Book Club: Playing Oppression by Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson

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In the second episode of the Lucky Paper Radio Book Club, Andy, Anthony, and Parker discuss Playing Oppression by By Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson. The book explores the history of colonialism in games - the many roles games have played inculcating explicit propaganda or normalizing colonial value systems in their aesthetics and mechanics. Our club members, including call ins from listeners, talk about what they took from the book and whether it’s changed their perspective on games.

Discussed in this episode:

• Playing Oppression by By Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson
• Free PDF of the Book
• The First Book Club Episode
• Nose Dive
• A Pattern Language
• The Doughboys
• Untitled Goose Game
• ‘Kriegsspiel! How Napoleon Accidentally Invented Strategy Games’ on YouTube
• Wingspan
• Photosynthesis (board game)
• Spirit Island
• A People’s History of the United States
• Cole Wehrle
• Root
• Molly House (concept)
• Molly House (board game)
• Citizen Game
• Rusty Cash Box of Goblin
• Polytopia
• Ogre Battle Tactics: March of the Black Queen
• The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

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• Andy’s “Bun Magic” Cube
• Anthony’s “Regular” Cube

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Musical production by DJ James Nasty.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:26 - Pickle Corner Returns
• 5:15 - First impressions of Playing Oppression
• 11:05 - On the format of the book and whether it’s the best means to convey the message
• 16:28 - Getting on board with the core conceit of Playing Oppression
• 19:41 - Are games descriptive or prescriptive of our culture?
• 25:07 - What is a “Goose Game”
• 30:42 - Are video games to blame for gun violence?'
• 37:02 - The German Colony Game and why rehearsing violence is perhaps more visceral than witnessing it
• 42:23 - How are colonial and violent values baked into games that don’t have explicitly colonial flavor?
• 45:26 - How post-war Germany gave rise to the modern Eurogame
• 52:22 - How do you subvert these colonial themes in game design?
• 57:14 - Our experience playing the ‘anticolonialist’ games mentioned in Playing Oppression
• 1:15:01 - Fascism as colonialism and imperialism turned inward
• 1:16:29 - How does all of this relate to Magic
• 1:20:42 - Polytopia and whether or not a better skin would make a difference