Designer's Notes #2

All Games Are Political

At Memesys, our goal has always been to craft stories that engage, enthrall, and enlighten. SHASN was our first foray into tabletop games. Having primarily worked on film and writing before, this was our first transition from more traditional and didactic media to an interactive experience that is magically co-created with the players every time the box is opened.

When we started work on SHASN in 2018, we were living in a radically deteriorating political landscape. Post truth, social media, and (big-data)echo-chambers had contributed towards creating an increasingly polarised society. We wanted SHASN to address these issues directly. 

So we took on a highly immersive media format - games - and peppered it with the most significant political insights of our time. With the inherent allure of play and competition in tabeltop games, SHASN sought to attract everyone from first timers to hardcore gamers.

From the Ideology Cards that ask you to take a stand on divisive political issues to managing Headlines and hatching Conspiracies - SHASN puts you in the shoes of a politician. In doing so, SHASN aims to be a Trojan Horse for political conversation. Players signed up for two hours of adrenalin pumping fun, and before they knew it, actively engaged in contemporary political conversations.

Yet it was only when our backers received their copies last year, did we realize how radical our SHASN experiment really was. In an industry that often evades politics, we chose to embrace it. With AZADI, we want to take this experiment a step further and tell a story about freedom struggles across the world. There are countless games that tackle the subject of colonialism, but most of them so far have done so from the POV of the colonizer - the oppressor. 

As an Indian, I can confidently say that in most narratives, I am the ‘worker’ you put on the board. I am the ‘barbarian’ whose land you ‘discover’. I am the ‘savage’ you try to ‘civilize’. In AZADI, we reverse the popular narrative where the oppressors are presented as the heroes, and instead tell the story of the oppressed fighting back. 

How are we addressing slavery when we ask players to place ‘workers’ on the board? Are we asking players to condemn it or normalise it? Are we highlighting the exploitation inherent in colonialism, or are we romanticising past oppressors? Are we merely parroting centuries-old stereotypes, or are we creating spaces where the subaltern can speak? 

By raising these questions, we are not asking for tabletop games to be cancelled. On the contrary, we are asking for tabletop games to be taken more seriously - as seriously as other media formats like films and books. We are asking the community to consider the narratives that we consume and co-create with our games.

Yes, we can do better, but before that we must acknowledge - board games are art, and all art is political.