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This talk will present the results of a study run by Drs. Heidenreich and Joy in Spring of 2026 on the impact of familiarity with one's fellow players on group performance in cooperative board games.

In 2025 Drs. Heidenreich and Joy did a study on whether mathematically analyzing a cooperative board game (Pandemic) made the players better at it. A flaw in the design of the study suggested a topic for a follow-up study: what's the impact on success of playing a cooperative board game when you play with the same people vs. playing with new people? We think people are more successful with familiar teammates, but how big is the impact? This talk will explain how we ran the study and what our results were, connecting it with our previous results on the benefits of players performing mathematical analysis. The study will be part of a class on The Math of Games run by Dr. Heidenreich.

• Event Type TRD - Trade Day Events
• Game System —
• Rules Edition —
• Day Wednesday
• Start Time 1:00 PM
• End Time 2:00 PM
• Duration 1 hours
• Location JW
• Room 107.0
• Table —
• Age Required Teen (13+)
• Experience Required None (You've never played before - rules will be taught)
• Min Players 1
• Max Players 60
• Cost Free
• Tickets Available 60
• GM / Organizer Jacob Heidenreich, Aaron Joy
• Group Loras College
• Tournament No
• Round 1 of 1
• Materials Required No
• Materials Details —
• Website jacobheidenreich.wixsite.com/mysite
• Email jacob.heidenreich@loras.edu
• Special Category none
• Last Modified —