COOPERATIVE STRATEGY GAMES 1.9, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2

 

 

A collaborative experiential leadership learning opportunity with game industry experts,3D Designers, entrepreneurs, game researchers, and business executives. 

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Cooperative Strategy Games 1.9, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 required students to develop original cooperative leadership strategy games in which the whole team playing the game “wins” or the whole team playing the game “loses”.

 

They do not compete against another team; rather, cooperative strategy is about understanding how effective leadership teams are interdependent in which each member of the team controls a resource (knowledge, skill) that others need for the team strategic objective to succeed.

Examples of Students' Cooperative Strategy Games 2.1 & 2.2

 

 

 

Students Discover Power in their Voices via Leadership Game Design

Students learn about leadership skills in the MNGT 391 – Managing and Team Building and then they have to use those skills in their own team to develop an original game that is “playable”.

• Game Storyline: Business and/or societal challenge team must solve​

• Player Roles with "Superpowers": Game designers create player characters who each control unique valuable tangible and intangible resources (e.g., “superpowers”) that other player characters do not have; thus, they must use these powers effectively to be successful.

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What Game Designers Created

Students develop original games (with all the necessary game pieces/elements), play the game, videotape themselves playing the game, and develop an instructional guide to play the game.

• The instructional guide requires them to apply all they have learned about braining modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) and brain dominance (concrete sequential, concrete random, abstract random, and abstract sequential). 

• The Facilitation Guide is a “Train the HR” trainer in how to then “debrief” the game by helping employees to understand what leadership skills they have learned/used and how it applies to the competitive industry environment and company in which they are working. 

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Inspiration for Cooperative Leadership Strategy Games  

​With the rise of Gen Y and Gen Z, some companies with whom I had been talking pre pandemic were asking me about ideas to motivate/engage this generational make-up in their workforce, which led me to researching gamification as leadership training method. To teach team leadership, I used “cooperative strategy games” ---the entire team either wins or loses by achieving the objective or not. Then I help students “de-brief” the game experiences to become self-aware of the leadership skills they learned and applied (team roles, creative problem-solving, meetings/influence/negotiation/persuasion, performance evaluation, power, resources, conflict, etc.). 

 

For Spring 2022, about 60 students became leadership game designers: 

• Bankrupt by The Bandits Game Designers – Amel, Jessica, Orhan, Christopher, Jeffrey, Abass

• Plain Sight by Alliance Game Designers – Ryan C., Jasmine, Dylan, Marvin, Andrew

• Krakatoa by Josh, Devin, Brady, Arvin, Matt, and John

• Escape Andromeda by Diamond Development Game Designers – Ryan B., Michael, Tom, Jackson, Alex, and Shane

• Breakout by The Aces Game Designers – Samantha, Bennett, Ryan, Amaiya, Tyler, and Paris

• Museum Heist by Game Designers: Graceann, Maureen, Emily, David, and Harrison

• Escape Death Row by MASJAR Game Designers: Ayden, Michael, Jordyn, Ashley, Richard, Stephen

• Tiger Trouble by Game Designers: Jason B., Sarah Blanton, Kathleen, Mackenzie, and Geylani

• Prison Escape: The Team Escape by Precision-Based Game Designers Megan, Kayla, Matthew, Andrew, and Conner

• Mission Impossible by Game Designers – Abigail, Allison, Alex, Austin and Justice

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Experts in Gaming Industry & Research as Collaborating Partners

Gaming leadership experts share their expertise in class about how cooperative strategy games are developed, characteristics of high-quality games, what is happening in the Gaming Industry, and leadership strategies students can use to develop their cooperative strategy player team characters, actions, and superpowers.

 

These strategies are all built on the leadership concepts/ chapters we are now working on  negotiation, decision-making, creative-problem solving, and project management. Mr. Ryan Bruns and Dr. Gabrielle Swab meet with the students’ multiple times during the semester to teach them about how cooperative strategy games are developed, what companies are looking for, and how entrepreneurs take their games to market.  Their expertise includes:

• Mr. Ryan Bruns, Gaming Industry Executive

  • Executive Leadership Experience: MayDay Games as President for seven years and Queen games as Chief Operating Officer and head of North America sales. He is currently working as an account manager for Off Duty Ninja, a Marketing firm for the board game industry while developing games for his new company - Jalapina Games.

  • Education: Computer Science, Utah State University.

  • Began his career as a land surveyor for a civil engineering firm for sixteen years while board gaming as a hobby. However, gaming turned into an entrepreneurial endeavor when he started an online store, Boardgameuy.com

• Dr. Gabby Swab, PhD, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship & Management

  • Expert in the interplay of competition and cooperation in new venture teams. She frequently conducts her entrepreneurship research in the tabletop game industry, where she founded and manages The Board Game Fempire, a resource for academics and gamers to connect and share knowledge​

• And more expert introductions coming soon...​

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Cooperative Strategy Games Highlights:

• Article in CBE Business Dialogue (Spring 2020) about the project during the pandemic: “Innovative Gamification Project Teaches Team Leadership”:https://wp.towson.edu/businessdialog/2020/05/20/innovative-gamification-project-teaches-team-leadership/

• Over 200 students have developed 36 original cooperative strategy games (26 of which were developed in completely remote online synchronous learning environments that they were not originally planned for

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