I can be fairly competitive. Or maybe it’s just that I really don’t like to lose. But when I’m really trying to win something, really trying to beat my fellow players, I get a bit … stressed. And every now and then I can get a bit… frustrated. And then never want to play that game again when I lose. Ask Eric about the Settlers card game… it hasn’t seen the light of day since the one time we played it.
Eric is my primary game-playing partner. He’s pretty good at games. I’m pretty good at games. I’d say we’re fairly well matched. So when we’re playing to win it’s both an awesome time and a period of intense focus for me.
Because of all of that, I love cooperative games! Pandemic was my first real intro to cooperative games and I gotta say, I think Eric & I are pretty darn good at it. D&D then added to my love of cooperative games, introducing me to what it means to make it up on the fly and adventure together. The laughter around the table during a cooperative game is almost always universal, rarely at someone in particular. I love that we’re solving a puzzle together, meaning that if I get stuck I’ve got a buddy who’s going to help me out instead of moving in for the kill. As we’ve expanded our repertoire of collaborative games we’ve run across Sherlock Holmes, Robinson Crusoe, Burgle Bros, Codenames, Hunt-A-Killer, Mechs & Minions, Aftermath, Stuffed Fables, and a whole lot more.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love competitive games. And I’m (almost) always a good sport when I lose ;-) But when I want to kick back with people I love, sometimes a cooperative game just really hits the spot.
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