Camelot saved for the third time...

Last night I had the chance to play Shadows for the third time. This time for a second there, I actually felt some pressure from the "invisible enemy" that we are all fighting together. But the moment quickly passed and those feelings were replaced by the boredom that comes from playing a semi-scripted game for the third time.

Excitement was replaced by arguments over what the next step should be. Eventually all was quiet while we tried to end it. Instead of staring at the board, I was staring more at my watch. The game kept draggin on and on... only to end by winning once again fighting an imaginary enemy... weepie, woohoo.

This left me wondering whether coop games can be as good as regular "confrontational" games. Personally, I like to stare at my opponent in the eye while I play my next killer move. I enjoy being surprised by an unexpected move by my opponent as well. To be fair, I won't generalize and say "all coop games are bad". I'll try to play others like Arkham Horror before I make that kind of a statement.

I just feel like the randomness and the element of surprise you get when playing with a real opponent, can't be emulated well with a scripted game. The card system tries, but I think it fails.

The reason why I love T+E so much is the same reason why I'm not enjoying coop games. T+E is like chess where you learn a few basic rules, but the possibilities are practically limitless. T+E, like chess, is a tabula rasa where all players are free to create whatever they want.