Negotiation

Mechanism · VIII – Cooperation & Agreement immediate · conditional · concealed / asymmetric / dynamic · cooperative / competitive / asymmetric

Negotiation lets actors freely bargain over the terms of an agreement: offer and counter-offer produce a deal or its failure – with the open question of what secures compliance.

Design question – How do actors in your game bargain over deals – and what secures compliance?

Reference example – Catan: “Two brick for one ore?” – trade is free, and so is saying no. Diplomacy: alliances are negotiated, but nothing forces anyone to keep them. Civilization: trade and peace treaties are made with other empires. Chinatown (Free Trading) · Diplomacy (Diplomacy Game) · New York Slice (I Cut You Choose)

Structural pattern

Input -> transformation -> output: differing interests (offer and counter-offer) become an agreement (deal or failure) via free negotiation.

Regulated in permitting mode (what may be traded or promised; in what form agreements are made), constraining mode (time limit; with whom and through which channels one may negotiate) and conditioning mode (whether an agreement binds: enforced by the regulation, only socially or not at all).

Design parameters

• Commitment – binding through the corpus ↔ freely breakable
• Secrecy – public ↔ fully secret
• Objects – resources ↔ promises/information
• Structure – free ↔ formalized
• Asymmetry – symmetric ↔ asymmetric bargaining power
• Breach consequence – none ↔ penalty by Ludic Regulation

Related Mechanisms

• Communication (MEC-16) – Frequently combined: negotiation channel.
• Verification (MEC-27) – Frequently combined: verify compliance with the deal.
• Conversion (MEC-03) – Frequently combined: barter exchange.
• Coordination (MEC-25) – Frequently combined: agree on a joint action.

Ludic Organisational Structures

Market · Alliance System (core) · Democracy / Voting System (dynamic)