Board Game Arena

Thank you for all your hard work, this is such a great platform. I have been playing since COVID began and have been drawn into the hobby:)

One comment I would like to offer:
Several of the games available to play on Boardgame Arena are thematically racist and perpetuate false narratives of historical relationships and events. Please review your game list with a racial justice lens and consider removing games like "Lewis and Clark" that can be so hurtful and harmful to our communities. I wonder if it would be possible to have folks nominate games that may have these racial issues. Or to form a small group to review the games on this site with strict criteria for identifying troubling, hateful or hurtful themes.

Just no.

Far too much of that kind of toxic politics in the world already.

Indeed, let's not fall victim to politically correct censorship here.

No offense, but what are you even talking about?

.... consider removing games like "Lewis and Clark" that can be so hurtful and harmful to our communities.

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Has there ever been a "community" that has been harmed by a board game?

thank you RibbitWiz for bringing this up!


Lewis and Clark
I very much agree that Lewis and Clark has issues. The relations between settlers and First People are not depicted within a historic context.
I wish that the authors of the game would give some form of acknowledgment or errata. Initial responses to this thread already show that folks might not be aware of issues. At the very least I wish the authors of the game would state that this is a fantasy land or alternative history.

Racial injustice and historical oppression in games (in general)
In the past, I and my game group pointed out to each other when we recognize thematically mistakes in games. Puerto Rico comes to mind .
If people state that they are not comfortable playing games I am super happy to accept that and to pick a different game! There are so many good alternatives out there (Lewis and Clark is not the only deck-builder with worker placement elements... )

Curating BGA games
I think it would be very challenging to curate games on BGA concerning racial justice and social equity. The most recent responses here show that many people just lack understanding and education.
IMO education is an area where the BGA community could help... why not just link a wiki article to questionable games IE: here is why "lewis and lark", "Puerto Rico" etc etc is fucked up: "x.., y.., z.. thank you for noticing and we hope you still be able to enjoy the game keeping those issues in mind"

Games!

You state that it is clear that many people lack understanding and education. To me nothing in this topic shows that.

Chances are real they are like me. I hate racism. I hate sexism. I hate people disrespecting other people. I also hate how overly political correct so many people think they should be nowadays.

KimKo wrote: ↑17 November 2020, 19:47 Initial responses to this thread already show that folks might not be aware of issues.
<snip>
The most recent responses here show that many people just lack understanding and education.
IMO education is an area where the BGA community could help... why not just link a wiki article to questionable games IE: here is why "lewis and lark", "Puerto Rico" etc etc is fucked up: "x.., y.., z.. thank you for noticing and we hope you still be able to enjoy the game keeping those issues in mind"

Games!

I don't "lack education". I don't like censorship. If you don't want to play Lewis and Clark that's fine. But to demand that games that other people enjoy and developers spent hundreds of hours coding (I imagine) be deleted is another thing entirely.

Board games are only somewhat reflective of reality. I'm British but I'm not going to get upset if people want to play Britannia which is based on the various invasions of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Romans, Vikings, Irish etc. It obviously doesn't capture the unpleasantness of being ruled by foreign overlords, the horror of Viking raids, the nastiness of crucifiction etc but then it's just a boardgame. A realistic boardgame would be tedious in the extreme.

If you want realistic history then buy a history book.

Games are games and it's all up to publishers to make them relevant or accurate to history, or not.

We're focusing on gameplay and rules. We're not history books, nor an accurate source for anything related to real things.

BGA is against any bad behaviors on real people, and will never EVER join, talk or expose about anything about themes, history or politic.

Also please note that they're also a source to motivate talks, reflexions, exchange and viewpoints about history and education anywhere else.

We're a gaming platform, we welcome everyone and do efforts daily to make this place a nice place to play nice games with nice people.

We're closing the thread.