I conducted an online survey of 320 respondents in late 2020. But does this lack of representation matter to current board gamers? (Tanya Pobuda) Representation mattersĪ lack of representation sends a message to potential audiences. Imagery of white people dominated the top 200 BoardGameGeek-ranked games cover art. White imagery was found on 82.5 per cent of the images or 528 compared to BIPOC imagery which made up only 17.5 per cent of the images, or 112 total images. Images of men and boys represented 76.8 per cent of the human representation on covers, or 647 images in games such as Great Western Trail (2016) and War of the Ring: Second Edition (2012), compared to 23.2 per cent of the images of women and girls, which represented only 195 of the images counted as in games with more gender representation like Arkham Horror: The Card Game (2016) and Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (2015) Men dominated the covers of the top 200 games on BoardGameGeek. Of the total 1,974 figures analyzed during my board game cover art analyses, white male imagery was predominant.
The cover art images on the boxes of the top-ranked 200 BoardGameGeek ranked games with games such as Gloomhaven (2017), Marvel Champions: The Card Game (2019), Terraforming Mars (2016) and Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization (2015) skewed heavily toward white-presenting males. 92.6 percent of game designers for the top 400 BoardGameGeek-ranked games were white men. I found that 92.6 per cent of the designers of the 400 top-ranked board games on BoardGameGeek were white men. My research argues that one of the key factors facing board gaming is the homogeneity of the current board game design labour pool and limited representation on the products themselves. Sometimes, this kind of social shaping, intentionally or not, can create a vicious circle of exclusion for other identities.Īs I talked to people in board gaming communities and examined the games themselves, I realized that there were big, systemic social, labour and economic issues that were limiting the wide-spread adoption of board gaming and market growth. The result of this social shaping has been that board gaming spaces have, over time, have become an exclusive preserve for this default, imagined audience.
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The imagined audience for board games is, most often, a cis, straight, middle-class able-bodied white man. To fill this gap, I decided to spend the last four years of my life delving into the industry.īoard gaming, like many other cultural spheres, has been socially shaped and constructed, with products being created for an imagined audience. It made me wonder, why is board gaming so white and male?Īs a doctoral student at X University and York University in their joint communication and culture program, I have noticed a lack of contemporary scholarship on board games, as most game scholarship focuses on video games. I regularly noticed that these friendly local game shops were filled with mostly white men, often on their own, wandering the stacks. I have loved board games my whole life and in the last 10 years spent my time browsing shops for the newest releases, growing increasingly addicted to watching board game channels on YouTube and collecting games - a collection which has taken over several rooms in my home. Eleanor Abbott created Candy Land after her contracting polio and spending extended time in the hospital during the epidemic in the United States. Scrabble was designed by Alfred Mosher Butts during the Great Depression. Board games can provide relatively affordable, reusable, home-based entertainment.
It makes sense that board games gained popularity during the pandemic. A Statista report projected the total overall board game market might reach US$12-billion by 2023. They experienced a resurgence of popularity at the beginning of the pandemic. Board games have been having a bit of a cultural moment.
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