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One of the case studies in the above-referenced “Representations of Colonialism” is the popular 2002 strategy game Puerto Rico, in which players take on the role of Spaniards newly arrived on the island of—you guessed it—Puerto Rico, all seeking to create plantations and extract as much indigo, sugar, tobacco and coffee as possible to ship back to the European homeland. To get ahead, the authors note, each player “needs a number of the small black discs that come into the game each round. In the game rules, these are referred to as ‘colonists,’ but in practice and from the historical background, it is clear that these discs represent slaves. In addition, there are no mechanisms in the game for slowing down growth or penalties for extracting resources too quickly or using ‘colonists’ too intensively. There are numerous exchanges in various discussion forums pointing out how politically incorrect the game is, and some players feel uncomfortable with the game for this reason.” Nevertheless, the game is ranked in the top fifteen worldwide.
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