History of Fun: Cooperative Board Games

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  • Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024

Комментарии • 95

  • @Chris.Cook.
    @Chris.Cook. Год назад +12

    I've been excited for this coming for ages! Ever since I commented on Justin's game shelf some time ago, and he replied that they may do a video on board gaming in the future. Hooray!

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад +2

      Ha, thanks. And fwiw, your comment definitely did help inspire this series, so thanks for watching and commenting!

  • @WillieArenasRojas
    @WillieArenasRojas Год назад +46

    That felt closer and way more personal than other Mental Floss episodes. It was nice to feel Justin's investment and sincerity all throughout. I was not expecting that. Fabulous job!

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад +7

      Thank you! It was definitely a labor of love, so happy to see people digging it. More to come soon(ish)!

  • @Parakitor
    @Parakitor Год назад

    I LOVE King of Tokyo. What's interesting is that the most memorable moments are when one person is in the lead, and the remaining players team up to try to take them down. Whether they succeed or not, it's exciting and results in lots of shouting, jumping up and down, and laughter. Even in a competitive game with a single winner, the cooperative aspect ranks very high in providing "fun."

  • @markaceramos4498
    @markaceramos4498 Год назад

    Subscribed! This is such a good thing to watch! I do love playing co-op games specially the new games such as X-MEN united. And often times, I lean on "losing" in our game sessions specially if I'm the one who taught the game. Sort of giving them the satisfaction of winning.

  • @withintheshyness
    @withintheshyness Год назад

    During the pandemic my friends and I had to find creative ways to do board games virtually. We started playing over board game arena

  • @gwenstacyspidercat4294
    @gwenstacyspidercat4294 Год назад

    More History of Fun episodes, please!!

  • @darthcloudycoo
    @darthcloudycoo Год назад

    Betrayal at House on the Hill is one of my favorite games to lose at. It is so much fun and I immediately always want to play again.

  • @skytoearth7724
    @skytoearth7724 Год назад

    I would like to hear the history of dolls, and some doll history from several different cultures. Thanks!

  • @danielraiber3639
    @danielraiber3639 Год назад

    "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" is because when people go to puy a horse, the first place they look in at the horses teeth to judge it's health. The phrase saying to not look inside the mouth of a horse gifted to you is saying that when sameone gives you something, do not examine it for defaults. Just be greatful for the gift.

  • @ericreativecuts
    @ericreativecuts Год назад

    Please do an episode on the history of satire from ancient Greece to now! Who doesn't love a bunch of sarcastic horse dudes

  • @frederickleo2386
    @frederickleo2386 Год назад

    Love Justin Dodd

  • @nariu7times328
    @nariu7times328 Год назад +15

    Such a great idea for a series! I look forward to more. I would like to see one about why people enjoy any type of "going very fast" - racing, roller coasters, white water rapids, even skiing. Thanks!

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад

      Thank you, and stay tuned for episode two! 🎢

    • @cynicalrabbit915
      @cynicalrabbit915 Год назад

      Going fast is part of being an adrenaline junky. Look at motorsports, the teams may work for a company but when the driver gets up to receive a trophy it's because each member of the team did what they were supposed to. During a race the entire team experiences an adrenaline high. Adrenaline can improve a team member's performance but can also cause a new team member to mess up. It's the responsibility of each member to insure they work with a new member to help them get past mistakes and not heap them with negative comments and the like.

  • @ClimateTown
    @ClimateTown Год назад +4

    1000 more years of Justin describing board games, please!

  • @y_fam_goeglyd
    @y_fam_goeglyd Год назад +7

    Playing games together has a few big things going for it, especially if we're living with depression (Justin, big hug for you for being a strong role model for people who have it. I had it but mercifully recovered after moving to the countryside). Being surrounded by people you love and who love you can take you out of yourself for a while.
    Secondly, though concentrating on the game and having a laugh with your company won't make it go away, it can definitely shelve your depression for a while. We're all different but it worked for me. Though for me it was watching motorsports on tv with my kids who were young at the time. We'd make the brrm noises, screech as they went round corners and move as if we were in the car or on the bike. It was silly, but it's something my grandchildren love to do with me too!
    It actually makes me feel useful because I'm disabled and can't _do_ things with them (which does bring the depression back for a while, but fortunately it's not permanent), but for a while I can entertain them and I'm surrounded by the love of those whom I love more than words can say. With the right people, a board game night can do much the same, if only for the time it lasts and a bit of an "afterglow".
    I invented a word game but found the idea of creating the cards which the round would start with was too much effort, and arthritis puts paid to any legibility! So I dragged up some JavaScript coding from a random generator I'd made and put the starting word for each round in that. You just press the button and it randomly chooses what you're going to start with. Maybe one day I'll create an app or a board game out of it!

