Cooperating to Compete

TLDR

Boardgaming is a form of distributed cognition where players cooperate to negotiate and maintain rules, enabling competition. The study investigates how coordinative practices in boardgame play enable competition by examining the interplay of cooperation and competition. Researchers observed modern boardgame sessions, analyzing how players distribute knowledge of the game state, collaborate, and use material components to articulate and enhance awareness.

Abstract

This paper examines the complex relationship between competition and cooperation in boardgame play. We understand boardgaming as distributed cognition, where people work together in a shared activity to accomplish the game. Although players typically compete against each other, this competition is only possible through ongoing cooperation to negotiate, enact and maintain the rules of play. In this paper, we report on a study of people playing modern boardgames. We analyse how knowledge of the game's state is distributed amongst the players and the game components, and examine the different forms of cooperation and collaboration that occur during play. Further, we show how players use the material elements of the game to support articulation work and to improve their awareness and understanding of the game's state. Our goal is to examine the coordinative practices that the players use during play and explicate the ways in which these enable competition.