Culture & Society

11 May 2020 Culture & Society

Playing cards against sexism, racism and stigmatisation

Why are there no queens in traditional playing cards? Why do all the ladies have long hair? Why are all the people white? These are questions the Spielköpfe team asked themselves, and they designed a deck of cards that aims to represent the full diversity of society; with black jacks, short-haired ladies and queens wearing headscarves. We spoke to the creators about stereotypes, watercolours and hate comments.

9 November 2018 Culture & Society

Politics meets board games

The Spiele-Autoren-Zunft (SAZ) had at SPIEL Essen 2018 together with the Deutscher Kulturrat invited the cultural politicians Bernd Petelkau, (MdL, CDU), Helge Lindh (MdB, SPD) and Erhard Grundl (MdB, Grüne) to a panel discussion. For the first time, a public discussion took place between representatives of analogue gaming and politics at SPIEL Essen 2018 in Essen. Here is the SAZ recording of the event.

Taboo topics in party games

The present is cruel and beautiful. It is as colourful as confetti swirling through the air at a party. It is as black as smudged kohl after a sexual assault. Books and films address all these colours, all this joy and suffering. Board games do not. They generally avoid anything that might cause irritation, including topics like death, homosexuality or depression. Why is that?

Trump – The Game: board game with the US president

Donald Trump, a likeable figure? At Milton Bradley, they were probably of the opinion in the late 1980s that a game with his name would bring in the dollars just as effectively as the master himself, who was allegedly making two million dollars a day at the time.

31 December 2014 Culture & Society

"Women prefer more communicative games"

Men dominate the games industry: as authors, illustrators, editors, publishers and critics. Women still enjoy playing. But they apparently prefer different games to men. And they’d rather talk than focus on winning. There are no studies to scientifically prove this – but there are numerous indications.

31 December 2014 Culture & Society

Soldat ärgere Dich nicht

It all began with a war game: in 1914, the success story of “Mensch ärgere Dich nicht” started. In a short time, the board game became a symbol of German cosiness. Yet its popularity is thanks to a clever advertising campaign during the First World War.

Games for blind people

How do blind people know what’s happening on the board? Why do they often have to fight not just their opponents but also the game components? And which games might blind and visually impaired people even have an advantage in? We went to Chemnitz to find the answers.

Playing at school

Alongside maths, biology and English, some schools also have games on the timetable. We visited a Berlin primary school and watched young game designers at work. We also spoke to game educator Jürgen Kerber. He plays the role-playing game “Das Schwarze Auge” with pupils and reveals what the children learn from it.

Hexen gegen Huren

What do prostitutes and Jews have in common? They were marginalised groups in the Middle Ages, just like executioners and alleged witches. Historian Christopher Barth is a teacher and has developed a board game about these marginalised groups. He wants to use it to raise awareness among pupils. In the interview, he reveals why fun isn’t the main focus and why he is bothered by the portrayal of the Middle Ages in many social games.

The extermination of Jews as a board game

The board game Train shocks. The winners feel bad. Some cry. Even the state had issues with Brenda Brathwaite’s work. A few months ago, anyone who searched Google for “Train” and “board game” saw the notice: “For legal reasons, Google has removed 1 result(s) from this page.” This message has since disappeared.

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