Here’s an essential purchase for the coming festivities.
We may live in a materialistic world, but Aussie educator Andrea Thompson has created a fun way to help the next generation understand the importance of social responsibility in a new family board game. Fair Go is a unique board game where the winner is determined by who has the best reputation for philanthropy and social justice.
From what I can make out – and it’s not always easy to follow – it’s a kind of “social justice” Monopoly, in which rolling a double six doesn’t get you an extra turn and you don’t get any money when you pass ‘Go’. The game is advertised, proudly, with the following endorsement by an unspecified grandma: “Great holiday fun – nobody finishes before the others.” And yes, there’s a thrilling video of Fair Go being played, albeit in a somewhat unexcited manner, by two right-thinking persons who, I’m sure, are feeling good about themselves.
Andrea observed how hard it was to find a family game which could be adapted for different ability levels and where winning depended on making good choices, so she decided to create her own. She hopes that players learn how to win in a fun way “without hurting their friends.”
As Tim Blair says, “Because so many board games end in terrible violence.”
To win, a player must land on the charity shop.
Winning? I denounce her.
It reminded me of the attempt to make children’s football more socialist, in which teams were punished for playing too well. The revised handbook for young players urged talented teams to avoid the risk of forfeiture by “reducing the number of players on the field” and “kicking with the weaker foot.”
“I will definitely use this game in my classroom.”
I bet she will.
Ironically the original Landlord’s Game, upon which Monopoly was based, was intended to show the evils of Capitalism. That worked so well!
The truly sad fact is that Socialists utterly fail to grasp the core feature about Market based systems: they are based upon cooperation.
I love these Progressive inspired failures. Another good one is that the makers of Zulu! intended it to be an antiwar film. Another is the the ‘No Pressure’ video.
If all that “social justice” and mutual esteem-building is all too much, there’s always this toy, a photo of which was emailed by reader Anthony Moclair. Note that it comes complete with barbed wire bat and “bashing action.”
Note that it comes complete with barbed wire bat and “bashing action.”
Perfect. 😀
‘She hopes that players learn how to win in a fun way “without hurting their friends.”’
Yep, because the one thing children really like is to play board games with confusing and arbitrary rules.
What would H. H. Munro make of Andrea Thompson?
http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/shortfiction/SakiToysofPeace.pdf
Yep, because the one thing children really like is to play board games with confusing and arbitrary rules.
I’ve never been big on board games, even the ones with rules that are amenable to human comprehension. Though last year I got roped into a Christmas Day session of Wink Murder, a ‘detective’ parlour game, which was surprisingly entertaining, in fact hilarious. Though that may have had something to do with the inebriation of almost everyone involved. It was at that stage of the evening when even winking discreetly requires more coordination than some can muster.
I prefer this: http://thepeoplescube.com/store/the_peoples_cube.php#manual
When will people realize that voluntary human transactions are not zero sum? If I trade X to you for Y, we both win, because we’ve traded something we value less for something we value more. We are both better off. Leave it economic illiterates to create a “game” where the object is to wind up in penury.
And BTW, I assume the inventor is giving the games away for free, right? Right?
Every Christmas my kids are always saying “If only this game was more politically correct”.
“a unique board game where the winner is determined by who has the best reputation for philanthropy and social justice.”
Reputation? Nice to see the simulation is as much about social positioning as the real thing.
Every Christmas my kids are always saying “If only this game was more politically correct.”
There’s also the fact that many games, if not most of them, involve behaving in ways one usually wouldn’t. From operating on people and stealing cars to murdering other party guests and hoping to get away with it. That’s generally what makes them fun.
@R Sherman
‘And BTW, I assume the inventor is giving the games away for free, right? Right?’
Er, try $49.95.
Luckily, you can email them at fairgogame@hotmail.com and demand they let you have one at cost because profit is EVIL.
I just did, I’ll keep you all updated.
I thought board game social justice was smacking the board game off the table, saying fucluck this sheit and making whoever pick up the pieces.
@Dan
Just bought the Monopoly Millionaire game via our host’s Amazon link for less than half that. Only a Leftist could make Marxism both shittier and more expensive than capitalism.
Whoops. Meant, “. . . make a toy . . .”
Most kids aren’t that abnormal … they will see this as a boring stupid game and move on to something more interesting. Kids don’t fake stuff well unless it’s lying to their parents to get what they want or pretend they didn’t do something …. so you see … kids are smart. And … human nature is constant ..
See, as a lifelong tabletop game enthusiast, I find this utterly hilarious for a totally different reason. Yes, it’s a stupid game that isn’t fun, but so are Snakes & Ladders, Monopoly and Candyland.
