For the Love Black People & Boardgames
We lost George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in the span of a few weeks. There was outrage…again. I’m having deja vu writing this because I wrote about the same injustices in 2016, when we lost Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
This time feels different.
I think we are at a tipping point. The blatant sickness of an innocent black person losing their life to the brutality of police or anyone assuming the role of law enforcement is, for whatever reason, finally sinking in to many who were on the fence. I’m not here to figure out why, but I appreciate it because my black body hurts every single time I hear another one of these stories.
It also feels different because people have not only decided to support the community organizations that are trying to address these issues, but have also answered the call to support black business owners, black artists, and black creators who are so frequently ignored, passed over, or pushed out of their respective industries.
They finally see us.
I’ve been active in the board game industry for for 3 years now. That is to say that I’m still pretty new. I’ve published two games and I’m actively working on 6 to 10 other gaming projects depending on your definition of “actively working”. This entire time, I’ve felt noticed, but not seen. My board game publishing company successfully funded a Kickstarter for our first game Rap Godz and it shipped out to backers earlier this year. Sales since that initial release have been modest if I’m being nice to myself, paltry if I’m being honest. A lot of that is being new to the industry and not having the marketing chops to break through a lot of the other buzz in tabletop gaming.
That changed on June 1st, which also happened to be my 34th birthday, when DannyPlaysGamez, as our BIPOC brother, decided to donate $10 to #BlackLivesMatter for each new sale of our game. As a company with limited cash flow we were struggling to figure out how we could contribute to the cause, but we immediately agreed to match that donation.
We sold 200 copies of Rap Godz in 48 hours.
We all had very little expectation for this campaign. It’s not the first time that our games have been recommended by vocal, prominent, personalities in the industry. In fact, we credit Suzanne Or for much of the success of our Kickstarter campaign, but this felt like the first time people REALLY listened.
As things were escalating, several other members of the gaming community stepped up and said they would match our donations as well.
With all the support, it looks like #BlackLivesMatter could end up making just as much per game sold as our company, Board Game Brothas, and that’s a much better outcome than we ever could have imagined.
We can do better.
There’s been so much love this week for us and what we’re doing but that doesn’t erase the challenges of being underrepresented in this industry. Lots of BIPOC, LGBTQ, and Women folk are still going to feel the prejudice and harassment that takes place in an industry that is made up largely of straight white men, who still hold most positions of power in publishing, distribution, trade organizations, and media.
I’m going to do my part. Hopefully you will do yours.
If you want to play a small part in this movement, we still have copies of Rap Godz to sell and will continue this donation campaign through June 7th, and you can visit our online store to purchase and support.
Rap Godz is a game about living the life of a hip hop artist. As you can see from the cards pictured in this story, as black creators making a game about black culture, we can’t separate our lives from politics. This game won’t make you change your mind about anything but it will give you a bit of insight into our perspective, which is what ultimately will make the boardgame community a wonderful place for EVERYONE…except fascist. They will keep hating us.
