A look into cultural edits in board games
A look into cultural edits in board games
I find it interesting to see how board games change to coinside with the times. Some examples below. Please excuse anything I may have wrong as this is solely from memory and I can follow sources if you feel I recalled something wrong. I'm also not a good writer so I apologize for any poor wording regarding a particular topic, and will delete this topic if needed.
I come across many demos and copies of various editions so I have a habit of looking at all the little things.
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Puerto Rico's latest edition had prototype images of purple colonists instead of brown at one point. The latest edition also changes the concept of colonists arriving on a ship to a work office where they get a paying job to work.
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Sid Meier's Civilization 2009 Edition by Fantasy Flight Games had an odd one: at some point Mao Zedong was replaced with Wu Zetain. No gameplay changes, just an image swap, which I rarely see in a board game as it seems costly to make such a small change and go through all the processes to get it proofed then resume production. A user on the BGG.com page for this game said it was related to overseas manufacturing having an issue depicting Mao in a situation where he could lose. (Can link the BGG page if interested). That is the only source I could find, and I doubt it would be easy to track down an old FFG employee to get better info.
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Great Western Trail 2nd Edition replaced TeePees with Outlaws and diversifies the workers.
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MicroMacro's first printing in the US had Ages 8+ on it. The second printing changed it to 10+ and added a symbol on the cases to signify how family friendly it was, but everything else is exactly the same Not sure if other languages made this change.
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the game Scout supposedly delayed a printing at the height of it's Spiel Des Jahres hype in the US in order to make more readable (colorblind friendly?) Cards.
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Splendor added gem symbols next to the numbers in the cards to be monochrome friendly, which seems to be a trend with Asmodee as they have their own logo for colorblind friendly games. And might just be me but the chips feel slightly lighter, can't confirm
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Among all the other changes in Cash N Guns edition, the rule of shouting Banzai in the rulebook during the hold up is gone. At first I just thought it shortens the rulebook, but I also recall FFG ending the Banzai shouting at L5R events, but I haven't been to a regional event myself so I might have read it all wrong from memory.
Some other things of note:
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Deception Murder in Hong Kong has a "newspaper" card. My friend saw it, laughed, and said it translated to the headline for Tiannamen Square. This makes me wonder if it's still in the lastest 2023 printing of it's still manufactured in China
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Battle Cry by Avalon Hill/Hasbro seemed to disappear without a trace and no comments at all about it. The Gettysburg games by Academy games are STILL on preorder with ACD for the past 4-5 years I think. Battle Cry had a lot of Union and Confederate flag stickers you put on the flag poles.
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The board game Endeavor back in the late 00's mentioned in the rulebook I read about the use of slavery tokens in the game and how it related to the times.
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Carnegie mentions in the rules intro how it stresses how the game only focuses on the positive aspects of Carnegie.
What are some little changes you have noticed in printings of games that most die hard board games might miss?
Okay, first off: thank you very much for this, this is a really interesting topic!
I personally enjoy such changes, especially if they remove or correct unrealistic stereotypes and such.
As I rarely have ever seen old vs. new versions of the games I own, I don't have an example fitting your description really. The only similar situation I can think about is Everdell which doesn't fit the "that most die hard board games might miss" part because the change was basically a free add-on, kinda:
Everdell has a set of cards called "Husband" and "Wife" in the original release. These cards are special in the regards that they can share a space usually limited to one card and also get you more victory points when played that way.
Later on they released a little add-on pack that came free with your next add-on orders that changed these cards to "Harvester" and "Gatherer", and each of them is available in a "male-looking", "female-looking" and "gender-neutral-looking" variation, so you can basically mix and match them to represent whatever way you want. (and some more cards so you can even write your own names on the card, but that's just a bonus.)
This optional change is also represented in the (quite good) videogame adaption of the game.
At least in some videogame forums this "obviously" caused some people to complain about "wokeness" and shit, like it seems to happen all the time. But while I personally don't mind if a game doesn't "represent" me personally, I still think it's an awesome option and heck, everyone can even choose to use it or not, so, as usual, silly complaints. I like it. (Even though I prefer the original (husband/wife artwork, but that's a different topic.)
Didn't know about the Everdell add on, neat!
I don't mind any represantion in general in games and stories as long as it's relevant
Legacy of Dargonholt i think is a good example where it's revealed the couple you travel with is gay and hired you to escort them to a town to get married, good stuff!
Yet in another part of a diary it just throws in a comment "haven't they thought I would want to marry a woman?" And just skips to another topic, didn't feel like a natural journal entry.
That's an impressive list !
Personally, I haven't noticed much because most of my "famous" games are secondhand, old prints. Like my Puerto Rico has brown workers. But, it's great that they are changing bit by bit. Hobestly, I stopped playing Puerto Rico for it's colonialist roots.
I'd be interested to know if Santa Maria had new edits. That game literally uses "Happiness Points" as victory points and sends conquistadors around to new lands. 😅
Or Istanbul. I'm waiting to see if there'll be women featured in the markets. At the moment, it's all dudes.
I think the new Istanbul should release late 2023 for retailers I would like to see what kind of changes too
I have mixed feelings about the Great Western Trail change. I understand the reasoning, but it feels like it's replacing genocide with erasure. I joked with my local group about how now it takes place after we killed all the Indians.
The downside to all of these I feel is altering historical accuracy. I would be fine with any changes in any board game as long as the rulebook mentions it like the Carnegie rulebook.
Super interesting topic, thank you for posting it.
Someone mentioned the change of the husband/wife in Everdell! I had no idea!
Castles of Burgundy has some tokens which allow you to change your diceroll +/- 1 and these used to be called slaves. In the 20th anniversary edition this was changed to “workers”
They are definitely called workers in the version I have from 2015 or so, must've been a change they made soon after release
Five Tribes pretty famously replaced Slaves in its first printing with Fakirs in its second onward.
Mombasa has gotten a reskin from the development of colonial interests in Africa to the development of corporate interests on the Moon (Skymines).
I forgot about Five Tribes, haven't had anyone ever mention it so I never came across the latest prtonong. I feel like Wil Wheaton's Tabletop episode in Five Tribes brought to light a lot of that stuff in board games.
Various fantasy games sometimes have used different art in Chinese editions to avoid the depiction of skeletons.
Contrast the international and Chinese version of the 1998 Magic card "Unworthy Dead", which has the creature type Skeleton but in the Chinese version is depicted as a clawed terracotta zombie-like creature instead.
There's apparently no law on the books against games with skeletons in them, though.
Interesting. I have to look up the Turn to Ash card I think now
Viticulture replaced 2 bonus cards that depicted conquistadors:
https://stonemaiergames.com/south-america-cultural-consulting-and-fixing-a-big-mistake/
Never knew that, thanks!