I think (not that anyone is saying otherwise) that the power fantasy can be expressed in a coop game just fine.
We all know the guy who brokenbirds about playing the healer in D&D, yeah? Like, the person who it is real important to that everyone knows how unselfish they are.
If you put a ‘forego personal advancement to help the team win’ button in a game without a solo winner people will break their fingers cuz they all tried to mash it at once. People mash these in games WITH a solo winner (kingmaker syndrome, home brew victory conditions, etc).
Note that we’re not talking about co-op games. We’re talking about games that involve both cooperation and competition, where choosing when to do either and, how to negotiate, is a key skill.
The problem is not making cooperation exciting. The problem is making the choice-of-whether-to-cooperate exciting.
I think (not that anyone is saying otherwise) that the power fantasy can be expressed in a coop game just fine.
We all know the guy who brokenbirds about playing the healer in D&D, yeah? Like, the person who it is real important to that everyone knows how unselfish they are.
If you put a ‘forego personal advancement to help the team win’ button in a game without a solo winner people will break their fingers cuz they all tried to mash it at once. People mash these in games WITH a solo winner (kingmaker syndrome, home brew victory conditions, etc).
Note that we’re not talking about co-op games. We’re talking about games that involve both cooperation and competition, where choosing when to do either and, how to negotiate, is a key skill.
The problem is not making cooperation exciting. The problem is making the choice-of-whether-to-cooperate exciting.