Colonialism - The Board Game Struggle
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- Опубліковано 18 лют 2021
- #boardgames #review
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Correction: In the video I say I did an MRes in post colonial literature. That's true! I also never finished it. There was meant to be on-screen text stating that, adding a touch of light hearted humour to the scene. That on screen text accidentaly disappeared in the edit.
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Great video, thank you!
As an Afrikaans South African, colonialism has always been a tricky subject to process since it led to the birth of my culture and anti-colonial arguments sometimes make me feel like I'm not a South African even though I've never been to a European country in my life.
Regardless of my personal identity discomfort, I realise that the issue of colonialism is far greater than that. Living in a space that is almost entirely "post-colonial" and seeing the scars of our past every day has made me more aware of this and filled in the gaps that I used to have the privilege of ignoring.
I understand that some board games want to stay true to history and ignoring the evils that come with that also doesn't seem useful (referring to that slavery footnote). Even so, simplifying these struggles into mechanisms seems disrespectful and unnecessary.
My hope is that board game designers will realise that understanding issues like this will make them better designers. I feel like we're missing out on an incredible array of settings, themes, user stories and emotions by focusing our design spotlight on colonialism or the perspective of the "superpowers" involved.
The games we play shape who we are and form part of our culture. I don't think this means we should "cancel" games about colonialism, but I will certainly think twice before buying them or at least try to understand the setting a bit better (from all perspectives) before blindly claiming hexes.
Thanks again for the great video!
*end of rant*
Efka, don't leave board games alone. Keep engaging with them critically and helping the hobby grow!
Fantastic video. As someone from Latin America, this is such an unbelievably difficult topic to bring up in wider board gaming discussions and it does affect the way I feel about a lot of these games. I can't help but feel uncomfortable with playing them. Thank you for this
I am loving the chunkier, analytical and meaningful episodes. They're so much more impactful when set in a real context. Making and playing board games is serious work and I love how you are educating us on it! Thanks to you and Elaine for all you do!
Brilliantly done, Efka. So many amazing points brought up and in such a well thought out manner. Thank you so much!
Thank you, Efka.
I'm Russian born in Latvia (if it makes sense). It took me years to shift perspective on expansion and colonialism. In a Russian school I've been taught that Latvia was liberated by Soviet forces from Nazis and Forest Brothers (partisans) were German collaborators. When Latvia got independence my parents and I (who were born in Latvia) were called occupants and stripped of citizenship.
Took me 10 years in UK to see it from different point. However, when this point is presented by media of western countries it feels hypocritical at least, considering history.
Geopolitics is a mess, but it's important to talk about it, to prevent injustice and find closure.
That's an interesting way of framing it. Those who arrived after Soviet occupation in 1940 and their descendants were not automatically granted citizenship. If you could pass a Latvian language and history exam you would be granted citizenship. Two thirds of Russians in Latvia (which includes immigrants post independence) have citizenship. Residency was still permitted, even if the only reason a Russian had a right to live there was because of Soviet theft of property from Latvians. That's fairly lenient towards a group of people that were being systematically encouraged to move in to make you a minority in your own lands (as happened in many parts of the USSR). We also should acknowledge the centuries of Russification attempts (ethnic cleansing), deliberate genocides under the USSR (and their handshaking with the Nazis to annex it in the first place), and weaponization of the Russian language post collapse (like invading multiple neighbors over allegedly "protecting Russian speakers").
Time matters on these things. Saying the West is hypocritical on this ignores this fact. It also ignores the fact that Russia continues to be a revanchist power that wants to reestablish and expand its former empire and has invaded multiple countries to do so. Western countries aren't looking to reestablish their colonial empires. They accept and acknowledge it's wrong. Russia, and by and large its people, do not as evidenced by their imperialist war in Ukraine.
'Western countries aren't looking to re-establish colonial empires'? I have to point you to what happened in the 20th century and on into the 21st century with the Gulf wars, Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq, Falkland Islands, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, many parts of South America and Africa, and now Palestine to say this is simply not true I'm afraid.
The West has just learned to do it more covertly via support of proxy wars, the CIA and the support of pro-US dictators, as exemplified by the tactics of prime imperialist Henry Kissenger.
