51st State: Rebuild, Reshape, Reclaim

[SnugglyWinnie]

Please remove this game and relaunch at a more appropriate time. While this game was designed well before the current political climate in North America, it is highly inappropriate now. Alternately, rebrand the game to be more acceptable and less offensive.

Agreed. I did a double take and wondered whether I was reading the title correctly.

Yikes.

This is definitely a huge misstep on BGAs part, not considering the impact of this. Definitely reads as a political statement, and makes me wonder...

[MadManMark]

Happy Mental Health Awareness Month!

If you're truly hurt by the title of a board game that was published 15 years ago in a completely different context, please seek a counselor/talk to someone/take some time to meditate/etc... Don't make yourself a slave to mere words and phrases, especially ones that don't even mean what you're associating them with.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", and all that jazz.

Glad I didn't have to be the one to say it.

I'm an American who despises what my president is doing. But I'm not going to get offended by every playing card game implementation on BGA which has a suit defined as superior because it's "trump."

[Stick]

I don't really think this is offensive, or whatever, but it *does* feel like someone's taking the piss. Just picking a game with that name right now, either they don't know or they think they're being funny. It's not the end of the world, but it's just one of those "oof" moments.

[HaggbartSlark]

I don't really think this is offensive, or whatever, but it *does* feel like someone's taking the piss. Just picking a game with that name right now, either they don't know or they think they're being funny. It's not the end of the world, but it's just one of those "oof" moments.

That is not how online game development works.

They didn't pick a game "right now".

The game has been in development a long time - possibly months/years before it went in Alpha testing on BGA in October 2024. It went in open Beta in January 2025, the expansion went in Beta in the start of March 2025. Fans of the game have been looking forward to a stable and bug free full release.

The actual release date is the end of a long development and testing pipeline. This Trump rhetorical nonsense can possibly continue for years, it's completely and literally insane to demand a very popular game that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the current political situation/climate beyond the coincidental name to be stopped/pulled/delayed because of hurt feelings because of what may (but 99,9% certainly won't) happen sometimes in the future.

[Josiah Taylor]

Can we issue a bug report on all the complaints against this game?

[ryko74]

The BGA team should know better than to release a game with this title right now. One way to lose paying subscribers.

[AutumnCamel]

LOL to all the offended comments due to the title!

[nwcasebolt]

That is not how online game development works.

They didn't pick a game "right now".

The game has been in development a long time - possibly months/years before it went in Alpha testing on BGA in October 2024. It went in open Beta in January 2025, the expansion went in Beta in the start of March 2025. Fans of the game have been looking forward to a stable and bug free full release.

The actual release date is the end of a long development and testing pipeline. This Trump rhetorical nonsense can possibly continue for years, it's completely and literally insane to demand a very popular game that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the current political situation/climate beyond the coincidental name to be stopped/pulled/delayed because of hurt feelings because of what may (but 99,9% certainly won't) happen sometimes in the future.

Fully agree. I don't hate Trump supporters, but I personally despise everything about him. His administration's fall will be a national holiday forever in my book.

Also - and this is crucial - he doesn't occupy 100% of my brain. Anyone who can't separate whatever nonsense is making headlines from a gaming site needs to unplug and take a walk in the fresh air.

[candidecoating]

Please remove this game and relaunch at a more appropriate time. While this game was designed well before the current political climate in North America, it is highly inappropriate now. Alternately, rebrand the game to be more acceptable and less offensive.

Agreed. I did a double take and wondered whether I was reading the title correctly.

Yikes.

This is definitely a huge misstep on BGAs part, not considering the impact of this. Definitely reads as a political statement, and makes me wonder...

It's trolling. When people tell you who they are, you should believe them.

BGA made a choice, a monetary one, one probably signed in a contract some time ago [but he's been talking about taking over other countries for 5+ years now]. BGA could have honored their contractual agreement and rolled it out quietly. They could have chosen not to release this game and had to pay for renegging on the contract. They could have made a statement in the game release announcement touching on the highly politicized terminology of the name. They chose not to do any of those things.

Let me say it again - they chose to put this game out [which as another player pointed out, seems poorly named, if there is gov't collapse, would there still be 50 "states"?] I digress.

As a Canadian above put so well, board games are ideally a place to escape from the constant thrum of American fascism. Even here I can't get away from the normalization of his language as just another part of life.

[mspider_89]

Definitely reads as a political statement, and makes me wonder...

Why?
I mean I can go very long on how I think Trump as a president is one of the worst ideas ever made real.
But I can also do the same for this and a lot of comments in this thread on how they don't make sense. An announcement creates a problem because USA and Canada think they are the center of the world and that makes them think that everything runs around them?