SHASN

Work is done for the rest of the week. Weary, you pull your suitcase out of the attic, throw it on the bed, and begin to toss in items that you will need from now through Sunday. With excitement and some trepidation and even a sliver of hope, you walk out the door. You’re going “home” to be with your family for Thanksgiving. It’s been pretty much the same for the past decade, but last year was particularly bad. Parents, siblings, cousins, and even second cousins screaming their ideologies at the table; someone threatening to throw out the mashed potatoes altogether; and you promising yourself you would never do this again. But here you are. Going back. What if there were a way to gamify this heightened and not particularly pleasant familial political discourse around the table? What if there were a way to help make everyone take on a character of themselves, to have political ideas spoken, but to make people really think about if taking up a certain point of view was what they truly needed in a particular game space? Okay, maybe you and your family are not ready for this. But you and some of your differently-minded friends? Maybe. Maybe. If this prospect seems fascinating, or at the least bit interesting or helpful at all, join Pete as he unboxes SHASN (2021), designed by Zain Memon, illustrated by Soumik Lahiri, and published by Memesys Culture Lab. A political strategy game in which, through the lower stakes of the game space, you can have fun trying to rally supporters to get behind you and your ideas, as well as create political dialogue without so much hostility, tribalism, strawman arguments, red herrings…the list goes on. Something we want? Who’s to say? Something we need? Yes. Yes it is. Abstracted, but entirely applicable. Angular lines with muted color tones and pops of color, yet stunningly beautiful. A piece of dynamic political sculpture that’s designed to be interacted with and put on display in the proverbial town square as a type of collective performance art.