Fantastic video. I love discussions about the concept of board games instead of just focusing on gaming in general. Thank you!
One of the best video essays I think I've seen; truly incredible and thought-provoking. Well done.
What a fantastic video! Bloody well done, Efka! Might be my favorite one from NPI yet.
Thank you so much for this video, Efka. I can tell it was difficult, but I think just about everyone can learn from engaging in this discussion.
Great video. Very thoughtful at many levels. Look forward to hearing more on such topics.
Just got to the part about slavery in Endeavor, and highly highlly recommend playing it and the slavery rules.
As a an african-american, ai found it relieving to see it acknowledged and not just as a footnote. Slavery is a viable strategy and is rampant throughout the game. There are harsh penalities for it and it fits.
What i don't want is puerto rico where they white wash history and call slaves colonists.
Thank you! Your comment was a breath of fresh air!
I have a black friend in my board gaming group, and when this was on kickstarter I had to ask him about it. It made him really uneasy thinking about being in a room of white guys trading slaves. I decided not to back it.
@@Quesoeighty Thank you for that story!
@@ConsoleCowboy I think it's important to understand the effect that those kinds of games have though. Does it not change your view of history if board games always put you in the seat of the king, and abstract away the suffering that the king causes? Not every game has to be a peasant misery simulator, but maybe it would be good if the historical reality was acknowledged as part of the mechanics.
@@ConsoleCowboy yes, no pun included is going to pick and choose what part of history and it's atrocities they are passionate about obviously. As far as I see it they have in essence put it in themselves to play the role of the board game thought police - fueled by passion and a "higher learning" in the guise of altruism. If this measuring stick is used in all aspects of board gaming this hobby is not going to be a fun one to be in. People are all ready asking questions if certain games should be allowed to be printed because they didn't hold 100 percent accurate to the subject matter - which in turn is translated as an act of white supremacy or wilful disrespect. It's bonkers.
Brilliant video. One of your best, and I've followed chan for a while. Very well crafted and presented ideas. Bravo efka!
Dude, Efka, mate, this is the sort of thoughtful piece that keeps me coming back. Keep pushing the boundaries and I'll keep watching. This kind of maturity in analysis is needed and a welcome change from the norm. If this is a legitimate hobby for adults, then we should demand more adult criticism. Some of your best work, thank you very much. In a post Covid world, I'd love to sit down over a game and have a few beers.
Get in line!
Disagree. It's just a boardgame.
I'm sorry I missed this the first time around. Thank you for calling attention to this. Hearing your first hand experience and how to approach these sensitive topics without a dismissive attitude is absolutely inspiring.
I love your channel more and more with every video. This was highly educational and I appreciate it beyond words.
This was an amazing video, Efka. Wow. Thank you so much. Also, I know you are a board game channel, but I would totally watch videos where you discuss literary topics.
Fantastic video. This subject is incredibly important to me as an English person living in a former colony and as a future board games publisher. Thank you for having the courage to make this and future videos tackling complex issues in this industry/hobby.
I always enjoy your content but this was the best video I’ve seen from you. I thoroughly enjoyed the care and passion you spoke with. Thank you for this thought provoking conversation.
Thank you Efka for this video. I learned a bunch of stuff and hope be more sensitive to the topic in the future. My respect, this is a must watch.
This was a great video...and an important reminder about things too easily glossed over or ignored for the purpose of a cardboard experience. Thank you.
The map is an arena for you and your rivals to duke it out, and if none of them control a place, then it's an "empty" space that you can easily claim. Push your pieces out to cover the map! Make your numbers go up! Get stronger than your rivals and Win the Game!
We might say that colonialism and its descendants treat the world like a game, and that's one reason so many games echo it.
Board games without colonialism are like video games without shooting or killing; Yes, there ARE great games without it, BUT it's much harder to design and make good and popular.
I've never been a fan of your videos in the past, I think it was something about your style of humor. But after watching this video, I'm subscribing to your channel so I can see more of your content. Thank you for this incredibly informational and insightful video!
Very insightful and thought-provoking. Keep up the excellent work.
