This past week we looked at the team dynamics of board games. On Tuesday I played Pandemic with a  group in class and on Thursday I observed a group of classmates play Overwatch together.

During our game of Pandemic, we observed the ways in which the games had us interacting with each other and with the game. Communication was a large part of this game. Each player had unique abilities that would help the group and players had cards that would help towards the goals of the games. By communicating with the other players we were able to plan out or moves 4 or 5 turns ahead of time. We left our cards face up on the table and were fully transparent with each other. It was very satisfying that our advanced planning was so good that we were able to survive two pandemic cards in a row and pull off a win. This gameplay was very different than the collaboration used within the team for Overwatch.  

Overwatch is a faster-paced game than Pandemic and requires more quick communication rather than planning out very far in advance. It was very interesting to hear other classmates discussing how they communicate with teams in online games when you do not have clear in-person communications. How certain moves and even what character you pick could indicate things to other players

Sources:

Pandemic, Z-MAN Games, 2007

Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment, 2015