Episode 72 - Games With a Message

Episode 129 of the The Ascent of Board Games podcast, hosted by The Ascent of Board Games, titled "Episode 72 - Games With a Message" was published on June 2, 2025 and runs 75 minutes.

June 2, 2025 ·75m · The Ascent of Board Games

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Summary

Welcome back, everyone! This month we're talking about games with a social or political message. It's not JUST because it's Pride Month in the USA, and it's not JUST because tariffs are currently wreaking havoc on the entire board game industry...but it's not NOT because of those things, either. Many links follow: Amabel Holland's great video about, among other things, the REAL origins of Monopoly The games that made Jayson say, "It's awful. I hate this company. I hate it so much." KamSandwich agrees that both of these games are pretty awful. This game (and the rest of the games in its series) are also awful experiences, but for a very different reason. Joe appears to be of the opinion that subtlety is dead. Is this what a Phil Eklund game from the evil mirror universe would look like? More Amabel Holland, discussing her games about Big Tobacco and kaiju as a trans metaphor. What messages did we miss? Does a sociopolitical statement distract you from a game, or enrich the gameplay? Come visit our Discord server to chat with us and other like-minded game nerds! As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them. As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming! Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com Email: [email protected] Discord: https://discord.gg/tdH3QAn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/ And, very occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved. Thank you for listening!

Episode Description

Many links follow:

Amabel Holland's great video about, among other things, the REAL origins of Monopoly
The games that made Jayson say, "It's awful. I hate this company. I hate it so much."
KamSandwich agrees that both of these games are pretty awful.
This game (and the rest of the games in its series) are also awful experiences, but for a very different reason.
Joe appears to be of the opinion that subtlety is dead.
Is this what a Phil Eklund game from the evil mirror universe would look like?
More Amabel Holland, discussing her games about Big Tobacco and kaiju as a trans metaphor.

What messages did we miss? Does a sociopolitical statement distract you from a game, or enrich the gameplay? Come visit our Discord server to chat with us and other like-minded game nerds!

As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them. As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming!