We have entered a Renaissance for Co-operative Board Games!

In the last decade, Co-operative board games have really taken off and become very popular!  There used to be just a few co-op games in my collection: Arkham Horror,  Pandemic, or Shadows Over Camelot. And my friends and I played them all the time. We’d lament “Don’t you wish there were more Co-operative games?”.

And now there are. There are a LOT.

The purpose of this blog “Co-Operative Gestalt” (or “Co-Op Gestalt” for short) is to explore the co-operative board game universe. We’ll talk history, mechanics, design, new games, old games, new kickstarters, and anything related to co-operative games in general.

Why am I starting this blog? If, as I stated in my intro, we are in a Renaissance of co-operative board games, why do we need a place to talk about them? Honestly, I am surprised how little I find about co-operative games when I Google “co-operative board games”! I find a few great videos (from the Dice Tower and a few others), a bunch of dated top 10 lists, and a few links here and there. But that’s it!.

What I DO NOT see when I Google “co-operative board games”:

1. What are the newest, coolest, hottest co-op games?
2. What co-op games are currently on Kickstarter?
3. How do I design a co-operative board game?
4. What are some interesting “new” co-operative mechanics?
5. What are some older co-op games that I may have missed?
6. What do people think of co-op game X?

In general, this is my space to talk about one of my favorite subjects: co-operative board games. And I will try to hit all of the topics above.  (And Yes, co-op games are far and away my favorite type of board or card games. For a while, I would buy ANY game that purported to be a co-operative game. And some were great, and … some weren’t.  It actually got too be too expensive to do that! Maybe you were like me and just wanted a place to read about some current co-operative games!)

My plan is to write every so often and talk about co-op games.

What do I mean by Co-Operative Board Games?

This is one of the nicer entries I’ve seen on classifications of all “co-op” type games.
https://blog.wethemeeple.co/2015/11/18/your-guide-to-the-best-cooperative-board-games/

Basically, as they discuss there are 4 different types of co-op type games:

• All vs. The Game
• All vs. One
• All vs. The Traitor
• Teams

When I say “co-operative board games”, unless otherwise stated, I am referrring to to “All vs. The Game” type of board game (also known as “fully co-operative games”). This seems
to be common parlance, as you will hear people talk about games like Traitor Mechanic: The Traitor Mechanic or Battlestar Galactica as Traitor games rather than co-op games.
So, welcome to “The Co-operative Gestalt”! Why do we call it that? Watch this space!