{"id":7188,"date":"2022-07-11T00:20:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T04:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=7188"},"modified":"2022-07-21T00:33:54","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T04:33:54","slug":"the-continuation-of-politics-by-other-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2022\/07\/the-continuation-of-politics-by-other-means\/","title":{"rendered":"The continuation of politics by other means"},"content":{"rendered":"

“W<\/span>hy,\u201d you may be wondering, \u201cis a socialist magazine doing a review of a board game?\u201d Perhaps it is for the same reason that a socialist magazine would create and merchandise a board game. Announced on social media by Jacobin<\/em> magazine in November 2021 as a crowd-funded Kickstarter project, Class War: The Jacobin Board Game<\/em> was officially released for individual and retail distribution in May 2022.<\/p>\n

Class War<\/em> not only boasts the Jacobin<\/em> imprimatur<\/em>, but its design team comprises some of the primary names behind the magazine itself, including Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara,. As stated in relevant materials and publicity, Jacobin views the game as both an entertainment and a \u201cpedagogical<\/a>\u201d medium. \u201cThe gameplay is so addictive,\u201d Jacobin<\/em> asserts<\/a>, \u201cthat even your libertarian uncle won\u2019t be able to resist the world-historic struggle unfolding in the deck of cards before him.\u201d At the same time, unwitting players \u201cjust might see, for the very first time, what a socialist perspective on our society\u2019s class antagonisms really looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, the act of buying and playing the game is intended to \u201csupport Jacobin<\/em>\u2019s important socialist journalism and analysis<\/a>,\u201d an effort aided by the penultimate page of the included Rule Book, which contains more information \u201cAbout Jacobin<\/em>\u201d and on \u201cFurther Reading\u201d (comprising a short list of mainly Jacobin<\/em>-published texts<\/a> such as The ABCs of Capitalism<\/em>, The ABCs of Socialism<\/em>, and The Socialist Manifesto<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Given the game\u2019s explicitly dual character\u2014as play and as propaganda\u2014this review will examine Class War<\/em> in detail on both counts, perhaps leaning in a bit harder on the political analysis. As it turns out, both the strengths and weaknesses of Class War as play and propaganda are immanently related to the strengths and weaknesses of Jacobin<\/em>\u2019s ideological approach to questions of socialist theory and strategy, reform and revolution, state power, and workers\u2019 power.<\/p>\n

The game mechanics and rules of Class War<\/em> are relatively straight forward and make for a gradual learning curve, with a relatively moderate complexity level (closer to Exploding Kittens<\/em> than Magic: The Gathering<\/em>). As the game box states,<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Class War<\/em>, you are a collective entity: a social class\u2014either the Capitalists or the Workers. You\u2019ll fight for social dominance in an unstable constitutional democracy\u2026 Classes will use money generated by workplaces to build their social power in society, using cards drawn from their deck. Then they will confront their opponent with a dice roll\u2014in the economy, to win a greater slice of the economic pie, or in the state, to build political power. Ultimately, both classes aim to make their demands into law, permanently changing the rules of the game in their favor.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was initially very excited when the Kickstarter project for this game was announced. As a game enthusiast and socialist, I have long thought about how great it would be to have a game that coherently and effectively combined enthralling gameplay with the satisfaction of a simulated conquest of workers\u2019 power over the forces of capitalist exploitation and oppression. Gaming, after all, is a medium that lends itself by design to the freest flight of imagination\u2014to either escape from the misery of the real world in an excursion to another time, place, and even personality, or to embrace the hopes, dreams, and struggles of the real world in a fanciful glimpse of what it might entail to entirely change present society in the construction of a brighter future.<\/p>\n

Perhaps my expectations were too high, but Class War<\/em> sadly falls short of such lofty imaginings and even its own potential. However, let us start with what is good about the game, and why I would nonetheless recommend it for play with friends and comrades.<\/p>\n

In a game world saturated with contests of warring empires, monster-slaying, first-person-shooting, or otherwise depoliticized bluffing, guessing, resource management, or numbered card-collecting, a game that even hints in a subversive direction toward a rejection of the political and social status quo is a welcome contribution. A game that explicitly depicts the malevolence of the capitalist class and the desirable rebelliousness of the exploited working class is even more welcome. Insofar as some retail game outlets seem interested in actually stocking copies<\/a> of Class War<\/em> on their shelves, it would be wonderful to walk into one of those stores and see the brightly colored box, with the bright yellow letters screaming \u201cClass War,\u201d sitting next to a Monopoly<\/em> or Settlers of Catan<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Box and materials for Jacobin’s “Class War” board game. Photo by Keith Rosenthal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wonderful, too, are features on Class War<\/em> that have appeared in more mainstream gaming websites and forums, such as Tech Raptor<\/a>, Wargamer<\/a>, and Board Game Geek<\/a>. \u201cNaturally, Class War<\/em> isn\u2019t exactly subtle with the social commentary,\u201d wrote one reviewer. \u201cIn perspective, [however], a crowdfunded card game about the challenges facing our current political and economic climate is not just to be expected, but encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n

It can be taken as a positive sign of the times that a game produced by a socialist magazine could receive such favorable response. After all, since at least 2010, and holding steady or increasing through at least 2020, opinion polls have demonstrated the growing popularity of socialism among the U.S. population<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In terms of the game itself, the materials are of professional quality, the Rule Book is simple and helpful, and the design and artwork are well done and charming. The game mechanics and rules are also relatively well developed and internally coherent, though with a bit more tweaking they could have provided for more strategic maneuvering and expansive playability (Class War<\/em> is exclusively a two-player game). Finally, the game includes cards which either allude to or explicitly reference such figures as Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Marx, and Frederick Engels, and such phenomena as workplace strikes, unionization attempts, and free health care, which certainly will make the game particularly endearing to those already familiar with such socialist canon (if unfortunately obscured to those who are not; more on this below).<\/p>\n

In sum, if you are going to reach for a (two-player) game to play with a partner, it would be better and more enjoyable to grab Class War<\/em> rather than, say, UNO<\/em>, Scrabble<\/em>, or some other title from Milton Bradley or Parker Brothers (now both owned by the mega-corporation Hasbro Gaming).<\/p>\n

Class War<\/em>, however, remains a game that is far too narrow and constrained in terms of both play and propaganda. Such narrowness and constraint are of a kind as that from which Jacobin<\/em> and DSA also suffer in their political conceptions and strategic orientations in pursuit of socialism. The supremacy of an electoral, parliamentary approach to winning partial, pro-labor reforms through the apparatus of the existing capitalist state is given disproportionate priority over both the direct economic struggles of the working class over the production process itself as well as the broader struggles against axes of social oppression. This is to say nothing of the notion of developing class-consciousness or organizational preparedness for the revolutionary transformation of society and the overthrow of bourgeois state rule by organs of working-class democracy.<\/p>\n

After all, the winner in Class War<\/em> is that class which is first able to elect a politician to office and then maneuver legislatively to get two pro-labor (or pro-capitalist) reform bills enacted (i.e., pass a \u201cfull program\u201d of \u201cdemands\u201d). This seems a quite anticlimactic and unimaginative conclusion to a game titled Class War<\/em> in which workers and capitalists will ostensibly \u201cbattle for the future of society.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it is the case that the Working Class can engage in strikes targeting the Capitalist Class\u2019s profit-generating workplaces, this mechanism of the game is of ancillary importance to the main objective. By going on strike, the Working Class can at best win an incremental increase in the \u2018wages\u2019 that they draw from the Bank each turn, but this is only useful insofar as it affords the Working Class more wealth to fund their election and legislative reform campaigns.<\/p>\n