Great video, thank you! As an Afrikaans South African, colonialism has always been a tricky subject to process since it led to the birth of my culture and anti-colonial arguments sometimes make me feel like I'm not a South African even though I've never been to a European country in my life. Regardless of my personal identity discomfort, I realise that the issue of colonialism is far greater than that. Living in a space that is almost entirely "post-colonial" and seeing the scars of our past every day has made me more aware of this and filled in the gaps that I used to have the privilege of ignoring. I understand that some board games want to stay true to history and ignoring the evils that come with that also doesn't seem useful (referring to that slavery footnote). Even so, simplifying these struggles into mechanisms seems disrespectful and unnecessary. My hope is that board game designers will realise that understanding issues like this will make them better designers. I feel like we're missing out on an incredible array of settings, themes, user stories and emotions by focusing our design spotlight on colonialism or the perspective of the "superpowers" involved. The games we play shape who we are and form part of our culture. I don't think this means we should "cancel" games about colonialism, but I will certainly think twice before buying them or at least try to understand the setting a bit better (from all perspectives) before blindly claiming hexes. Thanks again for the great video! *end of rant*

Fantastic video. As someone from Latin America, this is such an unbelievably difficult topic to bring up in wider board gaming discussions and it does affect the way I feel about a lot of these games. I can't help but feel uncomfortable with playing them. Thank you for this

Efka, don't leave board games alone. Keep engaging with them critically and helping the hobby grow!

Dude, Efka, mate, this is the sort of thoughtful piece that keeps me coming back. Keep pushing the boundaries and I'll keep watching. This kind of maturity in analysis is needed and a welcome change from the norm. If this is a legitimate hobby for adults, then we should demand more adult criticism. Some of your best work, thank you very much. In a post Covid world, I'd love to sit down over a game and have a few beers.

Thank you, Efka. I'm Russian born in Latvia (if it makes sense). It took me years to shift perspective on expansion and colonialism. In a Russian school I've been taught that Latvia was liberated by Soviet forces from Nazis and Forest Brothers (partisans) were German collaborators. When Latvia got independence my parents and I (who were born in Latvia) were called occupants and stripped of citizenship. Took me 10 years in UK to see it from different point. However, when this point is presented by media of western countries it feels hypocritical at least, considering history. Geopolitics is a mess, but it's important to talk about it, to prevent injustice and find closure.

Just got to the part about slavery in Endeavor, and highly highlly recommend playing it and the slavery rules. As a an african-american, ai found it relieving to see it acknowledged and not just as a footnote. Slavery is a viable strategy and is rampant throughout the game. There are harsh penalities for it and it fits. What i don't want is puerto rico where they white wash history and call slaves colonists.

Absolutely love it. Such a relief to see this movement toward adulthood in our hobby. Amazing how much we still cater to the angry adolescent boy's temprement, no matter how old he gets. THoughtful, insightful, informative, fascinating. Efka and Elaine you two are very wonderful.

The map is an arena for you and your rivals to duke it out, and if none of them control a place, then it's an "empty" space that you can easily claim. Push your pieces out to cover the map! Make your numbers go up! Get stronger than your rivals and Win the Game! We might say that colonialism and its descendants treat the world like a game, and that's one reason so many games echo it.

Wow, nigdy nie sądziłem że ktoś będzie mówił o historii Polski na zagranicznym kanale z grami planszowymi. (Wow, I have never thought that someone will be talking about polish history on foreign channel with board games' content)

I am loving the chunkier, analytical and meaningful episodes. They're so much more impactful when set in a real context. Making and playing board games is serious work and I love how you are educating us on it! Thanks to you and Elaine for all you do!

Brilliantly done, Efka. So many amazing points brought up and in such a well thought out manner. Thank you so much!

