Column:' Huge stretch' to link board game with colonialism
Column:' Huge stretch' to link board game with colonialism
Column:' Huge stretch' to link board game with colonialism
By Andrew Philips
February 8, 2024
Summary
Not everything is linked to something nefarious or has some underlying social commentary, writer says of popular board game Settlers of Catan.
This piece titled 'What's unsettling about Catan: How board games uphold colonial narratives' goes on to explain how Catan follows a familiar pattern of other 'colonialist' games such as Risk and pretty much anything else where the goal is to get the most resources and build out into the playing surface to win the game.
The author notes that "Because players in Catan explicitly take on the roles of settlers, this particular board game's engagement in the rhetoric of settler colonialism set new precedents. And unfortunately, games that incorporate colonial histories and strategies into their narratives or game mechanic normalize these discourses through their status as a popular pastime."
Further, author Biz Nijdam, who is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, says, "The success of Catan also codified a certain kind of game play that has similarly proliferated worldwide, one that's invested in the specific historical, economic and political factors of settler colonialism."
In interviews, game inventor Klaus Teuber said he started creating games in the 1980s to help deal with the stress of his dental career.
Why attack a family board game when there's so much other low-hanging fruit? Has the writer looked into video games and the violence that pervades?
Or should we stop people from playing what I consider the meanest game of them all, even though it's likely the bestselling board game of all time?
Reference
Philips, A. (2024, February 8). Column: “Huge stretch” to link board game with colonialism. MidlandToday.ca. https://www.midlandtoday.ca/local-news/column-huge-stretch-to-link-board-game-with-colonialism-8221155#google_vignette