It's because of videos like this that I support Elaine and Efka on Patreon. Keep up the good work!
Excellent video, thank you so much for talking about this and raising awareness about these very problematic and prevalent topics
Thank you for bringing this voice to the table. I hope more chime in.
I stumbled upon your video of Vagrantsong (after buying the game) and have spent the better part of a day watching your videos on various topics. I really enjoy your thoughtful pieces on board gaming! Keep up all the amazing work :)
This is a great starting point for these kinds of discussions. Thank you.
This hits rough with the current Ukrainian situation 😔
Colonialism in board games is rough. I appreciate things like John Company, Pax Pamir, COIN, etc. that depict these situations with their complexities. I don't know that every game has to always engage with it, but I appreciate those that do. I don't have anything against occasional romanticisation of history (I enjoy some knights of the round, swashbuckling, etc.), but I don't think that should be the default perspective. Because history often isn't pretty or romantic 😟
Like. Even 18xx. I love those games, but I always have the abuse of the rail workers and the land this tracks were built on in the US, at least, in the back of my mind when playing them.
Also, Cole Whorle has cut all ties with Phil Ecklund and never wanted that article in the first edition in the first place...so one can definitely make an argument that he made a mistake by publishing at all, but I would hesitate to let that single mistake define him or his game (which makes a very different statement in play) unless he has shown no repentance, change, etc.
I have been feeling a lot like playing "this war of mine" since the Gaza situation, it's a sad thing that it takes basically a day, but i think it's a really good way to engage with the complexity and random misery of civilians in war.
Thank you for the video. I greatly enjoy your channel and the essay style of your clips. Since my mother is from Lithuania I was also very interested in the historic part. Great to see my love for Lithuania combined with my appreciation for board games. A very insightful approach to a difficult topic. Greetings from Germany. :)
Thanks for this video. I really like you talking about the genre, and not just specific games. I think this brings our hobby forward.
Thanks for another great video, this one will take a few more watches to properly take it all in I think. I've been trying to find a way to say what I feel about these themes/settings and each time I write something it reminds of the counter-point you made. Thank you for giving me the counter-arguments to challenge the way I've always seen these subjects. I think it's going to be a long journey, but at least I'm on the road.
Great content! I will share this videos, 100% good job.
Absolutely love it. Such a relief to see this movement toward adulthood in our hobby. Amazing how much we still cater to the angry adolescent boy's temprement, no matter how old he gets. THoughtful, insightful, informative, fascinating. Efka and Elaine you two are very wonderful.
Agreed.
Not just in boardgaming, depressingly.
Dude this is so good. Thanks for the work that went into this, so hard to do well.
Wow. I've not watched your stuff before but my hubs loves your stuff and recommend this to me. I'm so glad he did because this was *brilliant*!
Please, don't leave this alone! Please please please do more! This is all my favorite nerd stuff in one video!
Efka, you're brilliant and your breakdown of all of these issues was fantastic. Easy to understand without being too simplistic, intelligent without being too complicated, just great all around.
I'd love to see more like this! I know you usually do reviews, but maybe a 2nd channel for this sort of thing? 😉
Tremendous work Efka, thank you 💜
I watch your videos with my partner and this one moved me to leave my own comment. I have lost a beloved writing teacher A J Budrys (science fiction author who held a captain's commission in the Free Lithuanian Army) so you are now my favourite living Lithuanian. I appreciate the care you took here with defining the place from which you speak. Also showing how your skillshare course on lighting made a difference was helpful as specific examples help my non theoretical brain. Long may they support your terrific channel, and very best to you and Elaine!
This is some top notch pot-stirring, deft and well said!
I love this and the FCM/Monopoly video so much.
I look forward to any video you want to make that explores "why are making/playing these games".
Creatures are always inventing games as fun ways to explore danger. When so many board games are historically based on a competitive racing or area control, colonialism is such an easy match. It's so easy to mindlessly continue down that road ("write what you know" "uh, ok, I know people sure seem to love colonizing!"). Discussions like this that increase mindfulness is really the way to improve everything. There has been such a renaissance in mechanism development lately, only mindfulness can bring up the other aspects of our games.