This hits rough with the current Ukrainian situation 😔 Colonialism in board games is rough. I appreciate things like John Company, Pax Pamir, COIN, etc. that depict these situations with their complexities. I don't know that every game has to always engage with it, but I appreciate those that do. I don't have anything against occasional romanticisation of history (I enjoy some knights of the round, swashbuckling, etc.), but I don't think that should be the default perspective. Because history often isn't pretty or romantic 😟 Like. Even 18xx. I love those games, but I always have the abuse of the rail workers and the land this tracks were built on in the US, at least, in the back of my mind when playing them. Also, Cole Whorle has cut all ties with Phil Ecklund and never wanted that article in the first edition in the first place...so one can definitely make an argument that he made a mistake by publishing at all, but I would hesitate to let that single mistake define him or his game (which makes a very different statement in play) unless he has shown no repentance, change, etc.

Fantastic video. I love discussions about the concept of board games instead of just focusing on gaming in general. Thank you!

What a fantastic video! Bloody well done, Efka! Might be my favorite one from NPI yet.

One of the best video essays I think I've seen; truly incredible and thought-provoking. Well done.

Efke I had no idea you were Lithuanian! My grandparents emigrated to Australia from Lithuania after WW2, and I didn't know most of the history that you spoke of in the first part of your video. Brilliant stuff.

Thank you so much for this video, Efka. I can tell it was difficult, but I think just about everyone can learn from engaging in this discussion.

I'm sorry I missed this the first time around. Thank you for calling attention to this. Hearing your first hand experience and how to approach these sensitive topics without a dismissive attitude is absolutely inspiring.

Awesome video. I'm from Puerto Rico and own a copy of Puerto Rico. Whenever i get ask the question about what's the game about from someone who hasn't played it my description is something like "its a game of taking brown people from the ships and making them work on our fields and factories, whoever exploits more points from them wins the game 🙂". Theme is problematic, especially for a country that has been a colony for more than 500yrs and is still a colony in plain 21st century. Is a good game, though, and am willing to play any time, but always making sure everyone knows what we're supposed to be doing in it. If it's too much for any of the friends, i have plenty of other good games to play, if not we just enjoy the game for what it is (mechanically) and not necessarily for the actions or history being portrayed.

This was a wonderful piece of work. Makes me proud to be a Patreon supporter. Your passion for, and hopes for the future of, the hobby came through loud and clear.

As a small publisher I found your thoughts very intriguing. Especially when you clearly state the difference between “depiction” and “simulation”. There is abundance of literature on how simulation enforces behaviour differently than depiction. its core components: (action mechanisms and reward) trigger priming effects and desensitization, which ultimately affect how we perceive the world outside of the simulation. Depiction does the same in a certain way: so the movie “Gladiator” is more about a certain stoic masculine vibe of being a soldier and the necessity of it… and much less about “depicting” the life in the Coloseum. It represents a feedback loop that a cultural enviroment was moralizing. A depiction with empathy is, as well, a simulation. The use of violence in videogames evolved within this knowledge: the game mechanisms punish the player for committing violence in GTA San Andreas in a non destructive way for the completion of the game -> conversely it permanently affect how boring your gameplay gets in Red Dead Redeption 2 if you only act with malevolence. And player may want more challange, but they never want more boredom. Was a clever evolution of the Rockstar’s simulation style. On this line of thoughts, themeing a “strategy” game about depriving nations of their economies moralizes the act itself: power and control is gained by the most clever and not the most brutal. Similarly I studied Napoleon as a brilliant strategist and not as the coward that escaped from its men in Russia. Let’s just think about “Kriegspiel” and how little modern wargames evolved from it in the qualities of their simulations. We still want to be the clever Napoleon and not the coward one. Our simulations of war speaks about the first one (even if we enact the “good guys”). As you rightfully state, the evolution of those games existed (of course) but relied on pure mechanical sofistication. Fortunately/unfortunately simulations are powerful in both directions: they enforce behaviors and opinions in the real life, regardless of their morality. Games, as simulations, are A-moral in this sense and the job of the publisher is also to remove the extra A with more clever use of the medium of simulation. Ultimately your video triggered my interest in the last days. Even if I knew about the concept of postcolonial theory already, I realized for the first time the void of postcolonial work in the game industry. Is much less about enacting a new “Kriegsspiel” taking the side of the natives but more about what happens to a group of communicating humans when their language is deprived of its referents, or how the destruction of a building is not only a passage from bricks to dust, but is leaving behind “cultural redundancy”, i.e. set of practices that are no more possible because they depended from the material culture that was pulverized. Rarely we came across to these games (the rpg Dialect maybe?) someone else has other ideas?

