Who's in the Game?

<p> Some board games--like <I>Candy Land Chutes & Ladders Clue Guess Who The Game of Life Monopoly Operation</I> and <I>Payday</I>--have popularity spanning generations. But over time updates to games have created significantly different messages about personal identity and evolving social values. Games offer representations of gender sexuality race ethnicity religion age ability and social class that reflect the status quo and respond to social change. </p><p> Using popular mass-market games this rhetorical assessment explores board design game implements (tokens markers 3-D elements) and playing instructions. This book argues the existence of board games as markers of an ever-changing sociocultural framework exploring the nature of play and how games embody and extend societal themes and values.</p>