Collective Effervescence And Shared Events

In 1912, sociologist Émile Durkheim came up with the theory of "Collective Effervescence." He theorized that experiencing emotionally charged events together creates social unity. Collective effervescence requires both shared attention and mutual awareness. This means people need to know that others are paying attention to and experiencing the same thing they are.

One advantage of tabletop games is how they create social connectedness through a shared activity. Shared events build togetherness by spotlighting the game rather than a player. However, some approaches are stronger than others. For an event to be unifying, everyone must feel they are experiencing the same thing.

In Moon Colony Bloodbath, there is a deck of event cards containing both good and bad events. While players may benefit or suffer to different degrees based on their tableau, events are either good for everyone or bad for everyone. A killer robot comes up, and everyone groans, or everyone cheers when the group draws a Work card. Even though they are opponents, I have heard players say they are, in some sense, "all in this together."

By contrast, roll-and-move games frequently have dice rolls that affect everyone differently. The meaning of a roll depends heavily on your personal board state. This means that although everyone technically reacts to the same event, it doesn't feel like they are sharing an experience. Another problem is the abstraction; dice usually have no thematic significance. A killer robot is much easier to visualize.

Event cards in Spirit Island are more contextual than in Moon Colony Bloodbath. An effect that is beneficial on one player's board might be crippling on another's. This creates a weaker sense of unity, even though Spirit Island is a fully cooperative game. The most togetherness comes from events that affect everyone similarly, especially when they ask for a choice. Active participation makes it obvious that you are sharing an experience with others.

Active cooperation works well in a fully cooperative game, but it feels a bit more awkward in a competitive one. In Catan: Cities and Knights, barbarians periodically raze the island. You can work together to defeat them, but the player who contributes the most to defense receives unique rewards. This often spotlights one player rather than the group as a whole. Other players may even avoid participating at all if it is obvious that the leader has it handled.

To summarize, the key ingredients to shared events that promote collective effervescence are:

1. Events should be either good or bad, and it should be obvious which is the case
2. Events should be thematically concrete
3. Events should involve everyone in some way