Great video, thank you for tackling a challenging topic smartly and personally.
Excellent work, well argued! More of this - please! More critical perspectives on the hobby we love! Again - well done, Efka.
Ačiū! Smagiai nustebino šis video :) Thanks, was kindly suprised by this video. Great video!
This was a fantastic video, thanks a lot!! I hope you get the chance to speak about this topics more often in the future!!
What a great video!
Insightful and informative.
Thank you.
Efka, great Job here. This is a hard subject to disscuss and I think with your background story and game knowledge you did it very well to put context in the boardgame sceneario. We as part of this hobby should be aware of this and I think the hard part is finding the right way to adress the Colonialism Issue without taking away what we al love from our games. Thank you for giving voice to countries/people that usually get ignored or downgraded in our hobby, I have more than once feel very unconfortable when my own Country is downgraded or simple put as a less or a part of a colonial power.
I enjoy this video a lot and I have seen a part of the colonial effect in our boardgame community when I tried to looked for African themed or scenario based. I was expecting that with such a big and rich enviroment there would be tons of games to dig and love but what I find out was that there were not many and there were almost all about colonial issues. The sad part was discovering that there were more games about plants than a big vibrant and colorful CONTINENT.
Great video, thanks for making this Efka.
Thank you for this Video! You adressing this boardgame setting 'that doesnt matter' in a distinct video was the last push for me to become a patreon backer.
Can't wait for your John Company 2nd Edition review.
Brilliant stuff Efka! Kudos!
Very deep and interesting material! Great respect for going in to such hard and complicated topic. Definitely made me think about the subject. Not sure if I agree with all the points but I definitely agree that we need to talk about the past! Well done Sir! Stay safe!
Great video, Efka!
Wow, nigdy nie sądziłem że ktoś będzie mówił o historii Polski na zagranicznym kanale z grami planszowymi. (Wow, I have never thought that someone will be talking about polish history on foreign channel with board games' content)
Very interesting video.
A friend sent it to me, as I'm currently designing a game set in the history of humanity through the centuries, but I want it to have a wider and inquiring view about how we understand the idea of "progress", and this video gave me some valuable insights.
Hope I can address these issues properly in the game!
Thank you so much for making this.
Efke I had no idea you were Lithuanian! My grandparents emigrated to Australia from Lithuania after WW2, and I didn't know most of the history that you spoke of in the first part of your video. Brilliant stuff.
Same here! my grandparents emigrated to Uruguay before WW1... As an argentinean today, i have no conection whatsoever to Lithuania, except my last name... Dambrauskas
@@Erethakbe Amazing isn't it - you can pick a Lithuanian surname a mile away!
@@TheMork yea, carrot man is a very lithuanian surname
All the good things folks have already said. Also, thank you for discussing the distinction between theme and setting.
Really good, thought provoking video, thank you for doing this.
Efka, this is excellent, excellent stuff. Kudos.
2 year late for the release of the video, but never 2 lately to learn something new, thank you!
Thank you for this! This is exceptional content, and I really hope you take this further!
Awesome video. I'm from Puerto Rico and own a copy of Puerto Rico. Whenever i get ask the question about what's the game about from someone who hasn't played it my description is something like "its a game of taking brown people from the ships and making them work on our fields and factories, whoever exploits more points from them wins the game 🙂".
Theme is problematic, especially for a country that has been a colony for more than 500yrs and is still a colony in plain 21st century. Is a good game, though, and am willing to play any time, but always making sure everyone knows what we're supposed to be doing in it. If it's too much for any of the friends, i have plenty of other good games to play, if not we just enjoy the game for what it is (mechanically) and not necessarily for the actions or history being portrayed.
Thank you Efka, this was much interesting.
Thank You for the Education! I see games with a different light now.
Outstanding video. Thank you Efka
Fantastic. The best video you've done IMHO.
