"e-Mission", fixed factual error about Spiel des Jahres

Author: maurovanetti

_posts/2025-02-20-daybreak.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ title: "Review: Daybreak"
 tags: games en
 ---
 
-Daybreak is one of my favourite boardgames. It's a game about climate change made by Matteo Menapace, a brilliant Italian game designer that lives in Britain, and the US game designer Matt Leacock, a veritable boardgame celebrity that authored the bestselling co-op game Pandemic long before the 2020 peak in usage of the word. I had the privilege of getting to know Matteo personally when we worked together on a videogame prototype for Games for the Many, a courageous attempt by the Corbyn-era British Labour Party to leverage videogames for political change. I met him several times at different game fairs, festivals and conferences, and I always found him full of unusual ideas, positive energy, intellectual curiosity. Daybreak is the condensed result of these two minds.
+Daybreak (localised as e-Mission in some languages) is one of my favourite boardgames. It's a game about climate change made by Matteo Menapace, a brilliant Italian game designer that lives in Britain, and the US game designer Matt Leacock, a veritable boardgame celebrity that authored the bestselling co-op game Pandemic long before the 2020 peak in usage of the word. I had the privilege of getting to know Matteo personally when we worked together on a videogame prototype for Games for the Many, a courageous attempt by the Corbyn-era British Labour Party to leverage videogames for political change. I met him several times at different game fairs, festivals and conferences, and I always found him full of unusual ideas, positive energy, intellectual curiosity. Daybreak is the condensed result of these two minds.
 
 This review is based on the Rules-Play-Culture model.
 
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ However, what does it mean that you "are" the United States, for example? Actual
 
 So, you play as the government of, say, the United States. Are you Donald Trump or Joe Biden? None of the likes. The premise of the game is that somehow social movements, working-class coalitions, even political revolutions have reshaped world politics and the governments now *want* to stop climate change. You could make very interesting games about how the powers that be *don't want* to do that, or how even a progressive government would need to overcome strong resistance by capitalist monopolists and other vested interests (Molleindustria's [Green New Deal Simulator](https://www.molleindustria.org/GND/) is a videogame just about that). Daybreak leaves this part -- the battle we are currently still fighting in the real world -- behind the scenes, its story starts at day one after a global political landslide has triggered real change: the *daybreak* of a new era in our relationship with nature, and each other.
 
-I cannot help mentioning that the game was at the centre of a significant political controversy after winning the Kennerspiel des Jahres ("Connoisseur's Game of the Year") prize at the Essen Game Fair in 2024. The fair was during the 2023-2025 Gaza genocide. Matteo Menapace was sporting a Palestine-shaped watermelon pin, to raise awareness for the plight of Palestinian people. Since the fair was in Germany, where every support for Palestinian struggles and liberation is maliciously conflagrated with antisemitism, he was falsely accused of anti-Jewish hate imagery, which is completely ridiculous knowing the guy. He was banned for life from taking part in the Essen Game Fair, a truly shameful decision by the fair organisers. [He explained his position](https://medium.com/@baddeo/why-i-wear-55cb9459d8e7) and I believe he deserves a lot of respect for that, this incident is risking to affect his career and he surely knew that there was this possibility but he decided to do it anyway for a cause he believes in.
+I cannot help mentioning that the game was at the centre of a significant political controversy after winning the Kennerspiel des Jahres prize ("Connoisseur's Game of the Year") in 2024. The fair was during the 2023-2025 Gaza genocide. Matteo Menapace was sporting a Palestine-shaped watermelon pin, to raise awareness for the plight of Palestinian people. Since the fair was in Germany, where every support for Palestinian struggles and liberation is maliciously conflagrated with antisemitism, he was falsely accused of anti-Jewish hate imagery, which is completely ridiculous knowing the guy. He was banned for life, apparently, from taking part in the event, a truly shameful decision by the fair organisers. [He explained his position](https://medium.com/@baddeo/why-i-wear-55cb9459d8e7) and I believe he deserves a lot of respect for that, this incident is risking to affect his career and he surely knew that there was this possibility but he decided to do it anyway for a cause he believes in.
 
 Many Project cards in the game take a political stance, which is both inevitable and healthy for a game like this. Unsurprisingly, in combination with the Essen controversy, those cards have attracted the attention of critics of both the openly right-wing "Trumpian" and the liberal-capitalist free-market types. This is part of the "cultural" sphere, according to the Rules-Play-Culture scheme, in which the game lives and on which it exerts its influence. Some cards advocate open borders as a way to increase climate resilience, e.g. [Climate Immigration](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1109) and [Inclusive Immigration](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1108). Some cards favour collective ownership over private property, e.g. [Fossil Fuel Nationalization](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1044) and [Community Ownership](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1018). Other cards show the link between climate change and social justice, e.g. [Universal Basic Services](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1090) and [Universal Healthcare](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1097). The importance of active participation in political struggles and civic groups are highlighted by cards such as [Social Movements](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1004), [Youth Climate Movement](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1223), [Women’s Empowerment](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1222), [Resilience Volunteers](https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1207).