socialist board games
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http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38026-the-secret-history-of-leftist-board-games
Well more actually lefty but interesting. I knew about Class Struggle and the Scottish Georgeist origins of monopoly but not the others.
jondwhite wrote:Cheers. Looking forward to the SPGB game on itunes.I actually have started developing the SPGB board game.It runs a bit like this. Every player is allocated a regional branch. they then pick up a "Useful Socialist Activity Card" the card might say something along the lines of "develop an introductory video for the party", "start a twitter feed" or "develop a whiteboard animation for Party use". The players then have to try and get all of the members of the branch together to form a quorum so that they can pass a resolution to conference backing the useful idea. This is not as simple as it sounds, whilst your moving round the board gathering members, you have to throw the bickering dice. This dice decides what the ones who are left alone together will bicker about. (sometimes the bickering means that one of the members goes of to the holding pen (Central Branch) which means that you have to gather more members to meet the quorum. If your lucky you can land on a Form A square, that means you get a new member and these members are immune from bickering for a short period of time.Once you have your quorum gathered you have to get your resolution passed by the branch. This means throwing the for, against and abstain dices. If you don't get your resolution passed you have to start all over again until you finally get your resolution passed.Once you have your resolution passed, and your delegate credentials singed by the Branch Secretary, you can begin the journey to Clapham High Street to go to conference, but be careful there are hazards on the way. You might land on the L Bird square. If you land on this square you are stuck discussing the nature of science whilst others are getting to conference before you. You might think that throwing a six will let you get away from L Bird, and although this is in the rules, L Bird doesn't recognise the existence of the matter which makes up the dice, outside of his own consciousness. You therefore have to wait on this square until L Bird calls you an ill educated imbecile, and then the Mods will step in and warn him. this releases you from his magic spell and you can carry on on your journey to Clapham.However there is also the Moderation square. If you land on this square you have to pick up a moderation card. This might give you a warning too, so you have to miss a go, you may have to carry out an act of contrition, which means you miss two goes, or you might get a complement, which means you move on three squares. It is important that all of the moderation cards are shuffled at the beginning of the game, so that they appear to be arrived at completely at random (just like real life!).The next square you might need to avoid is the "fuckwit" square. If you land on this square you are stuck with an IT developer from California, who won't let you move on until you have completed three surveys and filled in six postcards.(I was thinking of adding another square about sex in Socialism, which involves having sex with a bonobo, but I'm not quite sure about that one.)Eventually you arrive in London and there is just one more hazard to avoid before you arrive at Clapham High Street. When your in London you have to get past the undead zombies (aka as Socialist Studies) if you get caught by one of these creatures, they bite you and you become a zombie too. This means that you start to spout homophobic vitriol and start rambling on about MI5 spies. However don't worry too much because to bite you the Socialist Studies Zombies have to throw a six, which allows them to put their false teeth in.Having cleared this hurdle you have completed your journey to Head Office and the next part of your odyssey can begin, attending conference. At conference you have to negotiate the hazard of the standing orders committee, who might decide that you can't sit because your branch hasn't completed it's form C, but if you're lucky and you get accepted as a delegate, you can then pick up a chair's decision card. Hopefully the Chair's decision doesn't rule you and your resolution "out of order", because then you'll have to go back and start again. If all of this is completed you can then throw the conference resolution voting dice. If you don't win you will have to start all over again from the beginning. If you win, you can then carryout your "useful Socialist Activity", but unfortunately you'll be too tired after all of the difficulties you've encountered, to do anything about it.(Advanced apologies if I've upset anyone, just a bit of fun. One of the things that has always separted the SPGB from other political parties is our ability to laugh at ourselves as well)
J Surman wrote:Well, I'm still laughing – and it feels good!I'm confused, upset and slightly disturbed that there's no mention of the issue and problems of copyright.
Tim Kilgallon wrote:jondwhite wrote:Cheers. Looking forward to the SPGB game on itunes.The next square you might need to avoid is the "fuckwit" square. If you land on this square you are stuck with an IT developer from California, who won't let you move on until you have completed three surveys and filled in six postcards.
LOL. I can laugh at myself.I still think you need surveys though. You haven't changed my mind, but you have amused me. I guess in my game, if I built it, you would use surveys instead of throwing the dice. You would also try to guess the survey results to prove you understand the views of others like a socialist should and the closer you guess to how the other players vote lets you move extra squares. People who are egoist and think everyone agrees with them generally play at a disadvantage. Also instead of cards people pick up in the begining, I'd use "postcards" that list an exchange of hours and credit you with hours for your work by acting like a receipt and of course the postcards could be voted up or down depending on how well you do and that up or down vote would give you extra moves on the board. I totally approve of gamification. taking surveys can be darn boring if they aren't gamified. have you considered a "price is right" type architecture, where socialist try to guess how much value they get from something they pick up at the general store? I have to ask. . . why the moving about the squares to get information (aka survey responses). Shouldn't access be universal and worldwide? it seems like this rule is anti-socialist. p.s. why do I feel an almost irresistable urge to turn this game into a series of postcards and surveys?
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