Week 2 : The Negotiations Begin 

Today was the first day that we, as a cohesive group, tried to hammer out the foundation of our board game. The first decision, the naming, was the easiest. We (Angela, Alex, Joe, and Uroosa) dubbed the game "Circle of Friends". We all unanimously agreed on the goal of the game: players must make various decisions (comparing the risky choice to the safe alternative) to gain  certain amount of "friends". The person with the most "friends" win. We whizzed through the small decisions. We all even agreed on having little real people to represent friends for the aesthetic nature of the game. It seemed it would be smoothing sailing from then on, where we could all just agree on a topic and move on.

            That was not the case. We found that the rest of the decisions were not so easy. For instance, Joe felt very passionate about his game mechanics (of utilizing corners as starting points,  in a player vs. player game ). However, we had a hard time deciding how to fit it in the game thematically as well as mechanically. Did we want “Circle of Friends” to be a more intense game (which Joe’s mechanic would ultimately allow) or a more easy going game ( that may not allow for as much interaction)? This issue took a good chunk of our time deciding. However, in the end, for the success of the game it was decided that Joe’s mechanic could only play a small role in the game so that“Circle of Friends” could have the light atmosphere that three of the four of us wanted.  Joe was a great sport about the decision and automatically embraced our new common goal; to make “Circle of Friends” a fun game with interaction that would not result in a hostile gaming environment.

We, happily, came to realize after our first meeting that we, as a group (though very invested in this game as well as our grade) are not pushy. No one person speaks more or gets to contribute more, which is a difficult feat when such varied personalities have to work together.  There is this beautiful element of blending of egos that I have never witnessed before. We have no doubt that with  this productive and positive group dynamic we will be able to tackle many a problem so that this game will, one day, be interesting and playable. One day. Until then, we guess we’ll just continue to negotiate.