Thank you Efka for this video. I learned a bunch of stuff and hope be more sensitive to the topic in the future. My respect, this is a must watch.

Thanks for doing this man! Living on a reserve in Canada, all of the intergenerational trauma and fucked up identity confusion had really done a number and it's stuff like this that can get us moving forward together and doing something integrative, as opposed to fighting over who's going to get paved over.

This was a great video...and an important reminder about things too easily glossed over or ignored for the purpose of a cardboard experience. Thank you.

Thank you for bringing this voice to the table. I hope more chime in.

Brilliant video. One of your best, and I've followed chan for a while. Very well crafted and presented ideas. Bravo efka!

This was an amazing video, Efka. Wow. Thank you so much. Also, I know you are a board game channel, but I would totally watch videos where you discuss literary topics.

Great video. Very thoughtful at many levels. Look forward to hearing more on such topics.

I've never been a fan of your videos in the past, I think it was something about your style of humor. But after watching this video, I'm subscribing to your channel so I can see more of your content. Thank you for this incredibly informational and insightful video!

Excellent video, thank you so much for talking about this and raising awareness about these very problematic and prevalent topics

Iceland was indeed uninhabited when the Viking settlers arrived, but later on the King of Norway annexed the island and it remained under Scandinavian control until world War Two.

Thanks Efka for the excellent video. I agree that conversations such as this deserves attention by the gaming community and your video captures many of my thoughts as well. My family was deeply impacted by colonialism in Korea, and as such I also have uneasiness when it comes to colonialism depicted in board games. I remember observing debates couple years ago on BGG about Rising Sun as it used the rising sun symbol as victory point in the game. Many commented saying the use of symbol is okay since the symbol has been used Japanese history prior to its colonialism, and also it's play on the game title "Rising Sun", and also the game is more about feudal Japan and is not about Imperialism. Yet, when I look at the symbol, it completely removes me from the game and only thing I can think of are the atrocities my grandparents experienced under the rule of the said flag. I'm not trying to re-open the debate on whether CMON should or should not have used the symbol, I am merely trying to point out that colonialism had such impact to a point where it turns an avid board game fan like me to be turned off of a game about feudal Japan and Japanese folklore just because of a symbol of choice happen to match the symbolism Japan used during their Colonial era. I am also not trying to say that use of such symbols should be banned from games, but what I am trying to say is that we should encourage more discussions and learn from each other's perspective - which was the take away I got from this video. Thanks again for the video :)

I love your channel more and more with every video. This was highly educational and I appreciate it beyond words.

Very insightful and thought-provoking. Keep up the excellent work.

Greetings from Iceland. We are oh so proud of being the first ones to recognize Lithuania still to this day. You mentioned that we might be the only country not colonized, and I have to agree and disagree at the same time. We might not have been colonized, occupied and settled by Norway and Denmark, but we were controlled and neglected. Iceland stagnated under foreign rule and the strict ecomomy hampered, but we were never put into slavery or received huge influx of Danish or Norwegian settlers. Therefore relating to the struggles of colonized peoples is difficult. We were just a distant backwater afterthought that only had its time to shine after our independence. We try to make our small light shine and be the forefront of recognizing injustice, promoting peace, be forward thinking and try to be an example to the world. One of the biggest minorities in Iceland are Lithuanians and we’re better for it, I hope the relations of our countries will never falter.

Fantastic video. This subject is incredibly important to me as an English person living in a former colony and as a future board games publisher. Thank you for having the courage to make this and future videos tackling complex issues in this industry/hobby.

