51st State: Rebuild, Reshape, Reclaim

[mspider_89]

What is it about board games that attracts snowflakes?

Please ignore anyone whining about current politics. It's a board game obviously not connected. If the words offend you that much then I politely suggest that you get off the internet and take a break from it. You are not prepared right now and that's no shame, you are allowed.

everything is said here.

But I took my popcorn to read all the people complaining about this game and BGA.
Seriously people, you are all suffer from TDS (Trump derangement syndrome, you can google it).
I live in Canada and I don't give **** about all stupidity US president say about canada, that not a real threat.
Actually, it didn't even came to me to think about this when I saw the news... until I come in the forum.

And about this game, I hear it is a really good game, the game was ready... BGA admin was not going to wait 4 years to get out the game.

I.wish I could like this post

[Josiah Taylor]

I wholeheartedly support the release of this game.
Thank you board game arena for caring about making games and not taking seriously whatever tone deaf means.
Just know that there are sane people who just want to play a post-apocalyptic strategy game.

[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?

Stop sending tulips to Canada then. The US is the centre of the world right now and people like are you are exactly like why many Americans voted for Trump (among others reasons we don't need to discuss in this thread). If that's the kind of understanding you get from this thread, you need to enlighten yourself. The comments do make sense, you're just used to thinking in extremes - it's either my way or the highway. This could have been a quiet release or a post with some context (like a link to that National Post article), instead it was put out in a way that sounds antagonistic. It doesn't matter when the game was created, right now is what matters. Right now the climate is what it is and a deliberate choice to go ahead with this like BGA did is tone deaf.

Most of us just don't like the timing; it feels like it was deliberate. People are allowed to have emotions about this and they are also allowed to post in the news here about it. It's not just about you and your opinion; if you didn't think so, you wouldn't have been offended enough to comment. Like someone else said earlier, this is a huge 'oof' moment. Would a delay have hurt them much if at all?

It's a shame for the developer since it is unrelated (albeit an odd choice of a name anyway considering the game's context), but when you pick a company over a nation that says a lot about you than us.

You are telling me I suffer from an attitude of "my way or highway" and then you double on that

The US is not the center of the world; countries have their own problems to deal with. Do you happen to know that last week two countries had national blackouts, running with no electricity during 20 to 24h and no communications for half or 2/3rds of that time? And that 3 (maybe 4?) other countries also suffer from disruptions on their services? Do you know there are other elections and campaigns going on? War? Internal issues? ...

Plus, the reference 51st state is not international. I get that it is sensitive for canadias right now - I am not tone deef to that -, but you can't assume that every person in the world will have the same trigger as you do. It took me 8 comments here to understand the problems was with the name.

And this leads to the main problem I am having with a chunk of the comments (and my original question): people are assuming this is some kind of a political statemente - and we need to get our forks and burn them all - when most probably they didn't have a clue about the reference. Remember that BGA is run (I think it still is) by French people

I can apologise if I sounded like people can't express their feelings, but it wouldn't be a bad idea for you to get out of your high horse and get a bit more real about how things work outside of your bubble.

[the mighty jq]

Uh...BGA? *? Like maybe it is a fun game, Settler's of Catan is fun if you don't think about the brutal realities of colonization. But now? This is the game?

*Moderator edit: please refrain from swearing on BGA, this is a family-friendly platform.

[Hey_Listen]

Some things we can probably all agree on:

1. The publisher created and named this game years ago, long before its title could be triggering.

2. This release, was months (years?) in the making.

3. Given Bga’s history regarding inclusivity (think many translations, games from all over the world, not having an issue like this before, the ability to play so many free games on a standard account, the ability to gain a month at a time of free premium membership), one would think that bga did not intend to offend… I hope we can all get behind this one.

4. This release, at this time, with its title, in big letters, on the Home Screen, is notable. Unpleasant emotions were provoked. Feelings of many people are/were hurt. If you are someone whose emotions were not triggered, please continue enjoying your day, but it does *not* negate the fact that the emotions of many people were, in fact, engaged. Bga serves as an escape for many. As I’ve read in these comments, it did not function in that desired capacity today.

5. Assumptions about intent can, and often do, cause issues.

6. There are far better ways to communicate than name calling. Be it calling bga “tone deaf” or calling people “too sensitive” or “snowflakes”. We are all intelligent (an assumption I feel is safe to make - we can read rules and understand games) people here - calling someone a name says more about the offender’s ability to communicate than the target.

7. bga has, for as long as I’ve been a member (1 year), seemed to be apolitical. So it *is* surprising that - after so many comments regarding hurt feelings and shock - bga has not done something to address the situation.

