theme is to actually encourage the players to work together. Some games manage this better while some seem to miss the mark. Interesting cooperation is harder to achieve than one might think, in some ways it is more difficult than to create a great competitive environment in a game. Whereas competition is based on balance, cooperation is based on synergies. What I mean by this is that several players working together should be more powerful than any player could possibly be alone. Synergies combined with a difficult challenge will force the players to cooperate or face inevitable defeat.

• The mechanics must allow players to create synergies between them. An example of this would be to let players move further if they begin their turn in the same place as another player or let them heal each other after difficult encounters.
• The challenge must be so great that it is impossible to win by oneself. This can be achieved by, for instance, having several objectives that must be achieved in a short amount of time or by designing difficult encounters that can only be completed by working together.

Cooperative games usually have the players control specific avatars with unique abilities. This is a great way of creating synergies and ensures that all players have their niche. If one would like to go one step further it is possible to give each player a limitation as well as an ability. 

Regular challenges include time limits that forces players to divide themselves into small teams suited to the particular objective they aim to achieve within said time limit. An example from Forbidden Island might be that two players go after the underwater artifact since they are the only ones equipped with diving gear while two other players secure the helicopter landing site against oncoming tidal waves. Another type of regular challenge is to create really menacing enemies that players will need to combat together, using various attack synergies and combinations that can only be executed together.

A properly designed cooperative game rewards the players with a sense of community. The players will assist each other, discuss the next course of action, make sacrifices for the group and build a sense of trust. Cooperative games are usually beginner friendly since it is in the other players' best interests to help the beginner since it is required for winning the game.

Borderlands is based on cooperation, as such it has plenty of player synergies and powerful enemies.
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Competition

The objective in a competitive game is to defeat the other players. This is done by mastering the game mechanics to a higher degree than the other players. It is therefore of the outmost importance that competitive games primarily based on player skill and not random chance. Random chance is a great equalizer mechanic implemented when the game's creator wish to ensure that players of different skill levels can play together and have an enjoyable time. Chance will have a very detrimental effect on a competitive game since the more skillful player will feel cheated when chance robs her of her victory against a less skilled opponent. Such events are enough to make players stop playing your game and moving on to something more rewarding.

The most important core pillars to keep in mind when designing a competitive game are as follows:

• None or very little random chance. Chance removes much of the element of mastery in the game. It is far better to design a complex set of rules that can be mastered and predicted.
• The game must be well balanced in order to avoid dominant strategies. Dominant strategies are the bane of any game as they severely reduce the enjoyment and replay value of the game.

Competition is superb motivation for learning a rule set since everyone wants to win. This means that as long as the competition is fair and there is still more to learn, the players will be entertained because learning is fun. Competitive games can surely be great fun and an awesome learning experience. The player will feel a sense of achievement as she consistently learns the tricks of the game and employs them to out think her competitors. 

Not all players will be equally good at these kinds of games and that is perhaps the greatest problem with purely competitive games. Sore losers are sure to appear and spoil the mood after the game. People generally do not like to lose and will use any number of excuses to place blame on anything but themselves, this is called psychological projection and is a real problem in many gaming communities. One need look no further than players rage quitting in various games to observe the truth of this statement.

Competitive games are both a blessing and a curse since they draw out the best and worst of the players. As a designer you need to be well aware of this in order to maximize the positives and minimize the negatives.

Chess is perhaps the most successful competitive game of all time. It requires large amounts of player skill and experience to succeed at.
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Team competition

The objective in team competitive games is to cooperate in order to defeat the opposing team. This kind of game is usually very hard to implement in a game since it requires the designer to balance both previous themes at the same time. 

Team competitions easily falls into the trap where players do not cooperate and instead go about their own business. The game then rapidly degenerates into a mass of one versus one duels until a single player is left standing. That is hardly the purpose of a team game now is it. There are two primary reasons why this might happen:

1. The game does not encourage cooperation in a mechanical way due to lacking synergies between players. Each player is self-sufficient and does not need to rely on their teammates in order to be effective.
2. The game does not include any efficient manner in which to organize so any attempt to cooperate falls apart due to lack of leadership.

The first point is simple to avoid if the designer managed to incorporate the most important element of cooperative games into her game. The second point is more difficult and requires a certain finesse to succeed. What organization methods that are required will largely depend on the game and is something the designer will need to consider. 

Example: Battlefield 2 uses in game voice communication channels, allows players to organize into squads and lets one player take up the role of commander of the team. Each squad has a squad leader that can communicate with the commander. The commander plays a different game than the other players. While most of the players are experiencing a fast paced FPS game, the commander is largely looking at a map, issuing orders and deploying resources for his team.

Classical team competition. Soccer requires massive amounts of coordination in order to win.
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Summary

These themes all present their unique challenges and it is important to always keep in mind what kind of game you are designing. Each theme differs vastly from the others and this should be reflected in the game mechanics. 

• Cooperative games are based on synergies between players and great challenges that cannot be conquered alone.
• Competitive games are based on rules balance and mastery of the game's mechanics.
• Team competitive games need to balance the elements of both cooperation and competition but also need to incorporate methods that allow for a team to organize itself.

I hope you found this rather lengthy post enlightening or at least useful during your own design or analytical work. As always do not hesitate to leave a comment if you disagree or otherwise wish to share your thoughts.