No, what I find hilarious is that there are literally dozens of well-designed, cooperative board games for both adults and children where the only way to win is for everyone to work together, make hard decisions, and often “take one for the team”.
As usual with prog lefties, the problem here is mostly this woman’s overweaning arrogance combined with a total ignorance of what she’s gassing on about.
>Landlord’s Game, upon which Monopoly was based, was intended to show the evils of Capitalism.
No it wasn’t. It was written to show the problems of rent-seeking.
Unless you think Adam Smith and David Ricardo weren’t capitalists.
When will people realize that voluntary human transactions are not zero sum?
Don’t know when that day will occur, but I’m sure that it will be after that day when we stop taking money from tax payers to fund academics to lecture hundreds of youth per academic per year to keep said students distracted in such a way that they will remain totally ignorant of this fact.
@TDK – “Another good one is that the makers of Zulu! intended it to be an antiwar film.”
Well, that is a plan that must have gone off the rails pretty quickly because the pacifist preacher is by far the least appealing character in the film. Pretty spectacular fail if that was the intent.
The other extreme is Diplomacy. Not played for years but it involves double crossing, lying, and treachery on a grand scale. Once played it at my parents’ house as a child and bugged all the rooms.
Oh, how I wish this was an elaborate spoof!
Hmm. Game rules . . . Um, there’s a copy of ’em around here somewhere—Ah Yes, here we are.
Each player gets six cards, except for the player on the dealer’s right, who gets seven.
The second card is turned up, except on Tuesdays.
Two jacks are a “half-fizzbin”.
If you have a half-fizzbin:
a third jack is a “shralk” and results in disqualification;
one wants a king and a deuce, except at night, when one wants a queen and a four;
if a king had been dealt, the player would get another card, except when it is dark, in which case he’d have to give it back.
The top hand is a “royal fizzbin”, but the odds against getting one are said to be “astronomical”.
When will people realize that voluntary human transactions are not zero sum?
The Left doesn’t care. They’re interested in ushering in a system wherein they are in charge. To usher in a new system, they have to convince the populace that the current system is too evil to hold onto.
Because they’re sociopaths, they use other people’s own decency and capacity for shame against them.
“You have to let go of the current system because it’s unjust, you selfish thing!”
When in fact, the Left’s only real problem with the current system is that they’re not in charge of it. The self-organizing and self-regulating aspect of the free market drives them batty, because their narcissism and sociopathy demands that they rule over the rest of us.
Arguing against the failed theory and practicum of Marxism is missing the point. Oddly enough, “You’re not the boss of me” is closer to the real argument we should be making.
Do you get extra points for denouncing your fellow players as imperialists and imprisoning them in a Gulag?
FWIW…Ran across this today (damn I wish certain co-workers would get their sh*t together so I’d have something real to do) and found it rather telling. Though how I know that never having had the pleasure is a mystery.
Early on:
with:
and ends:
http://rottenindenmark.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/why-i-could-never-move-back-to-denmark/
The funny thing is that as Daniel Ream mentioned there are no shortage of games that are 1) cooperative and 2) non-violent; such as Pandemic for example. Cooperative play (though not necessarily non-violent; zombie apocalypse anyone?) appears to be the big thing in game design at the moment.
Earth Ball: a catastrophic hippie sport
Update, as promised.
She replies thus:
Dear Dan,
Thank you for your email.
It took months of trialling to work out the maths, organise the designs and manufacture etc.
It costs thousands to pay for a patent, trade mark, the tooling for the pieces, the manufacture, distribution, postage.
I have already given away many games at charity events and schools etc.
I have not made a profit yet but if I do I will be giving a portion to charity.
I am so sorry you think I am a greedy capitalist.
All the best and I do hope you have a happy Christmas with your family,
Andrea
PS. If you can’t afford a game, I am going to the Salvos this week with some opened demonstration games I used at a school recently. They are to be used in a drop in centre for homeless kids. If you would like me to send you an opened game (only used for half an hour) for free I would be happy to give you one of these.
Months of R&D? Expensive paperwork? High cost of sales? Now trying to recoup some of that in the real world?
Yes, welcome to EvilCapitalism and worshipping at the altar of mammon!
Next, a board game about filing your bank statements.
OMG go figure. She is now an eeebil Capitalist! Making a game to teach you the gentler, more responsible side of life. Bwahahahaaaa! I love it.
A woman my roommate nannied for insisted her children only okay cooperative games (where everyone is on the same team playing “against the game,” so to speak.) As an avid board gamer I know that, ironically, nothing gets people madder at each other than cooperative games. When each person’s success depends on everyone else, you end up squabbling for control and fiercely disagreeing on strategy.