Imperial Settlers: Empire State of Mind

[moogleii]

What a thematically weird game. Even with accepting the imperial colonial theme, what a strange set of countries to choose. Ancient Egypt and Classical or Feudal Japan. Might as well lean into the anachronisms all the way and add 80's Americans.

[Krzysztof Wilk]

Great game! I'm glad I can finally play it. It would be great if new nations were added.

[JohnnyCyclops]

What a thematically weird game. Even with accepting the imperial colonial theme, what a strange set of countries to choose. Ancient Egypt and Classical or Feudal Japan. Might as well lean into the anachronisms all the way and add 80's Americans.

1880’s immigrant Americans “settling” the West?

[Krispe157]

While I appreciate the creativity and strategy that go into many board games, I find myself troubled by the tone and framing of this one. The language of “discovering new lands,” “expanding empire,” and “crushing everyone” evokes the history—and ongoing reality—of settler colonialism and violence against Indigenous peoples.

Even when presented playfully, these narratives can unintentionally normalize or trivialize the suffering and displacement that empire-building has caused and continues to cause, from the Americas to Israel's genocide in Gaza today. I believe our hobby can be both imaginative and responsible—celebrating clever design while remaining sensitive to the stories we tell and the histories we echo.

I don’t mean this as an attack on the designer or publisher, but as an invitation for reflection about the messages we celebrate in our gaming culture, and how we might reimagine such themes in ways that acknowledge or subvert those harmful legacies.

It must be so awful to constantly live in a state of being offended. It's a game. A good one at that. Why are board gamers so easily offended? It's crazy.

[Spinser]

This is one of my favorite games, and an awesome implementation to go alongside it! Fingers crossed that we will get some expansions for it

[MasterMystery]

amazing job @kuwizard, though we still need a few bug/rules fixes

[catdag]

While I appreciate the creativity and strategy that go into many board games, I find myself troubled by the tone and framing of this one. The language of “discovering new lands,” “expanding empire,” and “crushing everyone” evokes the history—and ongoing reality—of settler colonialism and violence against Indigenous peoples.

Even when presented playfully, these narratives can unintentionally normalize or trivialize the suffering and displacement that empire-building has caused and continues to cause, from the Americas to Israel's genocide in Gaza today. I believe our hobby can be both imaginative and responsible—celebrating clever design while remaining sensitive to the stories we tell and the histories we echo.

I don’t mean this as an attack on the designer or publisher, but as an invitation for reflection about the messages we celebrate in our gaming culture, and how we might reimagine such themes in ways that acknowledge or subvert those harmful legacies.

I totally agree! I came to the comments seeing if anyone else was bothered by the wording too. Thanks for responding, D

[yfimc]

While I appreciate the creativity and strategy that go into many board games, I find myself troubled by the tone and framing of this one. The language of “discovering new lands,” “expanding empire,” and “crushing everyone” evokes the history—and ongoing reality—of settler colonialism and violence against Indigenous peoples.

Even when presented playfully, these narratives can unintentionally normalize or trivialize the suffering and displacement that empire-building has caused and continues to cause, from the Americas to Israel's genocide in Gaza today. I believe our hobby can be both imaginative and responsible—celebrating clever design while remaining sensitive to the stories we tell and the histories we echo.

I don’t mean this as an attack on the designer or publisher, but as an invitation for reflection about the messages we celebrate in our gaming culture, and how we might reimagine such themes in ways that acknowledge or subvert those harmful legacies.

Agreed- this is gross and honestly seeing it on the BGA homepage makes me want to cancel my subscription.

It's bad enough that the colonial mindset is almost everywhere in boardgames (as Yaiir and JohnnyCyclops mentioned) - from Puerto Rico to the settlers of Catan, to the galactic colonization projects of Race for the Galaxy or The Crew. But the presentation of this game really takes it a step further, not just placing the player in a colonial role but explicitly glorifying the imperial project. There is real, deep violence not only in the project of sending colonial soldiers to peaceful lands, not only in defining all "others" as "enemies" because "the land is too small" (and you only think it's small because of all your mining and plantations to extract "precious resources"), but especially in universalizing the impulse of imperial expansion. Who are the "barbarians" that are trying to build an empire??? The native peoples of lands colonized by Europeans (or the Egyptians, for that matter) did not have the same imperial desires as the Ancient Romans or feudal, early modern Japan (or modern, industrial Japan). Acting like everyone is just naturally a ravenous conqueror is a way of granting innocence to people who historically and currently assault diverse lands and cultures. The insult added to injury is the cartoon lettering and jolly colonist superimposed on a bucolic colonial town, erasing the people and ecosystems that have been and continue to be attacked by colonialism today. Like I said, gross.

[yfimc]

*moderators have removed this post due to inappropriate content. Please remember that BGA is a family-friendly platform and the discussion should remain one that is appropriate for children to participate in. It is fine to question themes, but please do not use triggering language and examples while doing so.

[yfimc]

*moderators have removed this post due to inappropriate content. Threatening others or wishing them harm is never acceptable.