What Board Games Can Teach Us About Politics and Power
What Board Games Can Teach Us About Politics and Power
What Board Games Can Teach Us About Politics and Power
By Nathan J. Robinson
June 19, 2023
Summary
We might conclude that board games just aren't a great way to teach people anything important, other than how to play board games.
Milton Bradley created his "Checkered Game of Life" in 1860 as a "Game with a purpose," which would teach "a lesson of success through integrity and right living." "Intemperance" squares would lead to "Poverty" and "Gambling" would lead to "Ruin" while "Perseverance" and "Ambition" could get you to "Happy Old Age." Bradley's "Life" did not successfully produce a moral revolution in the country, though a version reworked in the 1960s would become one of the best-selling board games of all time.
It's easy to see why Magie and Bradley did think board games would be useful teaching tools, though.
Eric Thurm, in an article for Topic, recounts a long history of socially conscious board games, including games that havetried to show how racism works and a game called "Who Can Beat Nixon?".
In 1978, NYU politics professor Bertell Ollman was able to provide a pretty convincing introductory demonstration of Marxist theory in his board game Class Struggle, which sold over 200,000 copies.
The challenge is to make games educational without making them didactic, and I think most games that actually stand a chance of imparting any new understandings in their players are going to have to sacrifice some entertainment value.
The jury is still out on the question of how much games can actually teach, but I hope that experiments in creating left board games continue.
Reference
Robinson, N. J. (2023, June 19). What board games can teach us about politics and power . Current Affairs. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/06/what-board-games-can-teach-us-about-politics-and-power