SHASN: Politics at play
CHENNAI: The second floor of The Board Room in Mylapore was packed with people leaning over their respective tables. The room boomed with arguments, conversations and laughter, and the rattle of board game pieces filled the air. The SPI Group hosted a gameplay session of SHASN, a board game developed by Memesys Culture Lab, recently. The board game hopes to teach players more about politics in an entertaining manner, by forcing them to act as politicians of a country, with voters in influence and ideologies to stand by.
The four-player game gives players the opportunity to influence the voters, shown by coloured chips, in the area. Each area has a certain number of voters to secure before ensuring the majority in the region. The player with the most number of points, which is calculated by the number of chips on the board, wins the game.
been developed by Memesys Culture Lab
Give me an answer!
But is politics something so simple? To win over a certain number of voters, each player will have to forgo a certain amount of resources, which is won by answering questions in the Ideologue Cards. Questions range from topics on the environment, caste and healthcare. Some questions asked include if crackers should be burst during Diwali, if citizens should have the right to protest, and if the player would march alongside the LGBTQ community during the Pride March.
At the table where this reporter sat, one player was posed with the question if he would evict tribal people from their lands for the construction of a dam. The player deliberated over the question for a moment, before saying that he would.
“What we lack in today’s technology-driven world is a space for social interaction. Even if we are given that space, a conversation on politics is something people will avoid. This offers a fantastic forum for me to get to know the opinions of the person next to me, which I would not have known before,” said Ratheesh Krishnan, head of experiments and new venture for the SPI Group.
There are no right or wrong answers, but each answer offers the player with different Ideologue Cards, which offer different resources. The game’s design shines through in this aspect, with beautifully coloured and drawn portraits depending on the political ideology the player chooses.
Dealing with cards
The Capitalist Card depicts a female aristocrat with a stern bob and a flashy mirror. It shows a fair-faced and kind-hearted woman. The Showman depicts a political old dog winking. The Supremo shows a hard-faced and obstinate man, with his fist clenched. These are all personalities we find in the world’s political climate — and I found it a pity that Theresa May is no longer in power to distance herself from The Capitalist card.
The resources earned, depend on which ideology the players’ answer fulfils. Giving an answer as The Capitalist gives you funds, while The Idealist gives you trust, The Showman gives you media, and The Supremo gives you clout. These colour-coded chips can be traded within players and traded in for votes.
“I’m not very well-versed in politics.
I don’t even know if ‘gerrymandering’ is a real phrase of if the game has made it up. But now, after playing the game, I want to go and read up a little about these political ideologies like The Capitalist and The Supremo and fit them to our current politicians,” said Benjamin Kurien, a 26-year-old product designer who took part in the event. He said that the gameplay was a little slow between each player’s turns. The gameplay time is anywhere between two hours to three hours.
Discuss and debate
When one player at the table asked another for a funds resource, the other player in question declined the trade offer with a simple, yet effective move of sticking out their tongue. Other times, the players debated and discussed the trade at length, promising a scratch back in return. Sound like politics yet? The game adds another layer to gameplay by offering gerrymandering as an option to manipulate voters, conspiracy cards to give you an edge or throw off your political rivals, and a headline card that is activated when a voter is placed on a volatile zone.
While the table this reporter sat at kept their arguments to a minimum, the arguments from two tables over about environmental policies drowned out any noise in the room. In one corner of the room, a group of men loudly burst into laughter and pointed at one of their friends, mashing his name with the Prime Minister’s name. SHASN is not yet available in physical stores, but can be bought by funding Memesys Culture Lab’s Kickstarter. The game is available for Rs 5,250, excluding shipping.