Beautiful video! Thank you so much…Nothing is ever “just a game/joke/what-have-you”
Greetings from Iceland. We are oh so proud of being the first ones to recognize Lithuania still to this day. You mentioned that we might be the only country not colonized, and I have to agree and disagree at the same time. We might not have been colonized, occupied and settled by Norway and Denmark, but we were controlled and neglected. Iceland stagnated under foreign rule and the strict ecomomy hampered, but we were never put into slavery or received huge influx of Danish or Norwegian settlers. Therefore relating to the struggles of colonized peoples is difficult. We were just a distant backwater afterthought that only had its time to shine after our independence. We try to make our small light shine and be the forefront of recognizing injustice, promoting peace, be forward thinking and try to be an example to the world. One of the biggest minorities in Iceland are Lithuanians and we’re better for it, I hope the relations of our countries will never falter.
Thank you for this amazing video!
Iceland is a champ. First to recognize Croatia too.
In hindsight that was a mistake on our part...
:D
@@megaorvar5143 Possibly, but let's not pretend Iceland has any tangible significance in international affairs. :))
it's so cool to be able to hear you say the name of my city (Lublin) :). Great video. And a very important one.
This video is sponsored by Skillshare. The first 1000 people to use the link will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: skl.sh/nopunincluded02211
CORRECTION: In the video I say I did an MRes in post colonial literature. That's true! I also never finished it. There was meant to be on-screen text stating that, adding a touch of light hearted humour to the scene. That on screen text accidentaly disappeared in the edit.
Amazing video, Efka. Thank you for sharing your insights. Can barely wait for the next one!
Started hiding in the bushes, but this was very thoughtfully done. Way to raise your voice.
I loved this! Thank you Efka!
Comes in expecting boardgames, leaves with PHD in Lithuanian history. Keep up the great content!
Hi, Efka, congrats for this video, we want more of them!
Since you talked both about Lithuania and literature, what books and authors do you recommend from there?
Games are political. It isn't just set-dressing. Efka, don't leave games alone. This video is tremendous.
tic-tac-toe... or the hegelian dialectics of master-slave?
Great! Thank you for talking personally and about human history.
Thanks you for sharing your personal experience on the matter. There is so much unexplored territory (excuse the terrible pun) in board games. It may not be easy to make it work, but I think the effort will move the medium forward dramatically.
Lovely video, Efka! On a sidenote, what put you off Murakami? I would love to get some literary recomendations from you!
Thank you for speaking up. It wasn't easy listening and was challenging, but much appreciated. I also learned a wee bit about my family history. Of Lithuanian decent, my grandparents fled Lithuania at the outbreak of WW1 we never really talked about what they left behind or history. And this video is all in a good cause. Cheers.
And now I need to learn more about Baltic history. Thank you so much for teaching me something today. More please😁
If you didn't know anything about the history of Poland and the Baltic states, you should be able to imagine it pretty accurately if you remain always aware of the fact that they are between Russia and Germany.
This is excellent work. Thank you for it.
Efka, Thank you for this wonderful video.
Thanks for doing this man! Living on a reserve in Canada, all of the intergenerational trauma and fucked up identity confusion had really done a number and it's stuff like this that can get us moving forward together and doing something integrative, as opposed to fighting over who's going to get paved over.
Really appreciated this vid. Great to see our hobby examining the past and evolving. In the same spirit (maybe even more controversial!), I wondered if NPI had thought about our hobby's reliance on manufacturing games in China and whether we should be doing our bit applying pressure to our favourite designers not to trade with a country allegedly committing genocide?
This is fantastic for being thought provoking, awareness raising, and personal. I really enjoy all the content NPI create but this peace absolutely takes it to another level. I have some of the games mentioned and whilst I’m not going to instantly move them on to the trade/dispose shelf I will certainly be playing them with more sensitivity for the theme and trying to understand more the privileges I have today built of colonial history.
This was a wonderful piece of work. Makes me proud to be a Patreon supporter. Your passion for, and hopes for the future of, the hobby came through loud and clear.
Thank you for your support!
The music is Beethoven's Ecossaise in Eb major (woo 86), just in case someone wanted to know.
In some ways, I get especially mad at soviet colonialism sometimes. The USSR was supposed to be a union of independent socialist republics - it's in the name, for fucks sake. It really, really sucks that, in effect, it just ended up doing all the same shit everyone else was doing.