  • @toastheaven
    @toastheaven Год назад +7

    Betrayal at House on the Hill is probably my absolute favourite game. It dances between being collaborative and competitive in a really satisfying way, and win or lose the game is always exciting.

  • @nathanmatthews4116
    @nathanmatthews4116 Год назад +4

    Thanks Justin for sharing with us your passion of board games!
    I do still enjoy losing a game of Spirit Island with friends. There is great collaboration and a feeling that we did our best, dispite the circumstances. Losing encourages great further discussions about strategy and cooperation that leads to and benefits future games.
    The History of Fun ideas:
    -I'm curious about Trivia Games. They change their content with the times, yet their function and prevalence remains. I'm curious to know their history.
    -Another is sharing drinks with someone/friends. Alcohol obviously has significance, but for myself, artisan tea is something that I treasure sharing with others.

  • @aKiBlu
    @aKiBlu Год назад +5

    Great humor and editing - really enjoyed the rapid fire game outlines!

  • @angrynoodletwentyfive6463
    @angrynoodletwentyfive6463 Год назад +3

    In Dnd in particular the game where everyone has the most fun isn't the one where everything goes exactly as planned it is the one where the wizard doesn't fully read what their spell actually does and casts it at a really stupid time causing the party to fail the main encounter Epicly

    • @eritain
      @eritain Год назад

      Leerooooyyyyyyyyyy ... NJennnnkinnnnnnnnns!

  • @angtrotti5851
    @angtrotti5851 Год назад +4

    This is awesome to me, excited for this series

  • @LeadTrumpet1
    @LeadTrumpet1 Год назад +2

    There was a logical justification behind “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”.
    See you can roughly determine a horse’s age by how their teeth look. Horse incisors are straight up and down when they are young but start to angle forward as they age. So if someone told you the horse is 6 years old but the front incisors were angled forward, you’d know they were lying.
    So the idea behind “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” back when horses ran transportation is you should be grateful that someone is giving you a horse in the first place and an older horse that still moves is better than no horse at all. It’s like cars today.

  • @micheledebczak9470
    @micheledebczak9470 Год назад +3

    Yesss this new series looks great!!

  • @SievertSchreiber
    @SievertSchreiber Год назад +1

    For me Betrayal is the best co-op game. It can be replayed over and over. Even if u end up playing the same scenario, each time is different because the map/playground is not the same.

  • @Velata
    @Velata Год назад +4

    Thanks for an interesting episode! It's fascinating for many reasons (I love a good D&D session!) and it's made me think.
    The elements that makes cooperative games so engaging and so engrossing is that drive to work together with people to solve a problem, come up with novels ways to experiment and making connections where previously none exist. It's basically all the same reasons why ARGs, online sleuths and conspiracy groups are so captivating and dangerous at the same time. When people no longer think they are playing a cooperative game and believe what they see is reality, the dopamine and oxytocin hits will keep them trapped in an alternative reality.

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад

      Ha, that's a fascinating perspective I didn't consider. I wonder if we could dive into the "fun" of conspiracy theories (which are relatively pleasant when parsing a Taylor Swift music video, and less so when they involve mobs making death threats), or even "the dark side of fun." I think there definitely is a game-like aspect to some of these conspiracies, where the community and the creativity of "unlocking the secrets" almost supersedes the actual content they're supposedly investigating...

