Class Struggle is a board game for two to six players, designed by Professor Bertell Ollman. It was published in 1978 by Avalon Hill. The game was intended to teach players about the politics of Marxism and was loosely compared to the board game Monopoly . [1] [2] [3]
The game pits Workers against Capitalists, represented by hammers and top hats respectively. [3] Players receive their class by a roll of the "genetic" dice. [4] Players move around a board following dice rolls and draw "Chance" cards which either advantage or disadvantage them. [5]
In the year of its release, Bertell Ollman was interviewed about the game by print and TV news journalists. [6] Critics of the game considered it to be "subversive" and lobbied some stores to remove the product from their shelves, largely unsuccessfully. [7]
After attracting mainstream media attention during the Cold War, the game went on to sell approximately 230,000 copies. [8] In 2014, Keith Plocek wrote that the objectives of the game were to "avoid nuclear war and win the revolution". Plocek claims that the game "disappeared" in 1994. [8]
In 1983, Bertell published a book about the making of the game, bringing it to publication, and subsequent events, titled Class Struggle Is the Name of the Game: True Confessions of a Marxist Businessman. [9]
Acquire is a board game published by 3M in 1964 that involves multi-player mergers and acquisitions. It was one of the most popular games in the 3M Bookshelf games series published in the 1960s, and the only one still published in the United States.
Boggle is a word game in which players try to find as many words as they can from a grid of lettered dice, within a set time limit. It was invented by Allan Turoff and originally distributed by Parker Brothers.
Can't Stop is a board game designed by Sid Sackson originally published by Parker Brothers in 1980; however, that edition has been long out of print in the United States. It was reprinted by Face 2 Face Games in 2007. An iOS version was developed by Playdek and released in 2012. The goal of the game is to "claim" three of the columns before any of the other players can. But the more that the player risks rolling the dice during a turn, the greater the risk of losing the advances made during that turn.
Anti-Monopoly is a board game made by San Francisco State University Professor Ralph Anspach in response to Monopoly. The idea of an anti-monopoly board game dates to 1903 when Lizzie Magie created The Landlord's Game, which later inspired Monopoly.
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as "historical materialism," to understand class relations and social conflict. It also uses a dialectical perspective to view social transformation. Marxism originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, As a result, there is no single, definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has had a profound impact in shaping the modern world, with various left-wing and far-left political movements taking inspiration from it in varying local contexts.
Labyrinth is a board game for two to four players, published by Ravensburger in 1986.
Hare and Tortoise is a Eurogame designed by David Parlett in 1974 and first published by Intellect Games. In 1978 it was released by Ravensburger in Germany, and received generally positive reviews critically and won the 1979 Spiel des Jahres. It has since sold some 2 million units in at least ten languages. The current editions are published by Gibsons Games in the UK, Ravensburger in Germany and Rio Grande Games in the United States.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the first game in the Wizardry series of role-playing video games. It was developed by Andrew Greenberg and Robert Woodhead. In 1980, Norman Sirotek formed Sir-Tech Software, Inc. and launched a beta version of the product at the 1980 Boston Computer Convention. The final version of the game was released in 1981.
Bertell Ollman is a professor of politics at New York University. He teaches both dialectical methodology and socialist theory. He is the author of several academic works relating to Marxist theory.
Isolation is an abstract board game published by Ravensburger in 1972 in Germany as Isola, and then published internationally by licensed game companies under the titles Stranded and Isolation.
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is a game originally published by Sleuth Publications in 1981. Multiple expansions and reprints of the game have since been released.
Murder on the Zinderneuf is a 1983 video game designed by Jon Freeman and Paul Reiche III and one of the first six games published by Electronic Arts. It was developed for the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit family, and the IBM PC.
Blockade is a strategy board game for two players with the motto "beat the barrier". It is played with barriers and 2 mobile playing pieces per player on a grid of 11x14 spaces. The object of the game is to maneuver one's pieces around barriers and into the opponent's starting spaces. The game is long out of production.
The Game is a dice game designed by Reinhold Wittig. It was first published in Germany in 1979, without rules and under the German name Das Spiel.
Maléfices, subtitled "The role-playing game with the scent of sulphur", was published by Jeux Descartes in 1985 as the first original French-language horror role-playing game. Three editions, 13 adventures and a bestiary have been published, and a fourth edition is being developed.
Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of science. As a materialist philosophy, Marxist dialectics emphasizes the importance of real-world conditions and the presence of functional contradictions within and among social relations, which derive from, but are not limited to, the contradictions that occur in social class, labour economics, and socioeconomic interactions. Within Marxism, a contradiction is a relationship in which two forces oppose each other, leading to mutual development.
Kevin B. Anderson is an American sociologist, Marxist humanist, author, and professor. Anderson is Professor of Sociology, Political Science and Feminist studies at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He was previously Professor of Sociology at Northern Illinois University, in DeKalb and Professor of Political Science, Sociology and Women's Studies at Purdue University.
Wizard's Quest is a fantasy board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1979.
4000 A.D. is a science fiction conquest board game published by Waddingtons in 1972.
Ratrace is a family economic board game designed by Alfons Rubbens and published by Waddingtons in 1967. Described as "the madcap game of social climbing," players attempt to acquire status and cash in order to make their way from Working Class to High Society and become the wealthiest player by the end of the game.
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