Title: “Critical board game modification: changing board gam
es to change the world”
Abstract: Working board game designer and scholar Greg Loring-Albright\, PhD will present a talk about changing board games to incite social change. Hobby board gaming\, as theor ized by scholars like Paul Booth (2018) and Stewart Woods (2012) has been a nd continues to be a growing subculture\, fandom\, and market. Games like < em>Catan (Teuber\, 1995)\, Ticket to Ride (Moon\, 2004)\, and Wingspan (Hargrave\, 2019) are the result of design interventions by inspired designers. However\, board games lag behind other entertainmen t media like film\, TV\, and video games when it comes to depicting social change and representing marginalized groups.
Greg works to change thi s\, both by designing and publishing new games (e.g. Bloc by Bloc: Uprising\, 2022\, co-designed with T.L. Simons\; Keep the Fai th\, 2024) and by creating frameworks for modifying existing games (e. g. First Nations of Catan\, 2015). This talk will address a general audienc e\, briefly describing the world of hobby board gaming\, showcasing some of its problematic dynamics (drawing upon Flanagan and Jakobsson\, 2023\, amo ng others)\, and offering paths for other designers and interested amateurs to create their own interventions in the space by modifying the board game s that they already play. In addition\, Greg will propose a theory of how b oard games incite social change\, developed from close observation of hundr eds of board gaming sessions\, both in a research context and while playtes ting games for publication. Many approaches to games optimistically presupp ose a level of impact on the player that may not be justified. Yet board ga mes can change their players\, primarily via the discursive opportunities t hat they afford around the table.
Greg Lori ng-Albright is Assistant Professor of Games\, Media\, and Culture at Harris burg University of Science and Technology. His dissertation analyzed analog games and their digital adaptations\, and his research areas include analo g games\, fandom\, and game design for social change. In addition to teachi ng and researching\, he designs board games including Ahoy (2022)\, Bloc by Bloc: Uprising (with T.L. Simons\, 2022)\, Keep the Faith (2024)\, and the official board game adaptation of The Peoples History of the United States (with Jason Perez\, forthcoming). Find him at gloringalbright.com.
Missed Greg’s lecture o n March 27th? You can access the video and audio recording on UBC’s cIRcle database.
CATEGORIES:Featured Events,Featured German,Featured Homepage,Featured Modern European Studies,Featured Undergraduate LOCATION:IKBLC Dodson Room (302) &\; Zoom GEO:49.267851;-123.253087 URL;VALUE=URI:https://cenes.ubc.ca/events/event/ziegler-lecture-greg-loring -albright-critical-board-game-modification-changing-board-games-to-change-t he-world/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cene.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2025/03/WEB_FAUTH_NO-QR-3.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:20250309T100000 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR