Playing Nazis? Ethics, Historical Accuracy, and Personal Comfort in Games with Loaded Topics
Playing Nazis? Ethics, Historical Accuracy, and Personal Comfort in Games with Loaded Topics
Playing Nazis? Ethics, Historical Accuracy, and Personal Comfort in Games with Loaded Topics
February 08, 2021
Summary
As the Nazis are not a player faction in Cramer's game, it represents them abstractly via a track.
As a lot of what makes the experience of a game is created by the players rather than the designer, games benefit from a thorough contextualization.
There are many games which let their players do unethical things, beginning with the classics: Chess features the emotionless sacrifice of one's soldiers to improve position on the battlefield.
It's possibly easier to trip up with Holmbäck's approach of including the Nazis as a playable power, but I am confident that the subject is treated with the necessary care in both games.
The two Weimar games also offer different interpretations of the role of the Nazis in the Weimar Republic:Cramer has stated elsewhere that the Nazis were not a major force for most of the covered period as they only gained strength from the global economic crisis erupting in 1929 on.
Cramer therefore contends it'd be too focused on the eventual end of the Weimar Republic to make the Nazis an important part of the game before its late phase.
Some games are less likely to touch on personal sensitivities than others.
While there is no objective historical accuracy as such, both games discussed offer a plausible interpretation, of which Holmbäck's feels more teleological.
Finally, everyone Everybody can feel uncomfortable playing a game for any personal and political reason.
As that might make them forgo the interesting games about the failure of the Weimar Republic, I am happy that the two designers each found a way to avoid that and keep their games open for these players.
Reference
Playing Nazis? Ethics, Historical Accuracy, and Personal Comfort in Games with Loaded Topics. Clio's Board Games. (2021, February 8). https://cliosboardgames.wordpress.com/2021/02/07/playing-nazis-ethics-historical-accuracy-and-personal-comfort-in-games-with-loaded-topics/