By the end of the 20th century, Monopoly<\/em> had been played by over 500 million people worldwide<\/a>, outselling every game except checkers\/draughts and chess. Original manufacturers Parker Brothers and current brand owners Hasbro claim it was invented by Charles Darrow during the Depression. Not so. The game now associated with rapacious capitalism was created in 1902 by socialist feminist Lizzie Magie as The Landlord\u2019s Game<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She envisioned<\/a> it as \u2018a practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences\u2019. It was originally playable in two formats \u2013\u00a0the individualist version that became Monopoly<\/em>, and a version where the aim was equitable distribution of wealth. By \u2018[letting] children see clearly the gross injustice of our present land system,\u2019 Magie predicted, \u2018the evil will soon be remedied.\u2019 Also, sadly, not so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bootleg copies of Magie\u2019s board circulated until Darrow sold the idea as his own. His \u2018rags to riches\u2019 entrepreneurial tale became a key marketing line for the new \u2018monopoly game\u2019. Magie secured a settlement from Parker Brothers, but it refused to credit her. So does Hasbro, including when shamelessly launching 2019 spin-off Ms Monopoly<\/em>, about \u2018an advocate whose mission is to invest in female entrepreneurs\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unofficial riffs on the iconic game include Market Meltdown<\/a><\/em>, in which players start off as millionaires\u00a0rather than building empires from scratch.\u00a0They zip around the board in private jets \u2018battling\u2019 interest rates, bonus caps, defaults and debts. Co-creator Will Sorrell wanted to \u2018force players to behave in a way that led to the financial crisis\u2019. Familiarity did not breed contempt: on its 2012 launch, sales soared in Kensington and Chelsea<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Co-opoly: The Game of Co-operatives<\/em><\/a>, where players work together to start and sustain an organisation, offers hope that the socialist roots of Monopoly may yet pass Go. Launched in 2011 by worker-owned TESA<\/a> (which also makes Space Cats Fight Fascism<\/em> and Strike! The Game of Worker Rebellion<\/em>), Co-opoly<\/em> was ahead of its time. \u2018Co-op games\u2019 have become all the rage since Pandemic<\/a><\/em>, in which players unite to halt a deadly virus spreading, shot up best-seller lists in 2020. Like The Landlord\u2019s Game<\/em>, it reflects real world concerns \u2013\u00a0and players\u2019 desire to overcome them, together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The early 1900s Women\u2019s Social and Political Union (WSPU) used games to raise funds, teach strategy and build awareness. Suffragetto<\/a><\/em> pitched suffragettes against police\u00a0\u2013 the former trying to storm the House of Commons, the latter to infiltrate the WSPU. Wrong moves put players in prison or hospital. The card game Panko<\/a><\/em>, and Pank-a-Squith<\/a><\/em> \u2013 named for Emmeline Pankhurst and prime minister Herbert Asquith \u2013 similarly promoted votes for women. Feminist activist-artists have also toyed with board games. Stella Dadzie made Womanopoly<\/a><\/em> \u2018for a society where the cards are stacked against women\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Riffing on the 1960s hit The Game of Life<\/em>, it uses game staples like \u2018move x spaces forward\u2019 and \u2018miss a turn\u2019 along gender lines, with pointed effect. Square eight, for example, reads: \u2018Man: a new better job means you and your family move away from your wife\u2019s job. Move forward four. Woman: give up work to start a family\u2026 back four.\u2019 Dadzie encouraged players to gender swap for the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jackie Collins and Pat Garrett\u2019s Roots and Bootstraps: A Working Class Woman\u2019s Journey Through Middle Class Feminism<\/em> \u2013 a 1982 play on Snakes and Ladders<\/em> \u2013 works to similar effect. Reviewing it in 2019<\/a>, Peter Kirwan said: \u2018The faux-educational tone patronises the working-class woman and punishes her for failing the \u201csisterhood\u201d because of financial constraints\u2026 square 37 stood out: \u201cThree days before your giro is due. Your friend wants you to go and see some feminist films with her. You tell her you\u2019re skint, so she goes with someone else. Go back three spaces for organising your priorities badly, and not managing your dole money better.\u201d The humour of the game\u2019s admonishing tone barely conceals the [artists\u2019] anger and hurt.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Garrett commented: \u2018Thatcher\u2019s policies were really beginning to bite when we invented the game. We had planned more but funding for such work dried up. We still had a fairly well-functioning welfare state then, especially compared to now. Little did we know they were halcyon days.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an era of impending climate collapse, new board games are helping players imagine creative solutions and better worlds. Created by Pandemic<\/em> designer Matt Leacock with Matteo Menapace, 2023\u2019s Daybreak<\/a><\/em> makes players global superpowers tasked with reducing emissions, protecting life and building more just and resilient societies in the face of mounting crises. Cooperation is vital, as players win or lose collectively \u2013\u00a0after all, there\u2019s only one world to save. Co-designer Menapace told the BBC World Service<\/em><\/a>, \u2018We didn\u2019t want this to feel like you can win your way out of the climate crisis by switching the lights off\u2026 we want it to be about collective action and systemic change\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Card game Megawatt<\/a><\/em> tackles the science of energy more directly. Players compete to build the most energy-efficient power grid, balancing power with impact and dealing with unexpected events such as air quality control. It\u2019s a tool for teaching about the impact of our need for power \u2013\u00a0and that we have a choice to switch from dirty to clean energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inverting Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s destructive mantra of \u2018move fast and break things<\/a>\u2019, Move Quietly and Tend Things<\/a><\/em> is a tabletop roleplayer game involving drawing and imagination, set in a post-climate collapse south-east Asia. Whereas Daybreak<\/em> and Megawatt<\/em> propose solutions to the climate crisis, it centres on continuing to care for the world and its societies even in the aftermath of destruction. On her motivation for creating the game, Kellynn Wee writes<\/a>, \u2018There\u2019s a lot of beauty in the world and I will miss it if it is gone. This is a story from a post-climate collapse standpoint, about celebrating what we might have and grieving what we might lose.\u2019 Download Move Quietly and Tend Things<\/em> for free on Itch.io<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agitators, educators and organisers have long created board games to promote radical values. Red Pepper spotlights some playful examples \u2013 including one transformed by capitalism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":43218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[356,2534,89,685,2586],"tags":[2593,2567],"class_list":["post-43585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capitalism","category-climate-change","category-feminism","category-media","category-uncategorised","tag-gerry-hart","tag-siobhan-mcguirk"],"yoast_head":"\nFeminist plays<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Climate games<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This article first appeared in Issue #244\u00a030 Years of Red Pepper<\/em>. Subscribe<\/a> today to support independent socialist media and get your copy hot off the press!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"