During the second play session of Zombicide we focused on learning from our feedback from the first session and adjusted our communication strategies for the better. The first play session was slow and awkward because we were still getting to know each other, and we weren’t familiar with the game. During this session we were more comfortable with each other and the game itself. Since we were all at a better level of understanding the games rules and how the turns operate, we were all able to make better suggestions at rule changes and confusing situations instead of simply agreeing with the first suggestion. Also, this time around we all started to build a strategy so that we could complete the mission. The mission was to collect the 4 red x’s and have at least 4 of our five players escape. We accomplished this challenge because of our newfound strategies and communication styles.
I believe that during our game session we were able to maintain the assertive communication style, which is the most effective style. We avoided the aggressive, passive aggressive, and submissive styles well. Everybody listened to each other and offered feedback if it was appropriate to allow us to be more effective in the game. There was a time where I would have been able to escape with one of the red x’s and therefore get us closer to the goal but would have had to sacrifice at least one of the other players. However, after some feedback and strategy communication I decided to instead kill some of the zombies and then escape with my players life later, effectively saving 3 total players.
The other set of communication styles were active, logical, connector, and thinker. Logan and I held down the logical communication style by making recommendations of strategy to complete the mission successfully and to save as many of us as possible. Erika and Amity were able to keep us focused on the goal of finishing the mission by furthering agreement from feedback given by the other players, therefore using the connector style.
With respect to the Fisher’s Model we accomplished Stage 1 by getting to know each other during the first play session and furthering that during the second session. For Stage 2, conflict, we were able to solve these with better results because of the relationships and different communication styles we’ve built and gotten used to. We had a lot more structure during our conversations and decision making, everyone made sure to listen and give feedback when it was time to. At Stage 3, emergence, if an issue arose, we would temporarily stop the game and allow for understanding to be made for everyone. By the end of the game we arrived at Stage 4, reinforcement. For this final stage by the middle of the game we were all able to recognize we were close to completing the mission and all continued our agreements of the game and strategies to effectively beat the game.
