By Darya Marchenkova of the TESA Collective and Felicia Perez of the Center for Story-based Strategy

“Imagination is intervention, an act of defiance. It alters belief.” –David Mura

Have you ever talked politics with someone you disagree with and tried to change their mind? If so, then you probably know that the facts rarely speak for themselves. It’s not enough to tell people facts and figures about the truth if we want to convey deeper values. To do that, we need stories, images, and metaphors. We need imagination.

Games are sensational storytellers. They can take us to magical places and alter our perspectives. And what if that fun mental break we get from games wasn’t just about escaping real life but about imagining a better world?

The TESA Collective has just launched Rise Up: The Game of People and Power, a cooperative board game where players build a fiercely powerful social movement step by step, while warding off attacks by aggressive opponents. It’s a fun and low-stakes way to practice political strategy, created for both new and experienced activists.

The Center for Story-based Strategy made Resistance Bingo, a print-and-play game that responds to the “oh shit” feeling many people might be feeling by giving players practical actions they can take to resist fascism in real life, then tracking their progress on a bingo board.

Together we collected 8 other games we found inspiring and imagination-based. These games stress different possibilities, simulate other worlds, or cultivate empathy. And because we were curious about the backstory to these games, we went straight to the source and asked the people behind them.

Rebecca Goff of Native Teaching Aids

The object of this card game is to acknowledge stereotypes of Indigenous communities through satire and laughter.

What inspired the making of your game?

Rebecca: Cards Against Colonialism is the brainchild of one of our native coworkers and collaborators. He wanted to create a humorous game that spoke to contemporary native culture and challenged stereotypes experienced by many Native Americans. Much time was spent looking at the best way to approach this in a culturally sensitive way while still calling out stereotypes and approaching difficult topics and experiences. The game took about six months to develop, going through a great deal of discussion and play testing with a diversity of communities and cultural backgrounds.

It was decided the best way to approach the game was not just to entertain, but to educate and inform through the use of sub-text on the cards.

In this way the game could be entertaining, and use humor to challenge and address stereotypes, as well as speak to contemporary cultural aspects that are not well understood outside of reservation life.

Do you have plans for any new games coming up?

We are working on finishing up an expansion to Cards Against Colonialism: “The Western Expansion.” It will be coming towards the end of next month. We are also very excited to release a new collaborative game this fall that focuses on the issue of food sovereignty, developed by Tech4Good as a collaborative effort between the media arts division of Salish Kootenai College and Native Teaching Aids.

Kenyatta Forbes, Creator

The object of this card game is to talk about and redefine our constructs of blackness in a humorous and fun way.

What inspired the making of your game?

Kenyatta: My experiences as a woman of color in the United States inspired the making of Trading Races. I wanted a space for honest and open dialogue about race and more specifically blackness.

I wanted to create a discussion or a dialogue that many felt was unnecessary or that we have moved beyond.

Do you see your game any differently or having a different direction after Trump’s election?

The current racial climate in America is in an interesting place. Not necessarily a tipping point but a place in which we have an opportunity to create social change. I see Trading Races as a real opportunity to combat ignorance and bigotry post-election. I’ve definitely taken into account decisions made by the current administration.

Nicky Case, Creator

The object of this online game is to break out of news cycles and vicious cycles…if you can.

What inspired the making of your game?

Nicky: I was doing an internship at PBS Frontline. The summer of 2016 was horrible. The Orlando attack, the assassination of Jo Cox, the shootings of Alton Sterling & Philando Castile, and then the shootings of Dallas & Baton Rouge police officers, the Nice terrorist attack. I couldn’t help but feel that the media — including me — was just making all this worse. First, terrorist attacks: they’re basically deadly PR stunts designed specifically to get “a message” out there in order to recruit more terrorists. So why were we, in the media, giving them exactly what they wanted? Second, politics: the media (at least in its current form) incentivizes extremism and polarization.

Do you see your game any differently or having a different direction post-US presidential election?

