#Rassismus

18 January 2024 Politics & Society

Are prejudices conjured in Magic: The Gathering?

Seven cards were banned from the Magic universe in 2020. With this, Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic: The Gathering, wanted to take a stand against racism. In her guest article, Dr. Juliane Lippok analyses the decision and explains how games can convey a global historical awareness.

11 September 2022 Politics & Society

Puerto Rico 1897: culturally correct reissue of the board game classic?

Ravensburger has withdrawn the children’s book Der junge Häuptling Winnetou because it hurt other people’s feelings. With Puerto Rico, the publisher took a different approach. It revised the board game with cultural consultants. Now it is no longer set in the colonial era, but in 1897. We took a look at the game and discovered new buildings as well as old acquaintances: the brown workers are back.

16 March 2022 Media

Puerto Rico 1897: board game classic without colonialism and slavery

A new edition of Puerto Rico is set to be released in autumn 2022. The publisher is responding to discussions about the depiction of colonialism and slavery in the game. We spoke to alea editor André Maack – about historically accurate board games, unintentional mistakes and the likely return of the brown discs.

10 November 2021 Media

TV documentary: Board Games – Welcome to the World of Board Games

The documentary “Board Games – Willkommen in der Welt der Brettspiele” shows why we love games. It introduces the people behind the successful products and reveals that games are not always innocent either.

28 August 2021 Politics & Society

How should museums handle racist toys?

How can you recognise racism in toys? And how should museums deal with racist toys? The Spielzeugmuseum Nürnberg has addressed these questions – and answered them.

26 July 2021 Politics & Society

Code for Respect and Responsibility: Diverse and Accessible Games

The Spiele-Autoren-Zunft (SAZ) has published a code of conduct. It aims to raise awareness for a respectful and careful approach to game themes and content. The wording was the subject of controversial debate.

24 April 2021 Politics & Society

"We do our best, but we’re aware of our limits"

The board game industry has not only been discussing racism since the Tascini case. This also affects the Spiel des Jahres association. We spoke about this with Bernhard Löhlein, the jury’s spokesperson. An interview about black dice, white jury members and psychopaths.

25 January 2021 Politics & Society

Racism discussion: The Daniele Tascini case

This article is probably far too late for the internet. After all, it covers an event that started more than a week ago. It’s about an Italian Facebook post by game designer Daniele Tascini and the reactions to it. We are documenting the events and answering the most important questions about them.

11 May 2020 Politics & 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.