How Board and Card Games Can Teach Healthy Discourse

At the time I am writing this blog, the United States finds itself in one of the most divisive and polarizing periods of ideological discourse. After high-profile figures have found themselves targeted for their politics, hosts have been removed from the air for opinions, and commentators have been assassinated for their views, having difficult conversations about beliefs is even more challenging than ever. The problem only becomes exacerbated when facilitated in digital spaces like social media and message boards. 

So what can we do to help not just learners, but everyone become more open to sharing their thoughts respectfully? One answer might surprise you – analog experiences like board and card games. Below are some strategies to help develop skills to have healthy discourse through games.

Games Allow for Vulnerable Creativity Instead of Critique

One unique aspect of games is the opportunity to create a unique response, prompt, visual, or clue in order to showcase your own creativity. There are many famous games out there, such as Telestrations, Pictures, Balderdash, and many more that allow for creative expression. In Gamestormers, for instance, players must design a five card narrative that weaves all of their cards together to impress a judge for the round.

These types of games that feature each player being vulnerable through creation helps all participants have empathy when folks put their creations, thoughts, and writing out in the world. In these face-to-face experiences with creative outputs, each person understands the pressures and self-doubt, and harsh critiques often disappear because the players are all creators, not just critics. Those realizations hopefully carry over into the digital space, where learners think twice before harshly dismissing someone’s thoughts, videos, and creations.

Games Allow for Critical Analysis of Social Media as a Forum for Ideas

As mentioned above, social media can be a wonderful platform for sharing viewpoints and opinions. However, aspects of social media such as a problematic algorithm for prioritizing posts and amplification of emotionally charged content often lead to unhealthy dialogue to rise to the top of those feeds. 

A good counterbalance to these issues is critically examining the pitfalls of social media to identify when they occur. In our Doomscroll game, players take on the role of a social media company in a fantasy world, aiming to sell ads by using these same tactics involving divisive content and emotionally-charged posts. Through play, the learners ideally notice how social media prioritizes hooking our attention rather than emphasizing healthy discourse. Through play, participants will hopefully think carefully about how they respond to divisive viewpoints and consider how the platform is feeding them this content and why.

Games Facilitate Healthy Debate Rather Than Unproductive Arguments

Many games, especially in the party game realm, often feature an element of persuasion and playful debate in order to win over a judge or a vote of fellow players. Games like Silicon Valley Startups, Snake Oil, and Apples to Apples allow for players to directly (or indirectly) make their case for the judge to select their unique contribution for the round. All of these types of experience build skills around debate strategies and persuasive speaking.

In our Fantasy Loot Brawl game, players draft a variety of keywords as players on their fantasy team lineup and then persuade the other players why their player is the best fit for their position. You might hear one learner talking about why Chocolate Milk is the ultimate team player, or why the Ukelele is the ultimate unsung hero out of all the instruments out there. Through these structured yet absurd debates, players discover how to persuade, disagree, and defend their stances in low-stakes games. With those practice reps, hopefully they will not resort to empty arguments and mudslinging when discussing contentious topics in the digital world.