I really appreciate your kind comments about Jason Perez's work on the re-theme of Puerto Rico. I found his video both heartbreaking and very insightful about the the less than humane working experiences in parts of the board game industry - especially for those whose culture has been exploited in game themes. Your analysis of the situation and support for him is very validating. Thanks.

@jacobstein5678

16 күн бұрын

💯

Coffee roaster. I play that weeknight when I’m low. It’s just so low thought and so rewarding. Tv isn’t fun. Books and board games are fun. All folks are different. Love your videos man.

Respect for the PR talk.

So enjoy you opening up. Makes me feel normal =)

you're such a sweet man, richard : )

I thought you were no longer doing these Q&As -happy to find I was wrong. Long live Rahdo!

@rahdo

16 күн бұрын

this is the penultimate episode. final ep #40 will be next week (the podcast itself ended almost 2 months ago... these are just the excerpts from that final podcast episode)

@tmcd5049

16 күн бұрын

@@rahdo OK, thanks Richard.

Why exactly was Jason's video taken down?

@rahdo

15 күн бұрын

he posted about it here: boardgamegeek.com/thread/3296602/article/44239745#44239745

@Stu_1977_SEmelb

14 күн бұрын

@@rahdo Ah, thank you, good sir.

Its stuff like you talking about Jason so passionately and respectfully that have me as a supporter. I was really looking forward to the updated version. I will never buy an awaken realms game again.

Good to know. I will not be purchasing the new version due to this.

@rahdo

15 күн бұрын

new frontiers is a great alternative :)

Puerto Rico 1897 was a train wreck on so many levels. They could of added additional expansion content befitting the time period. They could have also added a solo mode. They just reskinned everything and botch the tiles make it harder to play. The other issues are a topper. That production run made Puerto Rico stop being my favorite boardgame. Long live New Frontiers! It both supplanted Puerto Rico and is not my favorite boardgame.

@rahdo

16 күн бұрын

that is certainly true. so many screwups, and this is just the latest one (and to my way of thinking, the most unforgivable one) that made me decide to walk away from it, and as it happens, new frontiers is the superior design anyway.

Doesn't Five Tribes have slaves in it?

@rahdo

9 күн бұрын

the first printing did, and after it was pointed out to the publisher how poorly they handled the subject matter, they changed them for future printings and offered replacement cards for those who bought the first edition

Weren't the disks in 1897 also brown? Honestly, apart from Indigo turning into fruit I didn't see much of a difference between original Puerto Rico and the new version. The main thing was the date on the box. Original Puerto Rico referred clearly to a time of slavery, though the game is so abstract that it might as well have been fairies. They could have simply changed the date on the box to reflect a time after Puerto Rico's independence. But no we have to make everything overcomplicated and argue about it.

@rahdo

16 күн бұрын

gameplay wise nothing changed, but thematically there were lots of changes driven by jason's research, specifically ensuring the right kinds of buildings existed for the time frame, as you said changing the crops, and most importantly giving voice to the native people of the land who have been marginalized out of existence by the colonialism simulation that was the original design. it was a huge and very important step forward in terms of making games more welcoming and also better reflective of mankind's better nature. if you're just as happy to play as a slave owner as your are a free farmer, well that's something that somewhere down the line you might want to take a closer look at, but if you can't see it, then you'll just have to take my word for it... it's a very big deal, changing the stories we tell to acknowledge the cruel indifference that the colonizers have for the colonized, which has always been brushed under the rug by our pastime, and which continues to resonate with our modern world's problems.

@ioannispaxinos5171

16 күн бұрын

@@rahdo I never felt I was playing slave owner. I felt I was moving brown circles into square cardboard to build a hexagon producing engine. If you set up a game of PR, lay it on the table and bring people to play it, no one will think slavery. They won't even know it's Puerto Rico 1453. That only becomes evident when you look at the box and see the title and the date. So a simple change of the date on the box would suffice to take away any insinuation of colonial abuses. So Jason's idea to reframe the time period solved the problem completely. Everything else was just a visual upgrade, the problematic theme was fixed just by the date. Of course his contributions to that visual upgrade and the inclusion of historical elements that celebrate Puerto Rico's independence should have been acknowledged and compensated fairly, no one doubts that. Companies are predatory financial beings and gameboard companies are no different just because we like their products.

@rahdo

16 күн бұрын

you're underscoring the central problem with the original puerto rico which i mentioned in this video: it erases the slavery. it whitewashes the entire experience so that players don't have to face the reality of who they are and what they are doing. this erasure of the suffering of people of color is how our society marginalizes those who aren't white men. it was true in the time of puerto rico's colonization, and it's true today, and it will continue to be true as long as people continue to turn a blind eye to it, or actively try to hide it, which is what PR originally did.

Would it be proper to lean into the horror of colonialism at the time and be honest about it? Or it would not be appropriate at all as a setting for a game?

@rahdo

15 күн бұрын

i believe you can make a thoughtful and respectful game about colonialization if you're intentional and careful about it. the most important thing to do (which PR utterly fails at) is to give voice to the oppressed and make clear the human cost of your acts, and not glorify the act of colonization itself. though i haven't played it, i've heard that john company second edition is a good example of this.