Read on Twitter
– I’m the best colonizer & genocider!
– No I’M the best colonizer & genocider!
It’s 2020 and game designers are still making games themed with genocide and colonization, publishers are still releasing them, and people are still backing them on Kickstarter
– No I’M the best colonizer & genocider!
It’s 2020 and game designers are still making games themed with genocide and colonization, publishers are still releasing them, and people are still backing them on Kickstarter
Well before the arrival of Europeans, several distinct indigenous groups populated the area now called Argentina. The Het were the people of the northern Patagonian pampas west of the Paraná River. One such Het group, the Querandí, inhabited the region that is now Buenos Aires
The Spanish first attempted conquering the Querandí’s home region in 1516 but were repelled with force by the Querandí. In 1580 Juan de Garay “resettled” the region and “founded” what became Buenos Aires
This 2nd attempt by the Spanish to build the city is the game. In Trinidad you are “heads of the Spanish colonial families who founded the Ciudad de la Santisima Trinidad in 1580 (which later became known as Buenos Aires).” SOOOO COOL I get to be a Spanish conqueror & colonizer!
There’s even actual Eurogame genocide baked into the gameplay as you encounter “difficulties” such as “the natives who try to repel the invader.” Here’s you, the Spanish invader, destroying the Querandí natives:
The designer (with mealy mouth) tries to acknowledge that genocide is bad and you should feel bad – but not so bad that you shouldn’t buy and play his colonization/genocide game. You have to scroll almost to the end of the Kickstarter page to find his wet napkin disclaimer
Designer: “The adversities that characterized the birth of Buenos Aires were exceptional.”
The “adversities” the designer is referring to are the pesky Querandí that refused to be colonized or subjugated by the Spanish Conquistadors and so fought back with force.
The “adversities” the designer is referring to are the pesky Querandí that refused to be colonized or subjugated by the Spanish Conquistadors and so fought back with force.
Designer: "So [exceptional] that [Buenos Aires] was founded twice.” That’s colonizer language.
Founded = “violently conquered, subjugated, and murdered by the Spanish.”
Founded = “violently conquered, subjugated, and murdered by the Spanish.”
Juan de Garay and the Spanish were founders of nothing. They discovered nothing. They resettled nothing and reestablished nothing. This was a region that was already populated with indigenous people for aeons until the unwarranted and violent Spanish takeover
Designer: “This game in no way wants to celebrate it or endorse it.”
But the game bakes genocide and colonization into the bones of its game anyway. And there are zero ethical consequences for the players who are being most optimal at doing the best genocide and colonization
But the game bakes genocide and colonization into the bones of its game anyway. And there are zero ethical consequences for the players who are being most optimal at doing the best genocide and colonization
Designer: “[The game] is about construction, not destruction.”
The KS campaign’s tagline is “a new colony born on the ashes of the previous settlement.” So it's clear the designer wants to romanticize the horror and history of how Buenos Aires came to be
The KS campaign’s tagline is “a new colony born on the ashes of the previous settlement.” So it's clear the designer wants to romanticize the horror and history of how Buenos Aires came to be
Referring to indigenous peoples as “natives” and “invaders” in the game romanticizes the player goals so one feels more noble, righteous, and just siding w/colonizers and genociders. You’re just trying to build pretty stuff but there’s pesky INDIANS that want to kill you, guys!
If your game is rooted in history, and you leave out the problematic parts of history, then you are erasing history.
And the parts you leave in that romanticize killing and colonization and subjugation as VP goals means you're role-playing the part of a genocider and colonizer
And the parts you leave in that romanticize killing and colonization and subjugation as VP goals means you're role-playing the part of a genocider and colonizer
Area Board Gamer: "it's just a theme calm down"
Same Area Board Gamer: "I didn't like [that game I don't like] because the theme was just PASTED on"
Pick a lane, bro
Same Area Board Gamer: "I didn't like [that game I don't like] because the theme was just PASTED on"
Pick a lane, bro
This was just a long and winding friendly reminder that thinking that your board games and your ethics are compartmentalized and mutually exclusive is a false belief
(And if you think this thread doesn't have something to do with current events and Black Lives Matter and the lack of diversity in the boardgame community you're not either paying attention or willfully refusing the call)
(If you're keeping score: Board Game Geeks dot com continues its unbroken daily streak of a user posting "if you don't like it then don't buy/play the game" and receiving lots of geek gold for it 
)
)
File under "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to something something" – in August 2019 Madeira was another colonization/slavery boardgame that erased history and funded on KS https://twitter.com/tiffanyleigh/status/1167807699246968832
And the game Santa Maria is earlier on the timeline than Trinidad but is also scaling down the genocide and colonization parts of Spanish conquistadors with a similar lame statement that comes in the box with every copy https://twitter.com/tiffanyleigh/status/1270022271575433216
Oh joy someone linked this in BGG and I'm being surrounded by the shambling mound, shugging takes from dudebros that predictably see zero problem with this game
Unsurprisingly the Dice Tower paid preview for Trinidad spent twelve minutes not addressing theme and only saying the word "native" twice, not even when describing how war works against the natives in the game
I'm sure the unofficial/official ground rules at Team Dice Tower is the canard "don't get political" especially when they're being paid to tell you how a game works
Most pro-colonization games use worker placement.
Just who do you think were the workers?
"More enslaved Africans permanently entered the Spanish Americas than the whole British Caribbean... as many as 1,506,000 enslaved Africans arrived directly from Africa between 1520–1867."
Just who do you think were the workers?
"More enslaved Africans permanently entered the Spanish Americas than the whole British Caribbean... as many as 1,506,000 enslaved Africans arrived directly from Africa between 1520–1867."
From the Trinidad beta rulebook conjuring up some serious "All Lives Matter" retconning
