SPRAG has evolved into a nice community! Click here to join our Discord server. Don’t know what Discord is, or just want the announcements? email mhaiven at lakeheadu.ca and ask to be added to the email announcement list.
Radical tabletop gamers, game-makers, game-thinkers and game-curious people around the world are invited to register to join a new club of like-minded malcontents! Join us on zoom on 9 January 2023, or at any time on our top-secret Discord server, for an informal meeting of gamers, game designers, game scholars and others to share, discuss and scheme together.
Summoned-up (initially, at least) by Keir Millburn (of Red Plenty Games) and Max Haiven (of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab).
What?
We intend to convene a series of meetings and exchanges among analogue game-makers who recognize the need for radical social change1 and believe that games might be a small part of that process.2 We propose to begin by meeting regularly on a digital platform to share our projects, challenges, and ideas in a convivial, lightly-facilitated, and mutually supportive way. In the future, we might occasionally gather in person to play and discuss radical analogue games. We might also playtest and offer feedback on one another’s games and otherwise collaborate. To support all that, we have also established a Discord group.
Eventually, we may choose to do things like: organize a coordinated game-making sprint; host a game-making derby on a particular theme or to respond to a particular challenge; organize a collective presence at online or IRL gatherings (gamemakers events, radical events, etc.); develop some kind of partnership to produce and promote games we or others create.
1 For us, analogue games include a wide variety of board, card and role-playing games which gather imaginative people together in physical space to create a magic circle.
2 Radical that means we believe that meaningful social change requires the abolition of existing hierarchies, power relations and inequalities, the fundamental reinvention of social institutions, and the transformation of people and communities so we can live in peace, abundance, and with ecological care.
Who?
This Society is open, by invitation, to radical game-makers and game enthusiasts who are professionals, amateurs and in-between. We require that members of the Society be supportive and generous with one another and engage in a comradely fashion. Because we are a largely online group, we encourage participation from around the world.
Why?
The global pandemic has dramatically expanded interest in analogue games, which were already experiencing a renaissance with a new generation of designers, companies and media enthusiastically pushing the limits of the form. Structured play is primordial and archeological evidence of analogue games dates their emergence beyond written language. But games of course take new forms and have new meanings as times change. Sometimes games reflect and reinforce the worldview of the powerful. Often games are subversive and encourage or teach people to organize together and rebel.
The radical potential of analogue games has been tantalizing to many of our predecessors, but that potential is far from exhausted. We want to form a community to help us experiment with this potential and expand it in a moment of profound crisis and opportunity.
Where?
We intend to meet regularly on Zoom and to coordinate, share resources and chat on Discord.
We are also planning to host in-person gatherings to playtest games and conspire towards the overthrow of the state of boredom.
When?
We invite you to join the Discord channel immediately and join us for our first Zoom meetup on January 9 at 12h00 Eastern, 17h00 BST, 18h00 CET.
We are also planning our first in-person event in March 2023 in either London or Berlin. More details soon.