I watch your videos with my partner and this one moved me to leave my own comment. I have lost a beloved writing teacher A J Budrys (science fiction author who held a captain's commission in the Free Lithuanian Army) so you are now my favourite living Lithuanian. I appreciate the care you took here with defining the place from which you speak. Also showing how your skillshare course on lighting made a difference was helpful as specific examples help my non theoretical brain. Long may they support your terrific channel, and very best to you and Elaine!

I always enjoy your content but this was the best video I’ve seen from you. I thoroughly enjoyed the care and passion you spoke with. Thank you for this thought provoking conversation.

Dude this is so good. Thanks for the work that went into this, so hard to do well.

Great content! I will share this videos, 100% good job.

It's because of videos like this that I support Elaine and Efka on Patreon. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for the video. I greatly enjoy your channel and the essay style of your clips. Since my mother is from Lithuania I was also very interested in the historic part. Great to see my love for Lithuania combined with my appreciation for board games. A very insightful approach to a difficult topic. Greetings from Germany. :)

Thanks for another great video, this one will take a few more watches to properly take it all in I think. I've been trying to find a way to say what I feel about these themes/settings and each time I write something it reminds of the counter-point you made. Thank you for giving me the counter-arguments to challenge the way I've always seen these subjects. I think it's going to be a long journey, but at least I'm on the road.

Efka, great Job here. This is a hard subject to disscuss and I think with your background story and game knowledge you did it very well to put context in the boardgame sceneario. We as part of this hobby should be aware of this and I think the hard part is finding the right way to adress the Colonialism Issue without taking away what we al love from our games. Thank you for giving voice to countries/people that usually get ignored or downgraded in our hobby, I have more than once feel very unconfortable when my own Country is downgraded or simple put as a less or a part of a colonial power. I enjoy this video a lot and I have seen a part of the colonial effect in our boardgame community when I tried to looked for African themed or scenario based. I was expecting that with such a big and rich enviroment there would be tons of games to dig and love but what I find out was that there were not many and there were almost all about colonial issues. The sad part was discovering that there were more games about plants than a big vibrant and colorful CONTINENT.

Many defenders of Purto Rico point out how slavery was outlawed in 1873 and since there's a university in the game that means jt takes place in at least the 1900s. With this timeline in mind it does give credence that the workers are indeed colonists

This is a great starting point for these kinds of discussions. Thank you.

I love this channel more and more. Great work, Efka. As a Scottish person I understand colonialism intimately. My cultural heritage was denied to me by an education system designed in England. Scots dialects have been systematically sidelined to the point even many Scottish people refer to them as "slang". We suffer a democratic deficit in Scotland, down in Westminster. And, our right to self-determination has been poisoned, in the case of the 2014 Independence Referendum when powerful colonial forces in politics and the media ran interference resulting in a No vote, and in our fight for a second chance to take our independence. There's some faint hope on the horizon, but it's going to be a hard fight. And, even if we succeed, there will be a long way to go. But, in time, Scotland's distinctive cultural and ethical outlook will eventually find it's place in the world when we take our independence. My solidarity extends to all who suffer from past colonialism and from modern neo-colonialism. Many of whom have it much worse than us here in Scotland. And, of course, it is worth mentioning that Scotland has its own cross to bear when it comes to the country's own colonial "adventures" in the past. The Darian Scheme for instance, which itself in large part precipitated our present predicament. I appreciated your potted history of Lithuania's troubles at the hands of colonialists. And as ever, your thoughts on board games were fascinating and enlightening. Thanks.

Thank you, Efka. This is so needed after all that brouhaha of late on board game Twitter, what we needed and what you did was some education. I appreciate your approach with this food for thought. You were not merely saying you are against something but you did something. As a person of color (this issue is huge), this is such an important topic for me to see someone giving a thoughtful response from your experience, yes, but as you say could be extrapolated to us all. Thank you for a thought-out, measured response and not something just off the cuff.

Tremendous work Efka, thank you 💜

All the good things folks have already said. Also, thank you for discussing the distinction between theme and setting.

