FEATURELatest board games highlight drugs, greed, sleaze

By Grant McCool

NEW YORK (Reuter) If you are a yuppie who misses the druginduced '70s or
the corporate greed of the '80s, or if you want to live vicariously in the
sleazy world of contemporary politics, there may be a board game just for
you.

"The American Culture Satire Series'' lets people delve into lives of
consuming and smuggling drugs in the New York City underworld, embezzling
huge amounts of money from an unscrupulous company, and lying and cheating
to become president of the United States.

"Stash,'' one of the games designed and marketed by a small New York
company, has drawn criticism for failing to emphasize sufficiently the
negative effects of taking drugs. It harks back to New York in the late
1970s when the middle classes and celebrities openly took drugs and lines
of cocaine were cut on nightclub tables.

Marketer Jeffrey Simons said the designers of ``Dog Eat Dog'' and
``Politics As Usual,'' two other games from Q.E.D. Games, take on ``the
corporate avarice of the '80s and the political avarice of the '90s.'' The
goal of the corporate officers in ``Dog Eat Dog'' two to six players
acting as president, chairman, treasurer, sales manager, production
supervisor and personnel director of a company called Rinky Dink Inc. is
to bankrupt the firm and embezzle as much money as possible into a Swiss
bank account.

IF IT'S BAD, IT'S IN THE GAME

The company produces widgets, which is everything from baby seal fur to
snowy owl feathers, red dye and nicotine. ``You name the bad thing in
society or the endangered species it is in it,'' Simons said.

Rinky Dink Inc. has a slush fund for bribes and dirty tricks and engages in
practices like cutting down a rainforest to boost production or turning a
park into a toxic waste dump. The game is still in the production stage, as
is ``Politics As Usual,'' which features greedy, ambitious smalltown
Midwestern politicians who try to become president of the United States by
lying, stealing, cheating and knowingly receiving illegal campaign
contributions.

``Stash,'' a spoof on decadesold real estate board game Monopoly, has been
available on and off for five years, recording sales of just 1,500 out of
5,000 games published, according to the company. Players compete to smuggle
28 different kinds of drugs around New York while trying to avoid not just
the authorities but also addiction and dependency, pitfalls that would
almost certainly cost them the game.

Its creators, in a selfdeprecating introduction to the playguide, describe
``Stash'' as ``an evil and corrupt game'' developed by ``seriously twisted
minds.'' The winner is the first to reach Nirvana, and in order to do that
players need Karma, which is achieved by taking drugs. Drugs cost money,
which is raised by selling drugs including marijuana, hashish,
hallucinogens, amphetamines, cocaine and heroine. Using dice, cards and a
plasticcoated board with a detailed map of New York City's neighborhoods,
the game is played out in an environment of drug dealers, corrupt cops,
politicians and judges, parties and rock concerts.

'OUT IN THE WORLD, THEY DON'T KNOW WHEN TO STOP'

Among the critics of ``Stash'' is the Daytop Village drug and alcohol
rehabilitation program, which has centers in the United States and overseas.

``What they're saying is you can take drugs but if you don't stop at a
certain point you lose points,'' said Joan Rizzo, Daytop's communications
director in New York. ``But out in the world that doesn't make sense
because out in the world, especially young people, they don't know when to
stop.''

``Stash'' is sold only by mail order checks for $19.95 or 15 pounds in
Britain, where it became available last month. Q.E.D. believes its
checksonly policy will keep it out of the hands of most
under18yearolds, who do not have bank accounts, but Daytop says that
should not be assumed because adolescents are resourceful enough to find
drugs or games.

Martin Levinson, director of a school drugawareness program and a writer
on drug policy, said the game offered nothing new to the debate about drug
use and he would not recommend it to anyone under high school age. ``But I
wouldn't rail against it because of the sociological concept 'dictated
deviance' where if you rail against something that's what they'll do the
forbidden fruit allure,'' he said.

Game designer Evan Jones, who has also worked on a military board game
called ``Third Reich'' and expects to release a Civil War game called ``The
Gray and the Blue'' this year, doubts that ``Stash'' encourages drug use.
``I don't think playing the Germans in 'Third Reich' encourages the
extermination of entire peoples and I don't believe playing a Civil War
game encourages slavery,'' he said.

``Stash'' has had a better reception in Canada, Britain and the Netherlands
than in the United States, said Simons, who believes people in those
countries ``look at it as the satire that it is.''

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