8. While bga’s non-response is surprising… we don’t know what reason they have for holding off. There’s a multitude of possibilities. Maybe their PR team is helping them draft something. Maybe the person receiving these notifications is on vacation or has an emergency. Maybe their contract legally binds them to go through some hoops first. Maybe a drafted response is going through channels before being posted. Who knows, but I’d like to give bga the benefit of the doubt, for now at least.

9. Whatever the reason - I hope they’ll address it. For those who aren’t bothered by the title of this game, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt here (yikes, me assuming things - I’ll call myself a hypocrite before you can!) and assume that you don’t *enjoy* knowing others are hurting. So let’s all be kind to each other and hope that bga puts something out to address any of the negative emotions and feelings to which this release contributed.

10. We all love games here. Most of us are decent people. This game is probably a great game. The timing was unfortunate. Publishers, developers, volunteers, etc. spent lots of time and effort making it.
For those who enjoy this type of game, we should still give it a chance and try it.

For my opinion - I’m sorry to all those who felt any sort of way upon seeing this title. I’m sure it’s not how you wanted to start your day or evening or whatever else. It’s crappy and I hope you get a thoughtful response from bga.

[MasN]

As you can see on my profile, I live in Canada.

Personally, I do not mind very much a game with whatever name being released on BGA (I've played Secret H before), but still, the timing of this release seems tone-deaf to me, especially because I though BGA tends to be sensitive to these matters to be accommodating to its large playerbase.


Also, while I oppose name-calling, I take issue with referring to "tone-deaf" as name-calling. There is a distinction between purely or near-purely derogatory words, such as "bigot", "snowflake", "****", compared to words with a precise meaning but a negative connotation (eg. "tone-deaf", "aggressive", "wasteful").

[EllieK]

At first I didn't get it. Now I do. A French company is supposed to tell an international audience that they cannot release a game called 51st State because Canada is mad at the U.S. The U.S. is also mad at the U.S. We're not going to publish a game because the U.S. is mad at itself! Really? We must remove the self-imposed buckles we have placed on our minds. Rejoin the world of critical thought. We need you back.

The U.S. and Canada may revolve around a small entitled class and their petty affectations but the rest of the world, I would hope, doesn't care.

[Meeplelowda]

While bga’s non-response is surprising

I agree with almost everything except this. BGA has a track record of being silent in the face of overwhelming feedback, the most egregious example being a thread with nearly 1000 replies and almost 2.6 MILLION views. I don't even agree with all of the gripes in that thread, but I 100% understand the frustration of simply being ignored.

[RedWolfe75]

As you can see on my profile, I live in Canada.

Personally, I do not mind very much a game with whatever name being released on BGA (I've played Secret H before), but still, the timing of this release seems tone-deaf to me, especially because I though BGA tends to be sensitive to these matters to be accommodating to its large playerbase.


Also, while I oppose name-calling, I take issue with referring to "tone-deaf" as name-calling. There is a distinction between purely or near-purely derogatory words, such as "bigot", "snowflake", "****", compared to words with a precise meaning but a negative connotation (eg. "tone-deaf", "aggressive", "wasteful").

100% agree with this, and agree with the post you were responding too. I dont feel that “tone deaf” is an insult. It a term to show lack of awareness.

But i am surprised to see people labelling others as “snow flakes” and “getting triggered” and dismissing peoples feelings.

Today Prime Minister Mark Carney met with President Trump for the first time. Almost immediately a reporter brought up the 51st state. So this is still fresh, even when Mark Carney said that Canada is not for sale and never will be, Trump said “never say never”. That may be meaningless to the rest of the world, but it isn’t to Canadians.

[Hey_Listen]

As you can see on my profile, I live in Canada.

Personally, I do not mind very much a game with whatever name being released on BGA (I've played Secret H before), but still, the timing of this release seems tone-deaf to me, especially because I though BGA tends to be sensitive to these matters to be accommodating to its large playerbase.


Also, while I oppose name-calling, I take issue with referring to "tone-deaf" as name-calling. There is a distinction between purely or near-purely derogatory words, such as "bigot", "snowflake", "****", compared to words with a precise meaning but a negative connotation (eg. "tone-deaf", "aggressive", "wasteful").

100% agree with this, and agree with the post you were responding too. I dont feel that “tone deaf” is an insult. It a term to show lack of awareness.

But i am surprised to see people labelling others as “snow flakes” and “getting triggered” and dismissing peoples feelings.

Today Prime Minister Mark Carney met with President Trump for the first time. Almost immediately a reporter brought up the 51st state. So this is still fresh, even when Mark Carney said that Canada is not for sale and never will be, Trump said “never say never”. That may be meaningless to the rest of the world, but it isn’t to Canadians.

I see what you and MasN are saying. Tone deaf does feel less aggregious than near-purely derogatory words.