    • @Velata
      @Velata Год назад

      @@MentalFloss I am a huge fan of Silent Hill, and one of the teasers released was called "Townfall". The developers actually encouraged people to dig through the teaser for more info and the gaming nerds went for it. They found a few hidden messages with Morse Code and spectrograms. I wasn't able to participate but it's fascinating nonetheless. The interactive part of gaming is something developers have been courting more and more, probably exactly because that's how to keep engagement and beat out the competition. But I have no idea where the line in the sand is drawn to keep the fun on one side and the harmful effects on the other. The folks who hunted Luka Magnotta on line had the same sentiment in the documentary, too. It's a part of our collective psyche that is still mostly mysterious despite 7 decades of social psychology studies.
      (Sorry for the rambling, I didn't expect you guys would write back! You made my day!! Thank you so much!)

  • @amandashields5321
    @amandashields5321 Год назад +1

    Flux is my favorite game to lose!
    Dancing probably has a fascinating history

  • @kmart1396
    @kmart1396 Год назад +1

    I don't think you can consider it losing! If the point of the game becomes the story you're making over the tasks at hand then even if you fail at the task you have not lost the game, y'feel?

  • @2yugen2
    @2yugen2 Год назад +1

    Cards Against Humanity is a game for people who aren't funny to feel like they are.

  • @acousticambush9421
    @acousticambush9421 Год назад +1

    I thought that I was a Jenga master .... Turns out I was a Jenga disaster !

  • @kenster8270
    @kenster8270 Год назад +2

    Wow, this was a surprisingly pleasant and educational and even philosophical insight into board gaming. As a European, growing up me and brother would spend the colder months playing all the classic board games, and we even created ones ourselves. I always loved maps, so I would make huge RISK-style games by meticulously tracing coastlines and borders on semitransparent paper from atlases onto large pieces of white cardboard and then inventing the game's overall theme and goal along with intricate rules and exceptions to those rules. And yes, we did learn a LOT from that. Nowadays, I'm a pub quiz afficionado excelling in: geography! :)

  • @Zeldaschampion
    @Zeldaschampion Год назад +1

    They blew the budget on this episode and bought a giant flip notepad.

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад +1

      Granted, it required us to forego medical insurance this year, but just look at that pad flip.

  • @villiansedit
    @villiansedit Год назад

    Losing is not fun at all.. if I lose, it’s on you and I’m not responsible for my further actions

  • @yoverale
    @yoverale Год назад +1

    Incredible quality content 🎉

  • @curiousfirely
    @curiousfirely Год назад +1

    I have been eagerly watching the 'Daybreak' kickstarter (and of course already backed the project). Before this, I was worried we wouldn't make the last stretch goal. With this promo, we will make it there!

  • @Adaginy
    @Adaginy Год назад

    Ahhhh now I'll have to look for landlord's game prosperity rules (unless you found them in your research and can share?). I've wondered before if a co-op version of Monopoly would be fun, and if anyone had houseruled it, but "house rules co-op monopoly" just gets you senate proceedings.
    And hey, Justin's Mom, I know someone else who teaches board games professionally -- has his own business of bars paying him to bring his massive stack of board games, which he then helps people pick out and play.

  • @chloeislame
    @chloeislame Год назад

    My favorite game to win AND lose is "What card does Justin have?" This turned out amazing, dude. Congrats!!

  • @ghost_curse
    @ghost_curse Год назад +1

    At some point during the pandemic, my friends and I found an online version of Hanabi. It was almost more fun when we failed because of everyone's reactions

  • @therexbellator
    @therexbellator Год назад

    Great video but I take issue with Justin's take on "losing is fun" -which is not to say it's wrong- but difficulty and defeat need to be *earned* and players need to feel like their loss was balanced against their actions. I may not be a boardgame expert but I've played a handful of cooperative games that have very arbitrary or unfair or poorly designed game mechanics that will cause you to outright lose or enter an unrecoverable fail state.
    One game that comes to mind is "Space Food Truck" which is a deck-building game on Steam. You can play it solo or cooperatively with other players taking on the roles of the ship crew. The game has so much potential but unfortunately it draws from a very limited pool of events most of which are bad, either causing damage to your ship/shields, and there just aren't sufficient options for the player (or players) to recover from those events. Often you'll get thrown an event, like an invading fleet, that will literally do one point of damage per turn and only the ship's captain can get you out of there; if that event happens after their turn that means you need to wait 4 turns before its the captain's turn again.
    Difficulty and defeat shouldn't be based on RNG; it should be a combination of steadily increasing challenges and giving players sufficient agency to address them.

