Members and officers of Miljöpartiet Miljöpartiet (mp.se) met for a fun/culture event, and the organizer invited me to introduce role-playing and to play! This was very kind of Robert Nordmann and Amanda Lind – and a great moment for Adept Play.

I chose to bring my game in development, Amerika, similar to Spione and Shahida, based on militant activism in the United States in the 1970s. You can read about the experience here.

This is a good place to state my take on role-playing and politics: first that it’s not about simplistic messaging, not least because it simply doesn’t work. Second, that it’s not about “skinning,” which is merely layering some historical or didactic content into what is otherwise ordinary play.

Instead, I think that this activity is an interactive expression, in a highly-specific state of listening and potential authenticity which is not matched by any other fiction-making medium. Therefore content and procedures as in these three games open ourselves up into more playful yet more profound reflection, without a specific or known message or outcome. It’s the opposite of propaganda – it shows the need for re-orienting, for thought, and it heightens the connections among us about something important.