The Novelty of Collaboration: High School Students Learning and Enjoyment Perceptions When Playing Cooperative Modern Board Games

Modern board games are changing the way people play analogue face-to-face multiplayer games. One of the novelties of this trend is the growing prevalence of games that offer collaborative gameplay. These cooperative games have been instrumental in shifting the demographic of players, attracting individuals who prefer engaging in constructive interactions rather than destructive confrontations. Likewise, playing cooperative games demand specific players' skills which can be associated with the concept of soft skills. Training these skills through modern cooperative board games, whether by modifying existing games or developing new ones as serious games or using gamification approaches, holds promising potential. To test the perception of students playing cooperative modern board games for the first time, we organized a one-day play session in a school environment, specifically in a classroom with the support of the students' teachers. Over a period of six hours (three in the morning and three in the afternoon), a total of 25 high school students from the vocational multimedia area, comprising students of all genders, participated in the session. The students engaged in gameplay with a curated selection of four cooperative modern board games. The results indicate that the students enjoyed the game sessions and recognized the significance of collaboration, as well as the associated skills including communication, empathy, organization, focus, and complementary interactions. The experiment reinforces the suggestion that the used modern board games could be introduced during classes as engaging activities fit for learning and training.