Cooperation and Engagement: What can board games teach us?

Quite accidentally, I came across the following very thoughtful 2008 Google TechTalk video on boardgame design by Matt Leacock. While the lecture is focused on games and not simulations per se, much of it—on graphic layout, playtesting, simplicity and challenge, engaging players in the story line, and fostering cooperative game-play, among many other issues—is extremely useful for simulation designers too.

Cooperation and Engagement: What can board games teach us?

Google Tech Talks, April, 25 2008

In February of 2008, Matt Leacock released Pandemic, a board game where players cooperate to save the world from deadly diseases that threaten to wipe out humanity. The game has been enthusiastically received, with its first printing selling out in less than a month. Matt will discuss how being an interaction designer affected the game design process as well as how cooperative games can point to new models for engagement in online systems. Pandemic’s BoardGameGeek page is http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/30549 Speaker: Matt Leacock Matt Leacock is a principal designer at Yahoo! Inc. When he’s not designing social platforms and products for Yahoo!, he dabbles in board game design. Matt’s ludography (list of game designs) is here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/designer/378 Matt’s work bio is here: http://www.socialtext.net/ocu2007/index.cgi?matt_leacock.