Board Game Arena

Dear players of the world,

We are shocked, like everyone else, by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, by the war and all of its consequences. As Europeans who suffered from the war in recent history we would like to address our first words to all the victims and those who are suffering from this tragedy: our hearts are with you.

As a gaming service, we believe that a great part of our mission is to build bridges between people all over the world. It makes us particularly sad to see the world tearing people apart and building walls.

The Asmodee Group decided to donate 500 000€ to humanitarian associations (International Committee of the Red Cross and Children’s Village) on behalf of all entities at Asmodee, including BGA, as we firmly believe that we have to support the Ukrainian people at this time.

Furthermore, our group will organize first needs goods logistics for refugees through our local organizations in Poland and in Germany.

Last, the Asmodee group is sending a large numbers of board games to refugee camps in neighboring Ukrainian countries, through humanitarian associations, to offer moments of distraction to families that had to flee their country.

During this difficult time, we can only hope that entertainment and culture will continue to be driving forces for people to share happy moments together.

Concerning BGA specifically, we see no reason to punish Russian/ Belarusian players as we cannot know if they support the actions of their leaders. We would like to continue to connect people using board games, even over the battlefront lines, because there are humans with good feelings on both sides, and if everyone is aware of that it makes the world better.

We decided to remove all penalties received by players geolocalized in Ukraine for turn based games in which they were unable to play since Feb 24th. If you are having trouble with any additional account issues on BGA caused by this war, please contact us using the contact form so we can help.

This statement will be displayed as a link on BGA homepage for all players from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.

Despite the situation, we encourage you to play with the whole world and to keep BGA a peaceful place to play.

The BGA team

A peaceful message.

Thankyou!

Thank you.
It also explains a lot why it took a while longer for BGA to provide a response as there were many logistical details involved and the BGA admins were waiting for Asmodee's info.

This topic is exactly what is needed.

Thanks a lot! Hopefully this message can be translated in Ukrainian and Russian lauguage too...

Best regards,
Y.

A very good message, and generous in terms of the financial donation - thank you.

Just one small thought: since I hear that Russia is tightening control of media and banning people referring to this situation using the words "war" and "invasion" (even though both of those clearly describe what this is), it's not impossible that BGA ends up being banned/blocked in Russia as a result. I know the Russian government have already banned platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as independent news sites such as the BBC. Of course BGA is vastly smaller and less significant than any of these so it's unlikely to come to government attention, but it probably wouldn't be wise to assume that nothing will happen.

Дякуємо! Нам дуже важлива будь-яка підтримка від Світу зараз. Скоро буде Мир.
Слава Україні

robinzig wrote: ↑10 March 2022, 14:10 A very good message, and generous in terms of the financial donation - thank you.

Just one small thought: since I hear that Russia is tightening control of media and banning people referring to this situation using the words "war" and "invasion" (even though both of those clearly describe what this is), it's not impossible that BGA ends up being banned/blocked in Russia as a result. I know the Russian government have already banned platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as independent news sites such as the BBC. Of course BGA is vastly smaller and less significant than any of these so it's unlikely to come to government attention, but it probably wouldn't be wise to assume that nothing will happen.

It is very important to say WAR,and don't change words to be more friendly to russian fascists goverment. They can ban everybody except TRUE. If they ban BGA - it will be their choice to put a wall in front of their russian players, as they already did with other media, which says true.
Be fair with yourself.

All Russian players which don't support war in Ukraine could change their country to some other (even Ukraine ). And all other russian players could be banned as supporters of killing innocents. Easy plan!

Zalk wrote: ↑10 March 2022, 18:29

robinzig wrote: ↑10 March 2022, 14:10 A very good message, and generous in terms of the financial donation - thank you.

Just one small thought: since I hear that Russia is tightening control of media and banning people referring to this situation using the words "war" and "invasion" (even though both of those clearly describe what this is), it's not impossible that BGA ends up being banned/blocked in Russia as a result. I know the Russian government have already banned platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as independent news sites such as the BBC. Of course BGA is vastly smaller and less significant than any of these so it's unlikely to come to government attention, but it probably wouldn't be wise to assume that nothing will happen.

It is very important to say WAR,and don't change words to be more friendly to russian fascists goverment. They can ban everybody except TRUE. If they ban BGA - it will be their choice to put a wall in front of their russian players, as they already did with other media, which says true.
Be fair with yourself.

All Russian players which don't support war in Ukraine could change their country to some other (even Ukraine ). And all other russian players could be banned as supporters of killing innocents. Easy plan!

I agree, and to be clear - I was NOT suggesting that BGA should change their language to suit the Russian censors. I was merely pointing out, that as a practical matter of putting this message out to Russian players, it is *possible* (but by no means certain) that the site could end up being censored.

Bravo BGA!
I completely agree with you.

I strongly disagree and disappointed with the response. BGA needs to make a stand like the rest of the world. Ukrainian cities are getting bombed, Ukrainian children and civilians are getting killed. Millions of Ukrainians now have been displaced because of the war. Russian population largely has been complacent and we only saw small demonstrations. Right now is the time to put pressure on Russian population and to show solidarity with Ukraine. If Ukrainian players can't play BGA games because of the war why should Russian players can? The ban can be temporary, but action needs to be taken. You speak of peace, but there is no peace in Ukraine, there shouldn't be peace on BGA. How many people need to die in Ukraine before BGA make a stance.