  • @feldar
    @feldar Год назад

    Galaxy Trucker is an amazing game to lose. It's not cooperative, but it's not really that competitive either. Everyone tries to build a ship from a common pool of parts, and then watches as bits get blown off and the deck and dice proceed to screw everyone to varying degrees. And if anyone in your group has gotten good enough that their ships tend to get through unscratched, there are multiple ways to handicap them built into the rules.

  • @derheadbanger9039
    @derheadbanger9039 Год назад

    I'm not a fan of coop bard games. Gloomhaven on PC is great however - even in multiplayer (but it takes about 3 times as long this way!)

  • @helxis
    @helxis Год назад

    I am an avid board gamer but I have general disdain for most cooperative games. Competing against people in a game will always be more fun than people competing against the game itself. Cooperative games also provide for very unique "bad feels" in the form of the pressure that individual players feel when faced with being solely responsible for the entire group losing. It's hard to write it off as "losing together is fun" when the loss is clearly the result of a single person's actions.

  • @stecky87
    @stecky87 Год назад

    A friend & I will play this cooperative Doctor Who game sometimes. We loose half the time (literally), but it feels like the game was designed for you to lose . . . which takes some of the fun out of it

  • @miss1of2
    @miss1of2 Год назад

    I legit understood his introduction as "I'm just a dud"... And I thought he was being harsh on himself...

  • @laartwork
    @laartwork 20 дней назад

    I now really avoid cooperative games. I might as well play solo.

  • @mindlesstraveler8073
    @mindlesstraveler8073 Год назад

    One game that I loved when I was a kid in high school was called stop thief and it's a cooperative game where you try to catch a jewel or bank robber.

  • @erikallen863
    @erikallen863 Год назад

    I took the regionals trophy in Candy Land, but there was a cheating scandal in nationals, and we couldn't finish the tournament.

  • @jamesslick4790
    @jamesslick4790 Год назад

    The possibility of losing is the point of any game. Playing a game I know I'm gonna win every time is no fun at all. This is why I hate cheating. Cheating defeats the point of the game.

  • @nmgg6928
    @nmgg6928 Год назад

    Having missed this episode and watched the roller coasters one first thinking it was first in the series and then being directed back here (thanks mental floss team) not only do I still look forward to more in the series I think between the 2 while both great this episode was a bit above the second. Either way tho both great love it can't wait for more!

  • @jliller
    @jliller Год назад

    Does the board game Pandemic have a COVID-19 expansion yet?

  • @Obstreperous_Octopus
    @Obstreperous_Octopus Год назад

    "Why is losing fun?"
    Ask any Dwarf Fortress player.

  • @nuroy7100
    @nuroy7100 Год назад

    Was this meant to be titled "History of Cooperative Board Games"?

  • @woofwoofaskapup
    @woofwoofaskapup Год назад

    I love Pupularity even losing building my pup persona is always fun

  • @pikkdogs
    @pikkdogs Год назад

    I like this video, and then the presenter mispronounced Reiner Knizia and then I lost interest.

  • @pedrocariboni
    @pedrocariboni Год назад

    Close to heart, should have commented on Frosthaven as a successfull KS.

  • @andyshorrock6230
    @andyshorrock6230 Год назад

    Chartbuster was a favourite game of my childhood.

  • @zwara81
    @zwara81 Год назад

    LOOP ! great co-op game- beautiful artwork

  • @aimeepotts2137
    @aimeepotts2137 Год назад

    I love to play games, but I can't get any of my people to play with me.

  • @Ohaefi
    @Ohaefi Год назад

    Surprised you didn't mention Talisman. O.o

  • @CG_Hali
    @CG_Hali Год назад

    Cool video! I've been a board gamer since June 2021. I'm homebound and it saves my sanity :D I mostly play solo but even then, modern board games have great solo mode that don't make you feel 'alone'. You feel like the automa/AI opponent is really there, like having the designer right there playing against you. I love when hubby says he'll play with me though! Nothing beats that and we do enjoy coop, too.

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад

      Oo, very interesting perspective in terms of playing solo but not feeling solo. Reminds me of reading-a solo activity that is, in so many ways, about connection.

