Games as Art

Videogame designer Brenda Brathwaite has designed a few board games that are more about art and social statements than games. One of them is called Train. Two players play Train. They have boxcars, and they can use their turns to speed down the track, load the boxcar with yellow pawns, or slow its progress. The goal of the game is to reach the end of the track. At that point the player draws a Terminus card, which has the name of a place on it. Like Dachau. The players aren't told in advance that it's a game about the Holocaust. (But, come on. You're racing to shove little yellow men into trains. Might you suspect something?) Brathwaite says her goal was to put the player in the shoes of the train conductor -- make them feel a sense of complicity.

The game doesn't end when the game officially reveals itself as a Holocaust game. The players can choose to continue until all the pawns are moved. The players can also use the rules to slow the trains down and save the pawns. For the most part, players never move all the pawns over, and they use the rules to save the pawns. I find it pretty fascinating that most players feel either morally obligated or socially pressured to save tiny, wooden pawns.

I recommend the whole article.