Cooperative Teamwork

A Winning Concept
The usual way to think about a game is that it pits two or more players against each other to determine a single winner. Sometimes a game will break players into two teams and they will compete to determine which team wins. Each player on the winning team shares in the excitement of winning. But isn't a game supposed to be fun for everyone who plays?
White Box introduced the gaming world to a new concept, adventure gaming or role playing (the two may differ somewhat), but more importantly cooperative gaming. Rather than pit players against each other, the new game was cooperative in concept where players work together to everyone's benefit. Winning at this new game was defined as having fun. Even the player taking the part of the referee is supposed to assist in making the game fun for everyone. The referee is not (usually) the opponent of the players. The power invested in the referee, who acts as creator and final word on the game setting, means he/she can easily slay the PCs at any time, so there is no incentive to play against them. Rather the referee helps the fun along for all by setting up a situation, playing all the non-player characters, and fairly refereeing the rules so that play is both challenging and rewarding for all.
White Box is a class based RPG system as are many games that have followed. The distinct classes provide players with different roles to play during the game adventure. Some players control a character who fights well, others control a character that casts magic spells to solve problems, heal damage or shape the environment. One character class specializes in turning and destroying undead creatures. No one character class is good at everything and a party is best served being made up of at least one character from each class so as to have the full set of abilities available. Distinct classes with limited overlap insure that each character has their own specialty. Sometimes this is referred to as niche protection and is important so that everyone has something to contribute and is not likely to be overshadowed by other player characters.
The popularity of the cooperative game concept has caught-on and spread to other types of games including card and board games. There are a number of titles available today in which the players all cooperate to win (or sometimes lose) together as a group. Two of my favorite cooperative games are Zombicide and Fantasy Flight's Lord of the Rings Living Card Game in which the players work together playing cards from their decks to beat the Shadow forces before time runs out. Each mission is different and the variety of game challenges seems limitless. Cool Minis or Not makes a number of Zombicide board games, all are cooperative. Zombicide games pit survivors of a zombie apocalypse against the game system in a cooperative effort to accomplish missions and not get eaten by zombies. The game has a very tactical feel to it and definitely encourages teamwork. It is much more difficult to survive if players don't work together.
I find cooperative games are challenging both in terms of playing well individually and in terms of communicating and cooperating with the group. Social interaction within the game context is even more important than in traditional face-to-face games and teamwork principles are essential. The shared outcome of all succeeding together or failing together means there are no losers. Failure to complete the mission is often motivation to try again.