We had our second run at Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 on Friday evening (January) and this time we just managed to win; it was very close and tense! We found that it highlighted some interesting differences in play style, or game tendencies perhaps, between the four of us.
One of the most brilliant things about all the games in the Pandemic"series" is the balancing of risk and reward. This does come over in many other games as well, particularly co-ops, but none to my mind do it so well as Pandemic does.
In life I tend to be a much more risk averse person but in games, and this one in particular, I am taking a much more cavalier attitude. I'm always thinking about moving forward for the goal(s) and prepared to leave cities with cubes on to do something that progresses the opportunity to find cures.
Mrs B never wants to see cities with 3 cubes on and prioritises the "firefighting" over all else. In life she is a little more carefree than I am (but not greatly so) but in her gaming she is always very methodical and careful - IE; in Agricola she wants her food requirements sorted first and will leave other resources (even tempting large stacks) to grab the day labourer (for example) and ensure there will be no begging.
Billy is quite reckless in his life and prepared to just give things a go, and usually he's that way in his gaming as well, but this game is making him very cautious indeed, which is really interesting. He is very worried about outbreaks in particular and always wants to be taking cubes off the board and thinking about where the cities that will come back up in the infection deck are. He gets quite cross indeed with me and my "I'm leaving that area to swap this card so that we can find a cure" moves.
Charlie is quite laid back and prepared to give things a go in life, and typically "just plays" in his gaming. In this game he is currently taking more of a back seat and asking others what he should do but ultimately will just "do his thing" if he gets conflicting advice from the rest of us.
It's very interesting that this game of Pandemic Legacy is not only bringing out strong traits in each of us, but is actually altering our normal behaviours and risk / reward balance.
I, personally, want to "win" this game and am much more willing to take risks to try and do so whereas the rest of the family are tending towards the serious "let's keep this thing under control" approach and it's brilliant that something that's just a simple "game" can provoke such strong and contracdictory feelings in people.