  • @aajjeee
    @aajjeee Год назад

    lmao they stopped the gloomhaven manual halfway through too

  • @Jamessmith-xk3fh
    @Jamessmith-xk3fh Год назад

    Is the game Sheldon plays on TBBT when Bernadette is waiting to go into labor real because I don't really like board games that take for ever to play and has a book of rules and ways to play lol

  • @bibleboardgames
    @bibleboardgames 4 месяца назад

    Very interesting, thank you!

  • @shirasky3049
    @shirasky3049 Год назад

    Can you please do one about the ouji board?

  • @rgbii2
    @rgbii2 Год назад

    at 16:27 is the E=MF^2 a mistake or just something I'm not getting? Maybe Entertainment = MVP * Fun ^ 2 ?

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад

      I think we were going for "Mental Floss" but I like your explanation better.

  • @Apophis324
    @Apophis324 Год назад

    Mansions of Madness is definitely one of my more favourite Board Games to play, as it is fully cooperative (until someone loses their mind that is). My friends and I are currently working through Betrayal Legacy, which is a lot of fun on its own, but still often has at least one losing player (not counting the ones that are dead), if there is a traitor that wins or loses. A tight victory in those cases is still fun for the winners though ^^

  • @Auchlander
    @Auchlander Год назад

    Losing is never fun

  • @davidelliott3930
    @davidelliott3930 Год назад

    Barbarian Prince is one of my favorite games ever. It is a solo game but, if done right, can be a group event. Wonderful memories with my uncles back in the day. It came out in the 80's in a small box with lookup tables and dice. I think the story of the game is so appealing but also it is a very hard game to win. An amazing Dr Who adventure game was built on the original game rules expanded. Check them out - both available for free online.

  • @bri4940
    @bri4940 Год назад

    Have you tried the collaborative card game called "The Mind? It's soo easy to learn and a toooonne of fun!!! My favourite 2 qualities!

  • @TheFinktron
    @TheFinktron Год назад

    I used to be a dungeon master playing with a group of medical students, letting them relax for awhile on Friday night. Instead of just making hack and slash dungeons, I created ones with elaborate puzzles that had to be figured out. My adventures lead to a lot more cooperative work among the players, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot more.

  • @TheFinktron
    @TheFinktron Год назад

    Dungeons and Dragons is a cooperative game. Discuss.

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад +2

      Oh, absolutely. The only reason we didn't dig into it more is because it might require its own episode in the future.

  • @teefa85
    @teefa85 Год назад

    My friends and I still haven't been able to do in person meetups since the place we used to go to still hasn't been able to accommodate us even after over two years. So we've been having monthly Jackbox parties to enjoy board games and board game-like games. Seeing as we used to have holiday game nights a few times a year and always enjoyed that.

  • @bri4940
    @bri4940 Год назад

    I love this episode. I too also looove boardgames. I love finding new fun games to play and try while out camping or with friends. I recently held a murder mystery game night where everyone played a character and it was sooo much fun!

  • @Obstreperous_Octopus
    @Obstreperous_Octopus Год назад

    2:26 I *DEMAND* an explanation!

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад

      Sure, happy to clarify: It pops up.

  • @petersetlak
    @petersetlak Год назад

    Thank you for this :)

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад

      Oo I'd love to do this. Have you seen the gravestone of the guy who invented the ouija board?

  • @traceyshenanigans
    @traceyshenanigans Год назад

    I love the concept for this series and this episode was great. I love board games and my favorite is, by far, Pandemic. I would love to see this series tackle playing cards, jigsaw puzzles, and role playing games. Also, I think looking into the origins of different sports could be really fun as well.

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  Год назад

      Thank you! Sports (of some kind) are definitely on the list, as is something around jigsaw puzzles/puzzles in general.

  • @EugeneGM1
    @EugeneGM1 Год назад +1

    Collaboration game = One person plays, everyone else just does what they're told

  • @jackpfefferkorn3734
    @jackpfefferkorn3734 Год назад +2

    First

  • @joelb8653
    @joelb8653 Год назад

    You're too young to appreciate a time when board games and cards were the only game in town. My favorite in college (early '70s) my favorite was Risk. The exact opposite of cooperative.

  • @bonemarrow286
    @bonemarrow286 Год назад +1

    You lost the game