Ačiū! Smagiai nustebino šis video :) Thanks, was kindly suprised by this video. Great video!

This was a fantastic video, thanks a lot!! I hope you get the chance to speak about this topics more often in the future!!

Thanks for this video. I really like you talking about the genre, and not just specific games. I think this brings our hobby forward.

Thank you so much for making this.

Great video, thanks for making this Efka.

Thank you for this Video! You adressing this boardgame setting 'that doesnt matter' in a distinct video was the last push for me to become a patreon backer.

Great video, thank you for tackling a challenging topic smartly and personally.

What a great video! Insightful and informative. Thank you.

Comes in expecting boardgames, leaves with PHD in Lithuanian history. Keep up the great content!

This is some top notch pot-stirring, deft and well said! I love this and the FCM/Monopoly video so much. I look forward to any video you want to make that explores "why are making/playing these games". Creatures are always inventing games as fun ways to explore danger. When so many board games are historically based on a competitive racing or area control, colonialism is such an easy match. It's so easy to mindlessly continue down that road ("write what you know" "uh, ok, I know people sure seem to love colonizing!"). Discussions like this that increase mindfulness is really the way to improve everything. There has been such a renaissance in mechanism development lately, only mindfulness can bring up the other aspects of our games.

Very interesting video. A friend sent it to me, as I'm currently designing a game set in the history of humanity through the centuries, but I want it to have a wider and inquiring view about how we understand the idea of "progress", and this video gave me some valuable insights. Hope I can address these issues properly in the game!

I stumbled upon your video of Vagrantsong (after buying the game) and have spent the better part of a day watching your videos on various topics. I really enjoy your thoughtful pieces on board gaming! Keep up all the amazing work :)

Be the voice you want to hear in board games. Thank you for talking about colonialism in board games. It is something that is very important to our world's history, and should be given more serious thought to how it is used in board games.

Can't wait for your John Company 2nd Edition review.

Wow. I've not watched your stuff before but my hubs loves your stuff and recommend this to me. I'm so glad he did because this was *brilliant*! Please, don't leave this alone! Please please please do more! This is all my favorite nerd stuff in one video! Efka, you're brilliant and your breakdown of all of these issues was fantastic. Easy to understand without being too simplistic, intelligent without being too complicated, just great all around. I'd love to see more like this! I know you usually do reviews, but maybe a 2nd channel for this sort of thing? 😉

Thank You for the Education! I see games with a different light now.

In some ways, I get especially mad at soviet colonialism sometimes. The USSR was supposed to be a union of independent socialist republics - it's in the name, for fucks sake. It really, really sucks that, in effect, it just ended up doing all the same shit everyone else was doing.

Great video, Efka!

Thank you Efka, this was much interesting.

Iceland is a champ. First to recognize Croatia too.

Started hiding in the bushes, but this was very thoughtfully done. Way to raise your voice.

Efka, this is excellent, excellent stuff. Kudos.

What's wrong with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Borges, and why would I judge you? I didn't quite understand that part, tbh

Brilliant stuff Efka! Kudos!

Games are political. It isn't just set-dressing. Efka, don't leave games alone. This video is tremendous.

Excellent work, well argued! More of this - please! More critical perspectives on the hobby we love! Again - well done, Efka.

Thank you for this! This is exceptional content, and I really hope you take this further!

Very deep and interesting material! Great respect for going in to such hard and complicated topic. Definitely made me think about the subject. Not sure if I agree with all the points but I definitely agree that we need to talk about the past! Well done Sir! Stay safe!

Thank you for this amazing video!

Really good, thought provoking video, thank you for doing this.

Outstanding video. Thank you Efka

Beautiful video! Thank you so much…Nothing is ever “just a game/joke/what-have-you”

Thanks you for sharing your personal experience on the matter. There is so much unexplored territory (excuse the terrible pun) in board games. It may not be easy to make it work, but I think the effort will move the medium forward dramatically.

Fantastic. The best video you've done IMHO.

