Pandemic is a cooperative tabletop game to complete tasks. Several players need to travel to various regions of the world to eliminate local viruses in their turn of the game. This process requires cooperation and division of labor, because once the virus is not effectively eliminated, all players will fail together.
The entire world map of the game is roughly divided into 4 regions, Europe, America, East Asia, and the Middle East. Different regions have different types of prevalent viruses, and the victory condition of the game is to eliminate the four types of prevalent viruses. This process is actually very difficult, because it requires close cooperation of teammates in the game. For example, it is necessary to build medical laboratories to connect the entire world, thus coming to facilitate the maximum distance that can be moved each turn. Each player needs to play the special skills of his character to help his teammates to eliminate the virus. However, the cooperation between teammates is difficult to do great. This becomes the most difficult part of the game.
In order to win this game, it is necessary to have a leading player to lead the whole field of thought. Because this is a game that requires teamwork, not having a main leader will result in players working very poorly together, which means it is impossible to finish the game. I personally do not like this game because there is no camp rivalry in this game, but all players cooperate to complete the task. I would prefer a game full of camp rivalries, where players are divided into at least two camps. Victory in such a situation would be more satisfying. Fortunately for me and my group, I had a group leader who was very experienced with this game. This made it possible for us to play the game without being particularly confused or uninterested.
But there were also group members who enjoyed this cooperative type of game because they didn’t like the fact that the game was played in a confrontational format. Maybe the girls liked this cooperative type of game more and the boys maybe liked the confrontation type of game more. So I think my mother my sister would probably like it.
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Game of the Week Reflection: Pandemic
Since we are still around COVID-19, Pandemic is a fitting game to play for week two. Board games are pretty simple. You have cards, a board, of course, and other tokens and items the developers pack into the box. Pandemic is no different however, there’s some spice and uniqueness to it. I personally don’t play a lot of board games which is kind of why I decided to take part in this class; try something new and maybe find something new that I enjoy doing. After playing Pandemic, already in the second week of class, I feel confident that board games are my new specialty.
The hardest part about this game was the cooperative part. Many games are like this, board or not. Working with other people in conjunction with the board itself playing against you is a feat within itself. You and the other players are trying to agree on moves, strategize research station placements, and trying not to let an inanimate object win over you. Your team members aren’t thinking the same way you do and you aren’t thinking the same way they are. This is what makes the game entertaining, not the fancy artistry or the unique pieces, at least to me. What makes it interesting is the cooperative nature which is the core gameplay. This makes leadership a struggle because no one can get off the dance floor and look from above to really see the big picture. There are too many moving parts and a lot of agreement and disagreement that comes from the hardcore players.
I really enjoyed this game even though there were some rough patches. I enjoy games where I need to think strategically and I love them even more if I’m immersed in them, granted if I’m playing them solo. I didn’t like how our team’s minds were clashing together making decisions and moves more difficult to come to an agreement to. Maybe this was from other members of my team knowing what to expect cause they’d played it before or maybe it was because it was the rest of our first times. Overall, the game session went well and I would definitely play this one again with family but not friends, I feel that would get even worse.
Pandemic: A Class Reflection
In class today, we had the choice to play Pandemic or Forbidden Island. I have played Pandemic before and am the cousin to Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert. When I arrived, the Pandemic was the game that stood out to me. This is a cooperative game where the team wins together or loses together. Key word: together. At the end of the class, we discussed different areas of leadership like seeing the bigger picture, leading by example, initiating conflict, thinking of all the possible outcomes, encouraging the team, sharing a common goal, and more.
These leadership concepts were very important to the game as they all contribute to how a group, organization, or team functions, hopefully in an effective way. When I play with my family I feel like I have a completely different function on the team than when I played in class. Because of this, I considered how my own experience and leadership impacted the game. I tried to lead by example but I also provided input which hopefully did not seem like I was too controlling. I probably could have improved in encouraging the team as we went but I do think they all did a good job contributing to our efforts.
We were able to play through the game twice and start the third game of Pandemic as well. I had a good feeling about the last game because we were all more comfortable and confident with the game. I felt like this led to more contribution and shared leadership overall. We also all had a better understanding of the process. Unfortunately, we lost the first two games. We lost when we ran out of black disease cubes during the first game. During the second game, we lost when we were no longer able to draw playing cards. This helped us learn the game as well as each other personalities and styles when it came to the cooperative format.
I disliked being the most comfortable with the game to start because I felt like I was overbearing at times, but this can also be helpful for others when they are just learning for the first time (I have been in that situation before). I did like how our teamwork improved every game we played. I also think we each paid attention to ways we could improve our gaming strategy as a whole.
I felt like this connected to the ideas we discussed in the class of how an organization may have either an executive team or a leadership team. The way this difference was described from our instructor’s perspective was intriguing to me. I felt as though our first round was built with more of an executive team or top individuals who took on the most work or ran things with more control. However, I feel like we transitioned to a leadership team as we all got more confident and were able to bounce ideas off of each other.
I like cooperative leadership teams better. In teams with executive boards, a small group of people controlling everything and seemingly doing the most, I either feel like I am not contributing enough or that I am overpowering the opinions of others in the group. By our third game, we had figured out how our personalities worked together to improve our success in the board game Pandemic.