What is board game bleed and why does it matter?
A few months ago I was playing On the Origin of Species, the tile-laying board game based on Charles Darwin’s titular and seminal work on evolution, and at one point had the distinct impression that I was unlocking and bringing to life precious information encoded between the tiles and the rules governing their movement.
Okay, I know that sounds fanciful and maybe even pretentious. So, let me explain myself and why experiences like this have made me more conscious of the ends to which immersive narratives and effects should be directed in a game. Along the way, I will also explore game bleed, the idea that what you experience during play can affect your feelings and actions later.
The larger-than-game moment
In On the Origin of Species, I was a player following Darwin on the survey ship the Beagle, researching habitats and discovering the natural history of species in the Galapagos Islands.
The game starts with three basic Species Tiles (representing fauna and flora) and I had to place Discovery cubes (literal cubes) on each to get Habitat Observations (resources). With these Observations, I could open up more species tiles and get points and rewards.
Galapagos mockingbird comes into play after the White Player uses the required Habitat Observations from adjacent tiles.
The catch was that I could only open a new tile in a space that was connected to the tiles I had already observed. While referring to the rule book, I came across this text explaining the reason for this and felt like my game actions were imbued with something more profound than just points: “Your Discoveries depend upon the relationships among species in a shared habitat.”
This game context, I realised, was based on the principles of evolution, where the natural history of a species can be understood through the interactions between it, its environment and other species. And, as a player, I was discovering species and seeing evolution happen in front of me—metaphorically, of course.
I didn’t quite feel like Charles Darwin (I am not that presumptuous), but I did feel like I was doing something more than just getting points and learning the rules of the game. I was engaging with the science of the natural world and was motivated to search online for more information on the Beagle’s voyage.
This was a nice feeling, since I am all for relishing the marvels of the environment and wildlife. The flip side was that, in acknowledging this feeling, I also had to consider the possibility of something similar playing out for board games with rules or mechanics that, wittingly or unwittingly, propagate unsavoury themes and actions.
Contending with board game bleed
In her keynote speech for the August tabletop conference GENeration Analog, acclaimed board game designer Elizabeth Hargrave explored a similar line of thought, talking about “ board game bleed”.
Screenshot of Elizabeth Hargrave sharing a picture of a Mariposas fan’s butterfly garden, taken from her GENeration Analog keynote presentation.
Game bleed, which is about the way effects and experiences in a game can spill over into the rest of a player’s life, has typically been examined in relation to RPGs and video games. Hargrave expanded the use of the term to see what it could mean for board games.
After sharing that some players who played her bird-themed game Wingspan ended up becoming birders and that others who played her butterfly-themed game Mariposas ended up planting butterfly gardens, she posed some thought-provoking questions:
1. Do representations of characters of different genders and ethnicities (or lack thereof) affect player attitudes outside the game?
2. Do games that portray unlimited access to natural resources like wood and ore, with no consequences, affect players’ attitudes toward environmental crises?
3. Do representation of colonialism and conquest affect players’ attitudes on historical and/or current foreign policy?
The last question, in particular, is something that people from the board game community are starting to talk about more in recent years. Hargrave didn’t have any answers to this or the other two questions and, instead, offered them as areas to explore, precisely because of how little they have been studied.
I don’t have answers to these questions either, but I think if we were to assume that there is the possibility of board game bleed happening, we could proactively look into the actions and perspectives we would like to encourage during play. And we could start looking into more questions about spillover effects, catering to the individual needs and challenges of different game themes.
Taking themes as seriously as fun
When my colleagues and I were designing Fly-A-Way, we knew we wanted to create a game that was fun. At the same time, because we were covering migratory bird conservation, we paid attention to how the environmental themes of Fly-A-Way translated into game moves.
For instance, our Wing It cards, which help players place links and save birds, were based on actions conservation groups like our knowledge partner BirdLife International would take on the ground. Besides ensuring that Wing It cards like “Funds for Conservation” and “Birders to the Rescue” were scientifically sound, we wanted them to convey hope—that people could play a part in saving wildlife.
Of course, we could never be sure if this message would always get across to people, but we felt it was important enough to embed it in the game.
Feel-good moments in a game are probably easier for players to reckon with than those that stir difficult or negative emotions. How do we deal with the latter then? Would board game bleed mean that we completely avoid them?
I do not think this has to be the case. Rather, with game bleed in mind, we can be more conscious about turning difficult subject matter into effective gameplay moments.
One of the more dramatic parts of Fly-A-Way is seeing birds being trapped during play, when the Caged-bird Trade card is drawn from the Fowl Play deck, which represents the different threats faced by migratory birds. This card would have to be placed over one of the three birds that are up for saving by players.
A caged Siberian Rubythroat from Vietnam, juxtaposed with Fly-A-Way cards showing the same scene.
We found out, thanks to playtests with actual conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts, that this card was important, despite its emotive charge. One of the playtesters shared that she felt sad when she saw the Caged-bird Trade’s effect come to play, but recognised that this represented what happened to migratory birds in real life.
Generally, she enjoyed Fly-A-Way and appreciated the larger-than-game moment (this is my own phrasing and not what she herself used to describe the effect of the Caged-bird Trade card) because of its fidelity to the truth of wildlife conservation.
More questions for exploration
Fly-A-Way is our first game and we are still looking to improve how we approach game themes and playtesting. Thinking more about game bleed today, I wonder what we could have done differently for playtests for Fly-A-Way:
What if we had gone further than just finding out about players’ general feelings on the conservation theme and made it a point to ask them how they felt about the conservation actions they took? Did they feel empowered and like they were making a difference?
On the effect of role-playing, perhaps we could have asked players about their thoughts on conservationists, before and after playing the game. This might be particularly insightful when getting the response of gamers who are not interested in or regularly exposed to environmental issues.
To tease out any immediate impressions of possible spillover effects from the game, it might have been instructive to ask something like this after a playtest session, “If you could do one thing in the next hour to help migratory birds or protect the environment, what would it be and why?”
I look forward to thinking more about such questions for future sessions of Fly-A-Way and other game projects. Whatever the thorny issues that arise, I would like to think that it would be a good challenge to solve them. Meaning, there is fun to be had.
What are your thoughts on game bleed? Have you experienced it yourself? How do you think game designers should approach this issue? Let us know in the comments.
