Board games have an issue with racism.
kickstarter.com/projects/12811…
kickstarter.com/projects/12811…
Let's roll that back a little bit. Board games have an issue using cultures as props. In my experiences as a person of color and a game designer it is not uncommon for me to see designers misuse, appropriate, or even design on flawed if not plain wrong information.
While Indigenous cultures are far from the only victims of this, it is the one I can speak to personally so will be my primary focus in this thread:
I think a lot of this comes from ignorance more than malicious intent. Or at least I hope so in my endless optimism.
But Mahola is hard to defend between its use of spirit animals, use of that dreaded unholy trinity of indigenous rep, and the flippant use of sacred things like dances as a game mechanic.
It doesn't help that a lot of this kickstarter feels like he's using indigenous people as a prop to give him more authority, something he clearly does not possess.
You can see this in things like the line "Based on the Native American culture", not a culture, of which there are 572 recognized nations in the US, but "THE". or his use of Spirit Animals, a uniquely Anishinaabe concept and attributing them to a plains nation.
But hey, at least it's not Louis and Clark, which used red meeples (complete with a feather on the back of the head) to represent Indigenous peoples. 
f you are going to use a still living cultures as a backdrop of your games, even if they are designed mechanics first, you need to do your research.
Read books, listen to voices from these cultures (particularly if they are involved in activism), check your sources, go to museums, powwows, and visit the twitters and websites of tribal governments. Hell, if you have the money, hire a cultural consultant.
We are here. We are living. And we are not a costume. We are not a prop
Wikipedia isn't a valid source. The game Rising Sun got caught this year using a vandalized wiki page where someone was dunking on their friend, "Kotahi" as a hairy monkey monster. They took this as a valid source made a monster in their game.
What's more, if you do get called out, don't double down. Like Bruno Faidutti and his game Waka Tanka, whose original pitch for the game had plains indians messing up an animal sacrifices and in an attempt to talk to "totems". And claim he was "over interpreted"
*-Faidutti, to his own credit has since acknowledged since if he was to make the game again, he would think harder about the themes. And admitted his knowledge of Native Americans as a European is a caricature, and mistakenly that of a historical and not contemporary people.
It's not all terrible though. There are some good games out there. Take Teotihuacan: City of Gods by NSKN games or the heavily researched Birth of America series by Academy Games.
In conclusion:
-do your research
-don't treat cultures as a prop
-remember there are people behind them
-perhaps most importantly be aware of the media pitfalls in representation and how to avoid them.
Games, like all media, do not exist in a bubble and do effect people.
-do your research
-don't treat cultures as a prop
-remember there are people behind them
-perhaps most importantly be aware of the media pitfalls in representation and how to avoid them.
Games, like all media, do not exist in a bubble and do effect people.
