The 10 Most Offensive Board Games Ever Published
ROSIE LOUISďżź
Listverse. com
Famous board games have made family entertainment out of some dark stuff, from bankruptcy to murder to naval warfare. But when you dig a little further into the industryâs history, you find things getting considerably more disturbing. You spot games about racism, the sex trade, and even genocideâstuff so offensive you can hardly believe the games were ever published.
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10. âGay Monopolyâďżź
Fire Island Games released this âCelebration of Gay Lifeâ in 1983, right in time for the decadeâs new gay rights movement. Like so many spins on the classic version of Monopoly, this game keeps the core real estate mechanics but throws in a thematic twist. In the original game, players buy houses and hotels; in Gay Monopoly, they buy bathhouses and bars. The original playing tokens have been swapped out for what were assumed to be gay-themed substitutesâa teddy bear, a jeep, a blow drier, a leather cap, handcuffs, and one stiletto heel.On the flip side, it seems that the game does bring a few new dishes to the table. Take âFamily Pride Cardsâ for example. Each card describes a notable gay man, and the player who can correctly identify him gets to move to any space on the board. The pile also contains a few âCamp Cards.â Draw one of these, and you have to perform a stereotypical gay camp action, such as striking a pose and yelling, âFabulous.ââGay Monopolyâ was published by a division calling itself the âParker Sisters.â They were unconnected to Parker Brothers, who publish the actual Monopoly game and reportedly shut the gay spinoff down with a copyright lawsuit.
9. âThe Sinking of the Titanicâďżź
This game from Milton Bradley sends players across around the board, rescuing passengers from the Titanicâs staterooms. You have to escort all the passengers to lifeboats before the ship goes down, at which point the game shifts gears, and you must now hunt for food and fresh waterâby drawing cards. A rescue ship eventually shows up, and players must race to it. The first one there wins the game. Everyone else dies.âThe Sinking of the Titanicâ received a ton of criticism when it was released in 1975. So the company released a sister version in the UK the following year, changing the title to âAbandon Ship.â This version is set in the Pacific Ocean, and the ship collides with a coral reef instead of an iceberg. The name change cost the company the âTitanicâ titleâs name recognition. But since people werenât exactly eager for a game that made light of a famous tragedy, the switch was probably for the best.
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8. âLife As A Blackmanâďżź
This Underground Games release from 1999 offered a simple yet heavy message: Life as a black man is hard. Delivering this message pretty much involved trotting out a parade of stereotypes, blurring the lines between satire and genuine racism.Each player starts the game as a black 18-year-old high-school graduate. Players must make moral choices throughout the game, and may find themselves in Black University, the ghetto, the military, or âGlamourwood.â The first player to reach the âfreedomâ space at the top of the board wins the game.Unlike many games on this list, âLife as a Blackmanâ isnât forgotten. An app of the game is coming soon for your iPhone.
7. âWhat Shall I Be: The Exciting Game of Career Girlsâďżź
Published in 1966 by Selchow & Righter, this less-than-exciting game was once considered an educational game for young girls, outlining suitable career options young women may want to pursue. The game includes a detailed outline of the âproperâ personality for each of the prospective careers.Itâs perhaps no surprise that the only options included in the â60s game were a teacher, airline hostess, actress, nurse, model, or ballet dancer. The male counterpart of the game, published by the same company, had career options such as lawyers and astronauts. Fortunately, the game was updated in 1976, swapping the stereotypical womenâs roles for such career paths as medical school and law school.
6âBlacks & Whitesâďżź
Hereâs another example of a game that tries to illustrate racism, with pretty shocking results.âBlacks & Whites,â according to publisher Dynamic Design Industries, depicts housing discrimination through âthe absurdities of living in different worlds while playing on the same board.â At the beginning of the game, players choose to either be a âBlackâ or a âWhite,â and the choice handily determines who wins the game.The Whites comprise the majority of players, start with $1 million, and can buy property anywhere on the board. Their black counterparts are the minority, start the game with only $10,000, and canât buy many properties. These properties that the players fight over range from the âinner ghettoâ and âouter ghettoâ to âlower integratedâ and âupper integratedâ neighborhoods to, lastly, ânewer estatesâ and âolder estates.âTrue to life in the â70s, when the game was published, âBlacksâ and âWhitesâ each draw from their own set of âopportunity cards.â A typical White opportunity card: âStock dividend from a company that makes tear gas. Collect $40,000.â A typical Black one: âGovernment begins urban-renewal project. You lose both Harlem and Watts. Collect full price less 10% from Treasury.â
5. âBusen Memoâďżź
This 2003 memory game plays practically just like any other memory game you would buy for an 8-year old. Except for one thing: Instead of matching the usual toy cars and smiling apples, players of the game match the right and left breasts of 48 women.Each individual tile has a picture of one of a womanâs bare breasts, You place all the cards facedown at random and then flip two of them over. If you manage to uncover a matching pair, you get to go again; if not, your opponent takes a turn.In case you couldnât guess it by now, âBusen Memoâ is German for âBosom Memory.â
4. âDarkies In The Melon Patchâďżź
Now itâs time move away from those games that merely teach about racismââDarkies in the Melon Patchâ is racism, plain and simple.Players take up the roles of four dark-skinned gentlemen attempting to escape a patch of melons. Angry farmers and bearded grandmothers act as threats. The path also offers some tempting distractions, such as melon races and seed spitting contests.Though the game allegedly dates back to 1910, some versions for sale are modern counterfeits. Itâs possible that the game was manufactured fairly recently and was just falsely dated to a time when such racist nonsense seemed reasonable.
3âProject Pornstarâďżź
âProject Pâ casts players as directors of their own porn flicks. If youâve ever played a trading card game, you have a rough idea of how this worksâthe various cards in the game represent components for your film, and the best combinations win you the most points. Since youâre making a porno, one set of cards represents your actors (men, women, amenable livestock), and another represents objects (handcuffs, for instance, or a cucumber).Another set, the âaction cards,â further change the course of your film. If a performerâs face doesnât quite meet expectations, you can play a card to throw a paper bag over it. Thereâs an âAIDSâ card, too, of course.Fun for the whole family!
2. âFive Little Ni***r Boysâďżź
Maybe itâs because I am indeed African-American, but I think the blatant use of one of the most offensive racial slurs smacked on the front of an actual marketed product should leave anyone speechless.This 1950 release from Britain is a target shooting gameâyes, a target shooting game. It consists of five pieces resembling African children along with a small pop-gun rifle that fires corks. And, if you couldnât already guess it, the only goal of this game is for its participants to shoot down the four little N-word boys in cold blood.The first player to shoot down a predetermined amount of pieces wins the game but loses a conscience.
1âJuden Raus!â (Jews Out!)ďżź
Nazi Germany featured quite a few horrifically offensive anti-Semitic games, from shooting games reminiscent of the above British example to games tracking the triumphant rise of the swastika. But the most notorious of these games is probably âJuden Raus,â published in Dresden in 1938 approximately one month after âKristallnachtâ(the Night of Broken Glass).Itâs a simple game. You roll dice and move your token to Jewish homes, where you collect Jews. You must then escort your Jews to a âcollection pointâ so they can be banished from the city. âIf you are the first to expel six Jews,â reads the gameâs original rules, âyou are the undoubted winner.âStill, the Nazis were the most evil people in history, so itâs unsurprising that they produced such a game, right?Not exactly. âJuden Rausâ was manufactured by some private German company, and the Nazis themselves criticized the game.
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