From all the videos that I've seen from NPI, this is, by far, the best. And probably also, the best boardgame video that I've ever seen. It's a truly nice work that brings us really interesting questions and discussions. Wonderful and brave job, please keep doing this 👏🏼

Lovely video, Efka! On a sidenote, what put you off Murakami? I would love to get some literary recomendations from you!

The music is Beethoven's Ecossaise in Eb major (woo 86), just in case someone wanted to know.

Awesome and beautiful vídeo. As an anthropologist, I struggle with how the colonialism is inherent to the modern board games history, because we can't deny how strong is the connection between a lot of games and the winners view of many subjects. The diferent cradles of many board game schools are also cradles of many colonialist epicenters. As a latin american social scientist, I'm on the other side, just like you, trying to understand and to work in how we can develop better cultural products (like boardgames) and practices, recognizing and embracing how brutal were those practices to the richness of cultural diversity. We can't be quiet anymore. We must make more people aware of it. Thanks a lot for this video Efka, really. A big big hug from Chile.

This was the most remarkable game review video I've ever seen. The bravery this took to put out is staggering. Thank you for this Efka. Brilliantly stated and (as the grandchild of Litvaki Jews) I thank you for your wonderful summation of the history of one of my ancestral nations... Poland and Germany also on that list, though as all my ancestors for at least the last 5 centuries were jews, I suspect they were viewed as outsiders even in their homelands. And as a member of the most colonized group in recorded history, I can absolutely vouch for the strength of how important the written word is to the survival of a people. I have long wanted to make a game about the Shoah... the Holocaust, one that explores, like Twilight Imperium, the acts of the righteous to help get jews to safety, one where the game itself represents the nazis so that no player strives to inflict evil... but there is such... even as a jew whose great grandparents survived the camps, there is a fear that my people will see the gamification as an affront to the memory of those who died... and that, I think is a major problem with creating post-colonial games... how do you make something fun that doesn't offend. Freedom: The Underground Railroad game is fantastic, but even it struggles with that

2 year late for the release of the video, but never 2 lately to learn something new, thank you!

I hesitate to weigh in on the "importance" of works because that's so inherently personal, but sharing your perspective on this was very moving. Thank you.

I loved this! Thank you Efka!

Oh boy as a Filipino, I have a lot to say about Colonialism especially how it still affects us today. But it would probably take an entire lecture length to even talk about how our country has changed hands from the Spanish, English, American and Japanese. Not to mention how some of those in power are those with what we call "mestizo" or Filipinos with mixed with Spanish or foreign heritage. Oh and the oppression of our indigenous tribes here. On the topic of colonialism in much media, like most such outdated ideologies which unfortunately show up in some of my favorite games or any media I tend to treat them as artifacts of their age. I feel we should not forget these things rather we should remember these horrible things cause it helps us move forward so as not to commit the same mistake. Loving this channel. Yes this is a topic that is unfortunately glossed over but it's still an ugly reflection we have to face at some time.

About Phil Eklund: In a footnote in the manual for 'Greenland' he defends the position that because Danish Vikings were in Greenland before the Inuit it are "actually the Danes who can claim to be suppressed 'Native Americans', because Greenland is a part of North America". So according to this reasoning, Danes may have colonized Greenland since the 18th century and forcibly converted Inuit to Chistianity, forced them to speak Danish and send their children away to boarding schools and foster families in Denmark, but somehow the Danes are the victims of colonialism here. Yeah, Phil, sure.

And now I need to learn more about Baltic history. Thank you so much for teaching me something today. More please😁

Thank you for this thought-provoking video.

Great! Thank you for talking personally and about human history.

it's so cool to be able to hear you say the name of my city (Lublin) :). Great video. And a very important one.

For about a year now I've had a great idea for a board game setting, but it is inherently colonialist. I have tried to do research on the period and location but have struggled to make progress because, as you say, I have nothing to add. Despite wanting to approach this in the "correct way" you have convinced me to pursue other designs and maybe once I have something published under my belt I can use that as a platform to find and work with somebody who does have something to add. Thank you.

This is excellent work. Thank you for it.