Socially conscious game challenge
I don’t have an offical title for this game yet, I just call the Female Path game….
But anyway, the class challenge was to create a ’social awareness’ game that was a commentary on something (political, etc) that one might feel passionate about. My original thoughts were perhaps making an anti-corporate game because hating multinational corporations is kind of my quirky thing… But I really couldn’t come up with anything good.
So, since I had taken a few Women’s study class at school, I moved onto feminism…
My though process about the game was to explore the idea of the stereo types and such that women face today. Even though some people think women are completely equal with men *cough cough Kaila cough*, I find that they aren’t, especially when it comes to careers, expectations, even the way we’re targeted by ad companies.
So well, I guess that’s it…
Right so, here are the rules of the game:
RULES:
Players take turns moving across the board, collecting and subtracting Intelligence and Societal Expectation points – everyone starts out with 200 points in each category. Depending on which square the players land on, they will chose from that pile of cards.
When a player reaches the “pause” square, they must add up their points in each category. If they have more Societal Expectation points, players must go down the Trophy wife path and ignore all intelligence points for the remainder of the game. If they have more Intelligence points, they go down the career woman path and ignore all Societal Expectation points.
Winning the game: Whoever has the most of their respective points at the end, wins.
——
Observations:
I found that everyone in my group (being female) seemed fairly comfortable with the game. Because we were all girls, I believe it made it more easier to joke about the conceptual ideas (lots of trophy wife jokes.) I’m not sure if a man would have had that same confront level to comment on things (like the societal expectation points), or if he would have been too self conscious about being offensive?
The professor of the class had made another observation, during game play when a player could not reach a stack of cards I would hand them the whole stack in order for them to chose their cards. I guess a more guy thing would have been to throw one at them? 
Anyway, there was some confusion on what to do at the “pause” space, I think I need to simplify that, or just write more clearly in the rules. I really didn’t care what players did there, though, so maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut and seen what they thought was best….
Also, people felt the movements were unfair. There was a desire for a small dice (like a four sided one) in order to have a bit more even movement across the board. I’m not actually sure if this would have made that much of a difference, however, if you drew every single card, because they added and subtracted the same point value, in the end you would come out the same…. (if that makes any since.)
Right, well I think I’ve blathered on enough. ^_^
-Desirae
I loved your game! It was really interesting to play to see what society expects of women
I really want to play the game again to see what the Intelligence Path will be like! 
It’s also great to know that I will be a great trophy wife! LOL!
I don’t really have any suggestions for the game
It was pretty fun! Great job!
Your game was fun. I think a d4 would have worked better than a d6 since the board is kind of small, but it’s fine as is.
I actually think the path I was (forced to) chose actually fit me reasonably well. The kind of wife that’s lazy, doesn’t really do anything and is more likely to play video games in the basement than wear make-up and heels.
Desirae,
Great job with this game! Using real-world observations of what society expects of women, you’ve created a simple simulation of how the system works! I would consider adding commentary about this within the rules so your players know where the cards came from.
Is rebellion against the system allowed? Do the cards reflect whether or not the player wants to break out of the system? Will it seriously damage their points? If your players are stuck within the system, that is as much a commentary as allowing them to try and fight against it.
-Devin Monnens
I just have one thing to make clear……..I am totally not a trophy wife!
Haha.
Way to throw together a game with feminist commentary! I find that amusing.
Makes me wonder what sort of remarks would have been make had a guy been in our group that day…haha.
What’s impressive is the research you did for this game. I read some of the cards and thought “Seriously? This is what society expects?” Really makes you wanna punch society in the face, huh? I bet a misogynist wrote up those expectations…but moving right along!
I liked how players accumulated points toward “Trophy Wife” and “Career Woman” (is that what it was? I don’t remember…) in the first part of the game, and that determined which path you took once you reached the “pause.” And I agree, that the “pause” caused some confusion, but I think that’s easily fixed by taking it out completely. I think players can figure out what path they’re supposed to take without the pause.
This was an interesting game, and I completely agree with your logic! I really don’t have much to say in the way of changes, you did a good job!
-Elizabeth
Wasn’t it fun when Kaila became a trophy wife? Lol, best part.
Thanks for your comment!