How Some Board Games Tempt People To Alpha Game

Unfortunately, board games can tempt people to alpha game. It’s a part of the hobby. But how do some board games tempt people to alpha game anyway?

Board games tempt people to alpha game by encouraging leadership, debate, discussion, negotiation, decision-making, and helping others. All of these are good things, but some can take them too far, which is when alpha gaming starts to happen.

What Is An Alpha Gamer?

If you’ve read my other articles on alpha gaming, then you already know what’s going to be here and why. However, if you haven’t, just know that I include this section in every alpha gaming article I write because I want to provide a clear definition of alpha gaming for every reader to follow. This puts us all on the same page. However, just know you don’t have to use that definition. You can absolutely use your own if it works better for you.

With that said, here’s my definition of an alpha gamer: a person who tries to dominate a board game experience through a variety of methods, such as telling others what to do or manipulating them in some way.

How Some Board Games Tempt People To Alpha Game

There are plenty of ways board games tempt people to alpha game. I’m only going to cover a few, but please don’t think they’re the only ways for board games to tempt people. Also, please realize that it’s not really the board games themselves that cause alpha gaming issues; it’s the people who alpha game. Ultimately, alpha gaming is a behavior issue that’s driven by a variety of factors, and any alpha gamer can change for the better.

With that in mind, let’s start with cooperative games.

Cooperative Games

These are the type of games everyone thinks of when they think of alpha gamers. That’s because cooperative games are like gasoline to an alpha gamer fire. There are just so many ways they tempt someone to alpha game.

The first way is they naturally lend themselves to someone taking on a leadership role. Now, leadership is far more complicated than one person telling others what to do. In fact, leadership is less about telling others what to do and more about showing them what to do. However, the fact that leadership can lend itself to that kind of debate means it’s easy for an alpha gamer to convince themselves they’re leading when in reality they’re dictating. 

That’s the insidious thing about alpha gaming; it’s easy to think you’re doing the right thing by helping others when in reality you’re hurting them by taking away their agency and making them feel bad about themselves. And since cooperative games are all about cooperating together to achieve a goal, it’s even easier to think you’re doing the right thing because, in part, you have to talk about what you’re doing and why and make suggestions to one another. That’s just part of cooperative games.

To add even more fuel to this fire, cooperative games require a lot of decision-making, sometimes even boiling down to one person making the decision even though everyone has input on that decision. So, that’s another opportunity for someone to think they’re doing right by making their opinion known, but as a result of doing that, they may end up dominating the discussion and, by extension, the decision-making process too. In other words, they become an alpha gamer.

Social Deduction Games

Social deduction games have some level of cooperation in them as there are usually two or more teams in them, so they’ll come along with the same temptations for alpha gaming as cooperative games do.

However, social deduction, like cooperative games, also encourages or even requires a lot of talking. And whenever there’s a lot of talking, there’s a lot of opportunity for someone to dominate that discussion. And whenever there’s an opportunity for someone to dominate, there’s an opportunity for someone to alpha game.

The thing about social deduction games, which you may already know, is that the discussion has to be dominated. It has to be because decisions will eventually be made on who to kill or who to vote out. So, if someone wants those decisions to go in their favor, they have to talk, and they have to dominate. Otherwise, someone else is going to do it for them, and they may not like the decision that person is advocating for. 

Now, this doesn’t have to happen. Everyone can advocate as much as anyone else, some people may prefer to play social deduction games more quietly, and there are advantages to doing that too, but even with different playstyles, it can lead to an imbalance that allows someone to step in and alpha game. 

Open-Ended Games

Open-ended games, such as negotiation or legacy games, which can take multiple routes and even have multiple paths to victory, are ripe for alpha gaming. That’s due to all the decision-making in those games and because the stakes are so high.

One of the great things about legacy games is that the games change with the decisions you make. You may rip up a card, for example, put down some stickers, and more. There’s the tangible feeling of consequence with legacy games, which adds an extra layer of importance to everything you do.

With that importance comes the opportunity for someone to take a legacy game too seriously, leading them to think they have to step in and help others make decisions. And since there are so many impactful decisions to make, they may do this a lot.

Negotiation games, on the other hand, much like social deduction games, require some level of dominating the discussion to occur. In order to succeed at negotiation, someone has to come out at least as well as someone else, if not ahead, which means advocating for what you want. That doesn’t mean you have to go overboard, but it does mean it can happen.

Did You Know?

(Each time you refresh the page you will get a new “Did You Know” fact!)

Did you know there’s a lot that goes into teaching board games? For example, are you familiar with what I call, “little rules?” Even if you are, check out my huge list of strategies to make teaching board games easier here!

Conclusion: How Some Board Games Tempt People To Alpha Game

So, those are the ways some board games tempt people to alpha game. Again, that doesn’t mean the alpha gaming will happen, but it could.

So, what do you think about all of this? Did I miss any ways board games make people alpha game? Let me know in the comments below!

And, as always, keep on gaming, fellow board gamers.