From all the videos that I've seen from NPI, this is, by far, the best. And probably also, the best boardgame video that I've ever seen. It's a truly nice work that brings us really interesting questions and discussions. Wonderful and brave job, please keep doing this 👏🏼
I hesitate to weigh in on the "importance" of works because that's so inherently personal, but sharing your perspective on this was very moving. Thank you.
Great video. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I was looking for info on the Zenobia Award in the description, but I don't see it. Thank you for all your work!
Ah, I'll fix this in a second. There were about five different versions of this video and somewhere along the way it must have gotten lost.
Thank you for this thought-provoking video.
Thanks for sharing your voice, Efka.
Outstanding content, thank you!
Thanks Efka for the excellent video. I agree that conversations such as this deserves attention by the gaming community and your video captures many of my thoughts as well.
My family was deeply impacted by colonialism in Korea, and as such I also have uneasiness when it comes to colonialism depicted in board games. I remember observing debates couple years ago on BGG about Rising Sun as it used the rising sun symbol as victory point in the game. Many commented saying the use of symbol is okay since the symbol has been used Japanese history prior to its colonialism, and also it's play on the game title "Rising Sun", and also the game is more about feudal Japan and is not about Imperialism. Yet, when I look at the symbol, it completely removes me from the game and only thing I can think of are the atrocities my grandparents experienced under the rule of the said flag. I'm not trying to re-open the debate on whether CMON should or should not have used the symbol, I am merely trying to point out that colonialism had such impact to a point where it turns an avid board game fan like me to be turned off of a game about feudal Japan and Japanese folklore just because of a symbol of choice happen to match the symbolism Japan used during their Colonial era.
I am also not trying to say that use of such symbols should be banned from games, but what I am trying to say is that we should encourage more discussions and learn from each other's perspective - which was the take away I got from this video.
Thanks again for the video :)
As a small publisher I found your thoughts very intriguing. Especially when you clearly state the difference between “depiction” and “simulation”.
There is abundance of literature on how simulation enforces behaviour differently than depiction. its core components: (action mechanisms and reward) trigger priming effects and desensitization, which ultimately affect how we perceive the world outside of the simulation. Depiction does the same in a certain way: so the movie “Gladiator” is more about a certain stoic masculine vibe of being a soldier and the necessity of it… and much less about “depicting” the life in the Coloseum. It represents a feedback loop that a cultural enviroment was moralizing. A depiction with empathy is, as well, a simulation.
The use of violence in videogames evolved within this knowledge: the game mechanisms punish the player for committing violence in GTA San Andreas in a non destructive way for the completion of the game -> conversely it permanently affect how boring your gameplay gets in Red Dead Redeption 2 if you only act with malevolence. And player may want more challange, but they never want more boredom. Was a clever evolution of the Rockstar’s simulation style.
On this line of thoughts, themeing a “strategy” game about depriving nations of their economies moralizes the act itself: power and control is gained by the most clever and not the most brutal. Similarly I studied Napoleon as a brilliant strategist and not as the coward that escaped from its men in Russia.
Let’s just think about “Kriegspiel” and how little modern wargames evolved from it in the qualities of their simulations. We still want to be the clever Napoleon and not the coward one. Our simulations of war speaks about the first one (even if we enact the “good guys”).
As you rightfully state, the evolution of those games existed (of course) but relied on pure mechanical sofistication.
Fortunately/unfortunately simulations are powerful in both directions: they enforce behaviors and opinions in the real life, regardless of their morality.
Games, as simulations, are A-moral in this sense and the job of the publisher is also to remove the extra A with more clever use of the medium of simulation.
Ultimately your video triggered my interest in the last days. Even if I knew about the concept of postcolonial theory already, I realized for the first time the void of postcolonial work in the game industry.
Is much less about enacting a new “Kriegsspiel” taking the side of the natives but more about what happens to a group of communicating humans when their language is deprived of its referents, or how the destruction of a building is not only a passage from bricks to dust, but is leaving behind “cultural redundancy”, i.e. set of practices that are no more possible because they depended from the material culture that was pulverized. Rarely we came across to these games (the rpg Dialect maybe?)
someone else has other ideas?
Thanks for your thoughtfull comment, it's really appreciated.