Are These Pieces for You? Comancheria [GMT Games, 2016]

Get my thoughts on this game, the good, the tough-to-grasp, and overall impressions on indigenous stories as told by non-indigenous designers.

Timestamps:
00:42 - Intro
02:11 - Gameplay Overview
12:36 - Review
17:13 - Indigenous Narratives in Gaming

Comancheria on GMT Games:

Comancheria on BoardGameGeek:

For more on who gets access to leisure, games and game design, read Elizabeth Hargrave's excellent article:

An Indigenous movie writer's view on "Killers of the Flower Moon":

[ALimbOfGreatTree]

Love the name of the review series. Played this game extensively and I have to say, one of the simplest yet elegant AI systems I’ve ever seen. The game is a little unforgiving, but that’s part of the fun!

[risajajr]

I disagree with gatekeeping over who gets to tell these stories. It doesn't matter who they are (white, brown, native, European, whatever) but rather how well they tell the story. White North American/European males telling these stories doesn't prevent other people from also telling them. Much of what you and I know about these cultures comes from books like Empire of the Summer Moon, In the Hands of the Great Spirit, The Earth Shall Weep and The Heart of Everything That Is, written by such men. They are valuable resources that are only diminished if they tell the stories poorly. They, in fact, pique interest and awareness of these native cultures and deliver the start of an appreciation for what native people were like and went through when North America was settled by Europeans.

It would indeed be intriguing to see a game on this subject designed by a truly native of the subject (not some .01% blood Comanche). And as far as I am aware, there is nothing preventing that from happening. The sentiment to want to hear the voices of the natives telling their own story is commendable and it would great to see more of that.

But about a third of this video on Comancheria is dedicated to questioning who gets to tell stories about Native Americans and, for me, it feels like too much white knighting and/or white guilt at play. I see no reason to struggle with reading books, watching movies and playing games about this subject area that created by non-native people. I say enjoy them, applaud them and also seek such things that are created by Native Americans themselves.

[Ready_to_play_by_marco]

Thanks for this great overview of the game 😊👍

[benlauson]

I must admit, I was quite puzzled by the level of puzzle this game seemed to bring on your moral radar.
Here's an example, you asked:

"Is it ok to play and enjoy a game that tries to tell an honest story of the Comanche people when it was designed and presented by someone that isn’t from that culture specifically?"

Your answer was “well for now it’ll have to do.”
When the answer is quite obviously “yes.”

Perhaps the question was rhetorical, I get that.

Joel made a great (and respectful) game here about the Comanche people. Whether he is black, white, yellow, red, whatever – has no quantifying effect on the game.

Personally, I would hate to not have certain histories showcased in various media because there were no longer any living members left available to represent it... How could such a rule or standard ever begin to exist?!

Not trying to be defensive – Just trying to give some sound clarity to what seemed to be perhaps a bit cloudy.

[jacobwilliams]

I watched this video and your follow up video. I'm Keeping this as constructive as possible!

I more or less agree with your review of the game and game play. As for all the social commentary, I respectfully disagree with a lot of it. Before I go further, I consider myself fairly left wing, so I'm definitely being as charitable as possible with your takes. This is definitely not me trying to "cancel" you or just accuse you being an "SJW" or "white knighting".

Should more of these games be designed by actual natives (in the US, native is considered a perfectly PC term, so please don't come back with "they are called indigenous!". I'm speaking how we talk. Just be happy we don't say "injun" or "savages" anymore.)? Yes! Absolutely! However, who would design them? Out of 323* million Americans, how many are game designers? Less than .01 percent for sure. There are roughly 6 million natives left according to a quick Google search. How many of them are game designers? Probably close to zero I'd wager. Even if there are some, are those designers even interested in making a game like this? So if Joel isn't telling these stories, then who is going to?

Sure, Joel is part of a church. But his church likely hasn't committed genocide against the natives. Roping him in with the past church is extremely unfair, imho. Which, as an atheist myself, I hate that I'm having to run apologetics for a church. My co-worker is Catholic, but it'd be insane to think he is a "peter file" just because the Vatican can't seem to do the right thing on that front.

I think any scholar, which I consider Joel to be, has the right to tell stories like these. For me, it's all about intent. Joel went way out of his way to make sure the stories he was telling were accurate. He chronicles it in the designers notes for both games.

At the end of the day, I just see these as board games. I've never put so much thought into a theme that I've considered not playing it. Hell, I'm still perfectly A-okay with playing the original Puerto Rico. The genocide of the natives happened at least a century before I was even conceived. What's happened has happened. That said, whenever native treaties are violated, like Standing Rock pipeline protest, I do tell my representatives to knock it off, or I'll vote them out. What else can I do? Is me refusing to play a board game going to do anything? It seems to me only white people online will care. I bet exactly ZERO natives care about a random white guy in Indiana (no the irony in the name of my state isn't lost on me) refusing to play a game because some other random white guy designed it.

I really just don't see the point in that commentary, but it's your channel. You do you.

[Obalcan]

I have no problem with a white guy who studied this topic creating this game. Actually, I prefer seeing such a product being done by non native then being done by the native. Why? Because generally speaking natives are not objective at all and their product would be selfgrandionizingly bad.

[nobuthatsme]

This was the first time I started watching a video and hit subscribe and before the end unsubscribed.