"Atlantic" article on colonialism in board games

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_powers

jason10mm wrote: In the game world of Puerto Rico the island apparently WAS uninhabited and if those discs are called "colonists" then I guess they are willing colonists. It isn't really depicting the actual timeline of events like a Twilight Struggle type game. We are all about disregarding actual historical accuracy here, right?

True. The box tries to make you think the game is set 50 years after Christopher Columbus sailed to an island already populated by the Taino people. I like how the blank slate of the game factored in smallpox wiping out the Taino population. Jokes on us, though. Coffee is the best crop in the game and Puerto Rico didn't even get coffee until 17th century, some 200 years after we're importing "colonists" in the game! History, pshaw!

But hey, maybe the brown disc colonists are just the slave overseers. That makes it not as bad, amirite?

hotseatgames wrote: Interesting, I had always thought they only had to exclude the swastika, I didn't realize they couldn't even say Nazi. Either way, I get that game makers don't want to make players be Nazis, but it feels weak to let people just think they are playing the "not Allies".

In Germany all games were legally considered toys for children and subjected to heavy censorship. For example, many video games have no blood or turn the enemies into robots.

Recently, the German authorities allowed some videogames on artistic grounds but I'm unsure of how it affects new releases and, most importantly, board games.

There are also other issues. Some retailers, shops and online platforms automatically ban anything that has stuff like Nazi or a Swastika in it, no matter the context. Remember that not long ago, an American Civil War game got banned on iOS because it featured the Confederate flag.

ratpfink wrote: True. The box tries to make you think the game is set 50 years after Christopher Columbus sailed to an island already populated by the Taino people. I like how the blank slate of the game factored in smallpox wiping out the Taino population. Jokes on us, though. Coffee is the best crop in the game and Puerto Rico didn't even get coffee until 17th century, some 200 years after we're importing "colonists" in the game! History, pshaw!

But hey, maybe the brown disc colonists are just the slave overseers. That makes it not as bad, amirite?

OH, so NOW rigorous adherence to historical accuracy is important? It's a silly game with a theme tacked on almost like an afterthought. It teaches you NOTHING about the history of PR and doesnt even try to, it's just a simple theme.

If you are looking for global injustices to fight, I'd probably start with the child labor that made your shoes, the slaves that mined the cobalt in your phone battery, and the ethnic populations being cleansed as we speak. You know, current real world issues, not how a board game made by a German whose country had nothing to do with Puerto Rico depicts that era. The things you mention can be thrown AT EVERY SINGLE historic theme of every game ever made. They ALL whitewash to some degree.

It’s probably possible to both fight global injustices, and also criticize board games.

dysjunct wrote: It’s probably possible to both fight global injustices, and also criticize board games.

It's actually quite difficult to see true human suffering in person and then get upset that a board game with the name of some island doesn't dive deep into the 500 year old history of said island. It's very easy to do the reverse on the internet however.

^^^
Disagree. problems with your hobby are not on the same scale, sure. Pointing them out in the places where your hobby is discussed doesn't equal hypocrisy though. If anything it indicates a level of consistency. I'm against institutional and structural racism myself. I'll call it out when I see things that I think contribute to it in my hobby, at work, and in my society. It's always more nuanced than a blanket equivalency, but so what.

As for Puerto Rico, yeah its abstracted and all games are abstracted but it is what is abstracted, and how, that has always been the issue. They present it like it is real history but it's not. They could have done anything with it but they chose to represent it in the way they did and that leaves them wide open for criticism. It's like your hatter example - a game where you have to set collect material to make hats is one thing. A game which
a) gave real names of real industrial hattng concerns to the game play
b) had mechanisms about needing to employ workers
c) had you import one resource which they called "silver dye" or something stupid, and/or also had you lose your workers sometimes because they "went on holiday". Like... why?

Or, since you say, like having a game about shoe manufacture where you try and get the shoes made cheaply overseas and there are 2 types of worker, one cheaper than the other and physically smaller but they are called big workers and little workers.

This would be.... weird. Why not call the spade the spade and let engage properly? Or, go the other way and make it a more obvious fantasy, or really lean into the abstract? It's the halfway measure. And turning events that still manifest in inequalities today into non-events. - yes Puerto Rico was 500 years ago, but people are still impacted by those events - so they need some sensitivity is all. And if people don't care because it's all abstracted anyway and they believe it makes no difference or whatever, then it shouldn't matter if games get new skins either, should it.

Good points. Retheming PR going forward doesn't bother me. What concerns me is folks with the old game getting admonished for it for no reason since it is totally harmless.

BTW, the phrase "calling a spade a spade" is pretty racist and I'd caution you to refrain from using it.... www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/...call-a-spade-a-spade

See, it can get everyone!

The old PR game wasn't evil just ignorant. It doesn't deserve the hate for this, imo, but rather because it's a shit game.

Mare Nostrum has slaves as an actual commodity that you trade.

ChristopherMD wrote: Is base Catan actually colonialist?

If it is, the article doesn't make an argument for it. More importantly, it never defines "colonialist".

This is a serious flaw in the discussion. After all, Puerto Rico remains a colony today despite the age of sail being well over. This leads to a very broad use of the term where all sorts of things could be included. For example, I felt the definition of colonialism of No Pun Included was broad enough to cover most wars of conquest. He also didn't define it until his video on the subject was almost over, which I consider a mistake.

Either way, I do not think Catan represents the European Colonization of the Americas nor the Age of Discovery. Catan doesn't look like the New World, but the Old and the name itself is reminiscent of Catania, in Sicily, an island that (for Germans) is somewhat distant but firmly alike.

Catan itself is part of a trilogy. Entdecker does represent the Age of Discover, undeniably. However, Löwenherz, with its castles and conniving nobles, would put Catan firmly in the medieval period.

Ultimately, I think it's a bit meaningless because there's not enough setting to make any big claims. It's like feminists analysis of Chess. You could make some, but the game is not exactly a large source of information.

I think the removal of "Settlers" from "Catan" was probably mostly for branding purposes, not because of the theme. Having "x of Catan," "a and b of Catan," etc., was probably less desirable than having "Catan," "Catan: a and b," etc.

I recently learned that Bermuda had no indigenous population before it was discovered and settled. Fictional Catan could be the same if they hadn't later retconned in presumably native barbarians.

Found it -- dailyworkerplacement.com/2021/02/15/colo...oard-games-part-one/