After the election, some people in the social justice communities I’m part of thought I was anti-news, anti-media. I’m not. I strongly believe the press is needed for a healthy democracy, and that’s precisely why I’m so disappointed in the current media ecosystem.

What’s new for you?

My next game is about the game theory of trust, why trust has declined in the West over the last few decades, and what we might do to restore it!

Jenny Nicholson, Creator, for Urban Ministries of Durham and McKinney

The object of this online game is to help the world understand how impossibly hard it is to live on the edge of poverty by challenging players to live on minimum wage and make some tough decisions.

What inspired the making of your game?

Jenny: Our client, Urban Ministries of Durham, asked us to help people experience the journey of someone who stays in their shelter and goes through their transition programs. We realized there was an even more important journey to document: the one that ends with someone arriving at a homeless shelter. It’s easy to say “I’d never be homeless because I make good choices” when you haven’t actually experienced the slow, agonizing struggle to keep your head above water.

My dad was playing FarmVille all the time and I kept getting these stupid notifications from him. I wondered: what if i got a notification from my dad that said he can’t pay his bills and needs some money? It was about taking some of the characteristics of social games.

It was my first time making a serious game or a game for good, and on my deathbed, if someone asked what was the most meaningful thing I’ve ever done, it would be a tie between my daughter and Spent — professionally, it’s Spent for sure!

Do you see your game any differently or having a different direction post-US presidential election?

Spent has become even more relevant. There have been Congressmen and representatives of the administration that have said the most ignorant and uncompassionate things. Ben Carson said that being poor was a matter of choice. People who have those assumptions may not have said those things before, but feel emboldened now. In some ways that’s bad, but in another way it engenders conversation and makes it possible to talk about these things. We would love to use Spent as a way to challenge those assumptions.

B Loewe

It’s like whack-a-mole, but for racist politicians.

What inspired the making of your game?

B: The Bazta Arpaio campaign made Bop the Bigot as part of the short-term effort to unseat Sheriff Arpaio. We know that politics as usual lacks both the inspiration and the entry-points for all the people who could be but aren’t involved. Creating Bop the Bigot was a way to frame the elections around racial justice lines, it was an unconventional outreach tool, and also a stress-reliever for everyone who was watching the campaign season and needing to (peacefully) have an outlet for their feelings.

Rocket Lee and Tim Simons of Out of Order Games, Creators

The object of this board game is to build people’s occupations in state-controlled zones of a city.

What inspired the making of your game?

Tim and Rocket: During the summer of 2010, a group of us began exploring some ideas for a board game that would eventually become Bloc by Bloc: The Insurrection Game. At that time, we drew significant inspiration from recent popular and anti-capitalist uprisings including the Oaxaca Commune of 2006, the 2008 insurrection in Greece following the police murder of Alexis, and the riots in our home town of Oakland, CA after the police murder of Oscar Grant. Check out our online zine to learn more about what inspired this game.

Do you see your game any differently or having a different direction post-US presidential election?

Not really. The trajectory of struggle that this project is a part of stretches back long before the current crisis. The theme of collective liberation and popular insurrection is equally relevant under a liberal capitalist regime or a fascist regime.

Do you have plans for any new games coming up?

Yes! We are currently working on a new game based on land struggles called Defenders of the Wild. It’s coming along great and we plan to Kickstart it this fall.

More&More Unlimited, Creators

Investing in Futures is designed to help you imagine alternative global futures.

What inspired the making of your game?

More & More Unlimited: More&More Unlimited is an art collective looking at global systems (trade, logistics, ecosystems) and their relationships to individuals. The Investing in Futures deck was inspired by a feeling of hopelessness that resulted from coming to grips with the seemingly inevitable and self-perpetuating nature of many of these systems.

Do you see your game any differently or having a different direction post-US Presidential Election?

Yes. We started working with the concept before the election to address what we thought was a deficit of the imagination fuelled by neoliberalism. Now, we see that there is an actualizing imagination for an alternative world; it just happens to be insane and horrifying. In response we adapted our cards to focus more on fostering conversation about embedded values/biases, as opposed to a focus solely on future-imagining exercises.