Local outrage at "Terrorism board game"

Well we wouldn't expect much else from our home town, but the Cambridge Evening News have pulled out all the stops (and a previously undiscovered font size) to bring the "disgust" element of the story to the foreground. They even sought out a 7th July tube bomb survivor to ensure the emotional reaction wouldn't go untrawled.

That's got to be in the '10 ways to close down a debate': "Evoke an emotion which cannot be reasoned with". Fear works well, day-to-day, of course, but outrage and disgust are also great ways of derailing an argument.

We were interested in the theory that it's ok to make and play a game about the second world war, because it's slightly abstract and lost in the sands of time, but a game about terrorism is well out of order. Our problem is that war is too abstract even in the present.

By saying it shouldn't be banned, he's immediately bringing WoT into the frame of a banning discussionJust as July 7th survivor, Jacqui Putman, quoted in the CEN, isn't keen on our board game because she's been closer than most to terrorism, we think the public appetite for war would be greatly reduced if there wasn't this level of abstraction. If the images and reports of war weren't so sterile and sparing of the horrors of violent conflict.

The first journalist to ask us if our board game isn't a bit insensitive when considering tens of thousands of innocent lives were lost (and continue to be lost) during the Iraq 'war' will get a double-thumbs-up from us.

Also interesting to note is how Jim Paice MP decried our game, while magnanimously stating that our game "shouldn't be banned". The subtext of this remark is that a board game could be in the arena of something that might be banned. By saying it shouldn't be banned, he's immediately bringing WoT into the frame of a banning discussion. After all, if something really shouldn't be banned, why would you even mention it shouldn't be banned? It's like commenting on the new range of Tesco pizzas and adding "of course, I don't think they should be banned". That'd be nonsense. If it's truly incongruous, you wouldn't mention it.

That said, we're certain the CEN put the question thus: "do you think this game should be banned?" Good work, chaps.

Posted by TerrorBull Games on 18 September 2006 - 0 comments

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