Submitted by DarkArmillary in Games

Game designer Brenda Romero discusses a tabletop game she designed called Train, in which players are (unknowingly) loading people onto trains bound for Auschwitz. The game was not designed for commercial sale, but rather as a way to evoke emotions of "complicity" in the players, and spur critical thinking into such bureaucratic atrocities.

What are your thoughts on games of this nature? Are games an effective medium for presenting radical ideals and critiques, including atrocities; or are there some lines which should not be crossed in terms of "gamifying" reality, out of respect for victims of historical/ongoing violence?

(Article is from 2013.) "Brenda Romero's Train Board Game will make you ponder"

"When the players find out that the train is going to Auschwitz, there is a clear sense of shame. Sometimes they cry. Sometimes they feel hate. One man said he saw the Nazi typewriter and said, “I just want to fucking smash it.” Sometimes people are grateful. Sometimes they walk away. ... Some people respond to the discovery of the game’s story by breaking the rules. One person hid people under the board. Another said, “These people are going to Denmark,” a reference to the haven where some Jews escaped."

https://venturebeat.com/2013/05/11/brenda-romero-train-board-game-holocaust/

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